Charlie's Book of Short Stories

Don't Die [1]

*Quick Warning: This story contains references of suicide and self-harm. Please do not read if these things upset or offend you*

~~~Start~~~

Don't say goodbye. I hate goodbyes.

I never say goodbye, never. Not anymore It always seems to permanent, in my opinion you should only say goodbye if you're not planning to see someone ever again. Goodbye's should be final. If you say goodbye to me then you just make me worry that I'm never going to see you again and that you're going to cut me out of your life for good now.

I don't mind and variants of the word though, I don't mind people saying: 'see you later' or my personal farewell of choice 'don't die'.

Don't Die is such a nice thing to say when you and a friend part way, because it lets them know that you want to see them again and that you hope that they have a safe journey. I've said it for years now, every time school ends and I have to leave my friends behind.

All of my friends assume that I've said for my whole life, but that's not true. I used to say goodbye to people like everyone else did, but since we moved I realised what a horrible word it actually is.

My best friend loved it. She would always say that it was a beautiful word, she loved the way it sounded and how it looked when she wrote it down. She never saw the evil hidden behind those seven letters.

It soon became one of the few words she ever said. She was never a particularly loud person, but I noticed she was starting to say less and less and would run away to be on her own more and more. She stopped walking around in her usual beautiful summer tops and shorts and dressed for winter every day of the year, covering ever inch of her skin.

I didn't know her as well as I thought I did. She was practically my sister and yet I knew nothing about her or what she was going through. One day we concluded our walk home and said our goodbyes. Our final goodbyes.

I never saw her again, I only saw the red mess that remained when she was done.

Her final words to me echoed in my head and haunted my dreams:

'Goodbye'

My family tried to make me feel better, we moved, I met new people, I made new friends, but I wasn't the same. I would never be the same. I would never say goodbye, it was too permanent, I would only say to everyone I met:

"Please Don't Die"

~~~End~~~