Don't Forget Me

Prologue

Eleven Years Ago

Running through the playground, the girl with brown, curly tendrils obscuring her view, looks over her shoulder. Squealing with glee when she sees her chaser, she rounds the corner and ducks under a slide. Attempting to muffle her heavy breathing, she tucks her knees to her chest and places both hands over her mouth, covering the wide smile. A boy with black hair follows her around the corner. His green eyes loose the trail of her hair as she hides. Spinning, his head bobs in search, finally spotting her, he comes to a decision.

After puzzled by the uninterrupted silence, she lowers her hands from her mouth and cautiously pokes her head out. Not seeing her previous chaser, her brow creases in confusion, and curiosity overtakes her being. Crawling out from the cover, the girl stands, twirling around in search of the boy. The momentary silence is pierced by a scream when the boy jumps down from the slide she had previously been hidden under, and lands in the spot beside her. Tapping her shoulder, he darts off, his laugh following behind. "You're 'it'! And you can't catch me, cuz I'm too fast!"

The girl glances down at her shoulder, exclaiming, "You gave me cooties! I'm going to die now!" She finishes with a frown of disgust and a wipe of her shoulder, proclaiming he has bestowed upon her the deadly disease of 'cooties'. The boy looks back and sticks his tongue out at her, blows a raspberry. She runs after him, "I'm so gonna be giving you back your cooties! I don't wanna die yet! Take them back!" Getting closer, she gains hope and surges more power to her legs. Running closer to gain with the other five year old's long strides, she takes a leap and tackles the boy to the grass. "There, I caught you. Now you have to take back your cooties. Do you agree to take back your cooties and call me the most awe-th-ome tag player? Cuz I tackled you, and gave back your cooties. Which I think, is pretty awe-th-ome."

Underneath her back, the boy has his stomach in the dirt with his chin planted in the grass conceding to her wishes. "I'll take the cooties and call you the most awe-th-omest tag player. Just get off my back because you're too heavy and it's starting to hurt." She gets off him abruptly, as if he was made of fire, "I'm not heavy. I'm not fat, you shouldn't make fun of a girls' weight, it's not nice." True, the child was not "fat". She was not obese, but she was a slightly pudgier than the average little girl. To escape the embarrassing situation, she runs to the school building, hiding in the corner where the cool concrete and brick meet. The boy's eyes follow her as she runs to the shadowy corner of the wall.

He brushes the remaining dirt off his shirt, and follows her. As he steadily approaches her, it becomes clear that what was perceived as a crouching position from afar, was a legs-drawn-to-chest with arms-wrapped-around-legs and head-tucked-in crying position. Recognizing the position from being in it many a time his own, he hurries his pace, ready to fix his five-year-old mouth's mistake. Reaching his destination in front of the girl,he kneels down and lifts her head.

"I'm sorry Rena. You're right, it's mean to say anything about anyone's weight." The girl wipes a tear away from her face when they make eye contact. "You know I don't want to talk about my weight."

He sits down on the sidewalk next to her, "You know I don't care about that. As long as you're my best friend for however long we live, I don't care." He plucks a flower in a nearby patch, and offers it to her.

Rena looks up at the boy next to her, "Make sure that no matter what happens to us, we'll always be best friends. Or friends of any sort. Ok, Cole? Just stay my friend. You're my only friend." She unravels her arms from her legs, " And I love my only friend." She finishes by accepting the flower and a hug around his dirt covered torso.

"I love my one friend too." Cole wraps his own arms around the girl's midsection, squeezing just as tight, to emphasize his words.

***

SEVEN YEARS AGO

Packing the rest of her clothes into a luggage, she zips it up and brings it to the car ready to move to another state. Closing the door to her room, she headed downstairs for a final goodbye to the house. Work was going good for their family, the mother was offered a promotion. Which she accepted, this meant moving states. For Rena, this meant saying goodbye to her best friend.

Even at ten-years-old, their bond was unbreakable. Nothing could tear them apart, they were joined at the hip. Inseparable. The news was like a fifty pound, sharp-edged clever. It drove right through the bond, shattering the five year connection. As of now, it was balancing over a chasm by a very thin, single thread.

She half-expected him to not say good-bye, the past few days had been rocky. Upon finding out, Rena was in tears. When she told Cole, he was silent and stony. Indecipherable, the emotions hidden behind the ten-year-old's face were unknown.

Shaking away the memory, she jumped down from the last step on the stairs. She stepped out of the foyer for the last time and closed the front door behind her, cutting off the last tie to her elementary school life behind the entry way. Turning her back to the door, she stops abruptly. Halting her movements at the porch.

And there he stood, waiting on the driveway. In his hands were bunches of the same flower from the day they had their first fight; when their friendship became unbreakable. "We said we would be friends no matter what. Even if we never see each other again, we'll still always be friends." At the porch she had dropped her bag and was now staring at him, dumbfound. Her parents were loading up the last of the boxes into the moving van, giving them a slim window of privacy. Rena stares at him for a brief moment and then ran out to hug him. Capturing the flowers in her hands she grasps them tightly, not letting go of their symbolism. Still holding the flowers in her hands, she pulls him in tightly. Holding on to his memory as long as she can.

If I let him go, I'll lose him forever. We'll both forget. At this thought she pushes it aside, worrying about it later. She holds on tighter to the moment. The way her heart felt when he showed up. The way her arms clung to his torso, not wanting to let go of her true friend. The way her hand cherished the feeling of the parting gift. The way tears welled up in her eyes, one blink from spilling over.

"I love you, Cole. Don't forget me. Don't forget the stupid girl from the playground. Don't forget that I'll miss you."

Cole squeezed just as hard around her. Creating a memory of his own. How she didn't want to leave. How her voice closed up in her throat from tears. How his own heart hurt from the feeling of loss. Engraving in his mind that buttercups would be their special flower. Every time he saw a buttercup he would remember her. The girl with curly brown hair, and dazzling hazel eyes.

The girl who was his best friend.

"I love you too, Rena. Don't forget me either. Don't forget that our special flower is a buttercup. Don't forget me in Oregon."

Hearing a honk from the car, it was Rena's cue that it was time to leave. She squeezed once more around Cole's middle. "Good bye, Cole." And just like that, she was gone. Swept into the car, and down the driveway. Away from sight, and long gone from Cole's reach. The moving dust blocking his vision from following the car. "Good bye, Rena." The sentence lost in a whisper of wind.

***

A/N: First completed concrete part of the revision process. In the dialogue when Rena says "awe-th-ome" it's to make her loss of her front teeth known. When little kids lose teeth, they make the -th- sound more often. So that's not a mistake.

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Dedication to: jadenicko Thank you for supporting my work from the beginning when I worked on the rough draft back in Freshmen year. Look how far I came! And it was with your encouraging words that it happened. I'm glad you stuck with me from my crappy first attempt at a story, to my somewhat better constructed one now. I love you dear!