Tonight

2

"D!" I called after him.

"Thought I should let you know that Trina and I are over that's why I came up here." He answered before making his way down the porch roof using our garden trellis. I stared after him with mouth agape, sometimes I think that my best friend has an undiagnosed mental problem. The heck he threw away all his efforts for what? I snapped out of my daze when I realized that I forgot to ask him why he had broken up with Trina. I was about to call after him but he was already halfway through his bedroom window so it was no use calling after him. D and I lived next to each other, his bedroom was across from mine. His house was almost identical to mine minus the excessively large wrap around porches that my mother insisted we have. I watched as he disappeared into his room and heaved a heavy sigh. I sat back down again and watched as the stars hid behind clouds that creeped into the night. The darkening skies mirrored my turbulent emotions. Shouldn't I be happy that they were over? I rolled my eyes at my own thoughts if I had been my old self I would have been happy but so many things had changed now. I love him that was a fact but in the state I am now, my love wouldn't even matter.

I felt something wet trickle through my cheeks, I'm not crying am I? Was it even possible for me to cry? Regrets filled my mind, maybe if I had been brave enough back then, if I had swallowed up my fear and told him straight on that I love him maybe things wouldn't have turned out this way. I stared down at my clammy looking hands and pushed back a whimper threatening to fall. He was leaving for college, leaving this town, leaving me and no amount of crying or begging could ever stop him from going.

My vision started to get hazy and I realized that rain had started to fall. The view disappeared beneath the heavy rainfall just like how my memories of him were starting to blur. I closed my eyes beneath the downpour and relived the memories I have of him, memories of us growing up and memories of me stuck forever as his best friend and never anything more.

9 years ago

Two children sat under an oak tree by the backyard, they were seating on a checked cloth while eating peanut butter sandwiches and drinking lemonade. The summer heat falling directly on to the town below. They hid behind the shade of the ancient oak tree planted during the 1940's by one of the children's great-grandfather. There was a picnic basket beside them as well as an old ragdoll and a toy robot. They were happily talking about random stuff as they ate.

"Hey V what do you want to be when you grow up?" one of the children who was a young boy of 6 asked his companion who happened to be a girl.

"Me? I don't know. How about you?" She asked him.

"Me? I'll be a businessman and own a large company! Then I'll build a big house where you and I would live!" The boy answered excitedly.

"Why would I live with you?" The girl asked as she stopped drinking her lemonade.

"Cos I'm gonna marry you silly." The boy answered.

"Why would I marry you?" The girl asked.

"That way we will always be together." He replied happily.

"Oh, I see." The girl said giggling.

Just then two women in floral dresses came out of the back door and called them.

"Devon! Genevieve! Get inside now it's time to go." Said one the woman in a blue floral dress.

"Bring the blanket and picnic basket you used." Said the other in a yellow floral dress.

"Ok mom." Said the boy as he folded the blanket while the girl placed the plates and glass they used inside the picnic basket. They hurriedly stood up when they heard the door closing and ran towards the back porch towards the house.

I hugged my knees tighter towards me as the rain grew louder completely disregarding that I should go back inside my room now instead of sitting out here on the roof in the pouring rain. We were so young back then, D didn't know what he was talking about, he didn't know what getting married really meant. It was all a child's fancy, an innocent child's tale.