PROLOGUE
Itossed and turned in my sheets. I was drowning, but there wasn't anywater. All the air had left my lungs, and I had forgotten how tobreathe. Suddenly, I woke up. Sitting upright, I gasped for airwhile the occasional tear ran down my cheeks and onto mycollar-bones. I waited for my ragged breathing to slow so that Icould think clearly.
A yawnescaped my dry mouth as I untangled the sheets from my legs and stoodup. I took a quick glance at my alarm clock and groaned inwardly. Itwas 3:00 in the morning, and I didn't have to be awake until...wait,what day was it?
Saturday.The 15th. Of May. The funeral. Today was Maggie's funeral.
Ifell to the floor slowly. Now large, hot tears were silentlystreaming from my tired eyes. I sobbed quietly so as not to awake myfamily. Explaining myself to them was the last thing I wanted to dothis morning. There was only one thing I wanted to do. Well, oneplace I wanted to be.
Withmy shoulders still shaking and tears blurring my vision, I got up offthe floor. I threw on some jean shorts, but left my baggy pajamashirt on. Where I was going, it hardly mattered what I looked like.
Outside,the air was hot and humid. As I biked quickly through the night, Ibegan to sweat and feel sticky. The sound of cicadas was almostdeafening but somehow comforting. I began to bike to the rhythm oftheir song as I made the mile long journey. The lull brought adaydream to the front of my mind.
"Comeon, just a little further, you guys!" Maggie yelled fromup ahead.
"Maggie!"Emory yelled back. "Don't you think this is far enough?"
"Oh,but we've never been this far before!"
"Exactly!"Aley replied. "We don't know this part of the forest!"
Theleaves were just changing, providing canopy of color up above. It waspicture perfect, and I would have loved to take a stroll among itall. However, energetic Maggie had a completely different plan.
"Guys!"Maggie hollered. "Check it out!"
Iwas the last to catch up with my asthma holding me back.Wewere standing in front of a tall sturdy tree with bare branches, andon those branches was a large tree house. Not a dinky,built-by-a-four-year-old tree house. No, this was the King of alltree houses. I would bet my money that a hurricane couldn't knockthis thing over. Not that we had very many hurricanes in the middleof Kansas.
Maggiestarted to climb the tree.
"Wait,Maggie," Kathleen reached her hand out to stop her. "Itmight not be safe!"
"Ohcome on, Kathleen. You aren't afraid of heights, are you?"Natalie asked even though we all knew she was.
"Whatever,"Kathleen said before determinedly following Maggie up the tree.
Maggiehad big plans for that tree house, and whatever Maggie wanted to do,we followed along.
Shegave us each a job, and gave us a hard stare until we got to work.Natalie was the only one who even thought to argue with her. NatalieDelgado had always been one tough cookie, but was still no match forMaggie's pleading eyes.
Inno time, we had painted, decorated, and furnished the whole thing. We had scavenged up carpets, Christmas lights, even a few crates anda bean bag chair. It was a ramshackled, mismatched, hot mess. Itwas perfect.
...Andthat's what it still looked like as I stared up into the earlydarkness that would soon give way to light. With the light came day,and with the day came the funeral...I cringed. I didn't wantto think about that right now. No, I would save those thoughts forlater. I started up the ladder.
Atthe top, I was surprised to find four familiar faces looking back atme. Each of them had red puffy eyes, like I'm sure I did at themoment.
"Hey,Bee," Emory said solemnly. "We figured you'd be here soonenough."
AsI climbed in and took a seat on the dirty floor boards, Aley slid abox of tissues my way. I was pretty sure that this was the firsttime that we had ever been together with out Maggie, and I hated it. She was the one that kept us from falling apart. She led theconversations. She was the reason we were friends in the firstplace, but now she was just gone.
"Gone,"Kathleen whispered as if she had read my mind. Sharp gasps of painechoed into the night as we continued to remember that we had alljust lost our very best friend.
"Ijust can't believe it," Emory said. "And we only figured outabout the cancer a couple months ago."
"What?"Natalie's head snapped up at that. "I only found out a few weeksago."
Everyonewas quiet as the tension built. We all knew what was happening. Atleast, I did. Us girls had never gotten along. Maggie was literallythe only reason that we had remained friends this long. Fightsbetween everyone broke out constantly, but Maggie had always setthings right. I had hoped that we could put our differences aside abit longer, but that didn't seem to be the case.
"Yeah,"said Aley slowly. "What's with that?"
"Guys,"Kathleen pleaded. "Not today. It's not even her fault."
"Wellwhen did you find out Maggie had cancer?" Aley was standing up nowand Natalie followed.
Kathleenshook her head, "Like a month and a half ago, but does it really--"
Nataliereally seemed angry now, "So was I the last to know? Huh?"
Istood up too and reached out to comfort her. "Natalie, please. Itwas Maggie's decision to tell us in the order that she did, and Ithink we should respect that. Let's all try to get along. At leastuntil after the funeral."
Natalielooked me square in the eyes and asked, "How long, Annabelle?"
"I-I,"I stuttered. This was not a question I wanted to answer.
"Answerthe question," she demanded. "How long have you known?"
Ilooked down and whispered, "Last year."
Ithad been early on New Year's eve. My parents had sent me over toMaggie's house to return some borrowed Christmas lights. They hadjust received the news when I walked in, and there hadn't been anyway for them to hide their distress. So, they just told me the truth. I wanted to explain all this, but my tongue remained tied untilNatalie stormed out. When I looked to the others for help, I knew Iwouldn't find any. Aley was already leaving, too.
"Howcould you keep that secret from us?" Emory asked incredulously. "We were supposed to be friends,"
Kathleenjust gave me a regretful look as she followed Emory out. I stood inthe doorway of our tree house, watching sadly as they all went theirseparate ways. We all went to the funeral later on, but afterthat...no body would have guessed that we had been friends once. That was how the summer before middle school ended: with a lossunlike any other.
