A Special Piece of Clothing

The Hoodie

Hoodies are usually worn as representation of a school, sports team, super hero, event, music group, saying, or special someone that is close to our hearts. I personally can remember when, where, and why Hunter gave me that blue American Eagle sweatshirt. It was on his last day of school before he moved back to Bryan, Ohio. 

We were standing at my locker, packing my books and things into my backpack to take home, getting ready to walk out to the buses together. He asked if he could use my phone to call his mom to see if she had won custody of him by the court that day, to see if he was actually moving for good. He called her as we started walking to the front of the school. When she said that she won custody, his face lit up and his smile brightened the entire hallway. 

I don't think that I had ever seen him that happy before. Except for when he asked me out in 7th grade and I said yes. But this was different. He could finally escape from his hateful, abusive father, to live with his mother, who loved him more than anything in the world, and would do anything for him. I was so happy for him, but I was also upset that I wouldn't get to see him anymore. We still text and stuff, and eventually when one of us gets our drivers license, we're planning to visit each other all the time- like almost every weekend. He said he'd still come to support me and DeKalb at my show choir competition and everything too. 

As we were walking out the door, he could see that I was happy for him, but he could also see tears forming in my eyes, so he grabbed my hand and told me everything would be okay. We walked out to the road and hugged each other really tight. Neither one of us wanted to let go, but when we finally did, we said goodbye for the final time. I turned to start walking the other way to my bus, but he grabbed my arm and told me to wait because he forgot something. I stood there confused, as he started taking his sweatshirt off. Once it was off, he fixed his blue t-shirt and handed me his sweatshirt. He said it was so that I would never forget him, and I told him that it was impossible to forget someone that special. We hugged one last time and when he was holding me in his arms, I couldn't hold the tears back, so I started to cry, which made him cry too. 

So there we were, in front of the school both crying. Everyone was watching, but we didn't care. When we released our hold on each other, he gently wiped the tears from my face. I walked to my bus, tears still falling from my eyes. I held tight to his sweatshirt the whole way home. Now I sleep with it every night. Sometimes wearing it, sometimes just hugging it close to me, so that I always have a part of him closer to me than he actually is.