My Brother's Best Friend

Memory Eleven

I know I make it seem like it's always been Joseph and Drew, but when they were 14 they had another friend named Zach. He wasn't as close as they were with each other, but he was one of their really good friends. When he moved to town, they became the three musketeers. Having parties, meeting girls at the mall, skipping class and like my brother and Drew, he was super cute. He had a boyish charm about him that immediately made me like him.

He'd come over our house and play Uno with me sometimes which was something even Drew never did and he'd walk with me to the icecream parlor. When my parents made them take me to the movies with them, he'd sit next to me in the theater because Joseph never wanted to. I loved Zach. He was like the brother I never had just as Drew was like the boyfriend I'd never get. Maybe 2 months before the Christmas party where Drew kissed my cheek, things started to change. Zach stopped hanging out with the guys as much and started to never be around. Maybe a month later, he showed up at our house out of nowhere. He seemed the same yet he was different. His voice sounded less enthusiastic but he was the same person. We started going back into our daily routine of him coming over our house and the four of us hung out.

One day, we were playing with paintball guns on our street and after getting shot up, I took a seat on the porch upset. I was kind of a sore loser then and the guys all laughed at me. Well except for Zach of course. He sat his paintball gun down and sat on the steps next to me. "It's just a game Sky." he said to me. He was breathing weird though.

"I know," i say. "but Drew and Joseph always beat me."

"Well they're older than you. You'll be as good as them one day." Zach assured me. He was breathing harder then and he rested his head on my shoulder.

"Are you OK?" I asked. He manages to nod but his breathing doesn't slow. I'm a little freaked out. Out of nowhere he starts coughing like crazy. I pat him on the back because I think maybe he's choking but he won't stop coughing. He stands up still coughing and then blood starts to come out of his mouth onto the ground. I am so shocked that I can't seem to do anything. At the age of 11 I'd never seen anything like that happen. Luckily Drew and Joseph are running up the street toward us. "What happened Sky?" Drew asks panicked.

"i don't know he just started coughing!" I say scared.

"Go get Dad!" Joseph orders and I do.

An hour later, Zach was fine and told us he just had bad asthma, but his mom came to pick him up anyway. He never came back over after that and two weeks later, we got a call from his mom. My mom and dad told us that Zach had died. He had sickle cell and that he'd been really sick for the past 3 months. His mom didn't want him coming over our house anymore because he wasn't feeling well, but he always insisted on coming. A week later Mrs. Mitchell took the 3 of us to his funeral. I cried through the whole funeral unable to accept he was gone. Zach, the boy that played card games with me, took me out for icecream, and always seemed to make me feel better was gone. Even in his cask, he didn't seem dead. He only seemed to be sleeping.

Joseph was torn up about it just as bad as I was. Mrs. Mitchell tried to get him up but he refused to the view the body up close. Instead, he leaned over, wrapped his arms around me and put his face in my black dress. His tears stained the dress and my tears fell into his hair. At that moment, right there, we were there for each other. Drew cried a lot too but not as much as either of us. Maybe it was because he'd lost more people in his life than us, but I for one had never lost anyone I saw everyday and cared about so much.

After the funeral, we stayed with Zach's family to let them know that we were there for them. On our way out though Zach's mom Mrs. Wilson, stopped me. "Sky come here honey." she said through fresh tears that were starting to form again.

"Um... we-we were going through Zach's things and we found this. He'd gotten it for you for Christmas." she says.

She handed me a wrapped box and bursted into tears again.

It took me two weeks until I was able to look at that gift and when I finally opened it, tears streamed down my face. In it, was a teddy bear, and the game Sorry with a card from him along with it. When I opened the card, it read:

Merry Christmas Sky. You're sort of like a little sister to me and I guess that's why I decided to get you a gift. I've moved around a lot and you and the guys are the first good friends I've had in a while. I know you like games so I bought you one. I hope you wait to play it with me. -Zach

I never even opened the game Zach got me because I was waiting for him to play it with me and waiting for him meant waiting my whole life and so that was what I was gonna do. To this day, the teddy bear he got me sleeps on my bed with me every night. I don't think I'll ever forget Zach and neither will the guys. I miss him so much but I know that somewhere he's watching over me.