Murderer

Chapter 16: Brendon

It was a beautiful day. I was surrounded by the people I loved, and they were singing that all too familiar tune of "Happy Birthday." The wind was just right, and it kept us cool on this perfect spring day. I smiled as they finished singing to me, ready to blow out the candles on my cake. Seventeen of them.

After I blew out the candles, Ryan called out my name. He was a few feet away, standing next to a tree. I jogged over to him with a huge grin on my face.

"Yes?" I answered. I saw his face blush, he was so excited to surprise me with whatever was behind the tree.

"Brendon, you and me make a great team. After I shared my lyrics with you, I wanted you to be a part of my music. So I bought you this..." he bent down and grabbed a guitar by the neck, then held it out to me.

I was so overjoyed by this gift. He wanted me to be his voice so he wouldn't have to hide his sophisticated thoughts in his notebook anymore. It would be for anyone to hear, but my voice would be the one to deliver it all. We would be a band.

"I love it, Ryan. Thank you! I promise to learn how to play immediately." I gripped the neck and proceeded to hug him tight, not wanting to let go. But I did.

We both made eye contact and he laughed as the wind blew his hair back. I loved when he smiled. It made me feel like everything was okay and that I have done everything right in my life. Every choice, every decision, lead to this moment right here and now and his smile was there to tell me that I did alright.

We sat under the tree. I plucked out notes on my new guitar as he wrote down cultivated words into his notebook. I watched as family members talked and relaxed, eating cake together. Eventually one by one, they left. Leaving just my parents and Ryan.

"Are you boys ready to go?" my mother called out as she and my father started packing up everything off the picnic bench.

We both looked at each other, then nodded at her.

The moment I got up, I heard sirens. They progressively got louder every second that I stood there, looking for the source of the sound. I looked back at Ryan, but he was laying unresponsive on the ground. I started panicking as the sirens turned into a repetitive alarm.

I awoke at the crack of dawn. It was April 12th, my seventeenth birthday, and I dreamed of something intangible.