Memories Last Forever

Part 1

All of the best stories have these great significant beginnings. Mine started with a sunset. A lazy Saturday afternoon with a simple but beautiful sunset. It was the last Saturday before Junior Year, I spent the day making sure I had everything ready for Monday, but I reserved the night for my best friend, Kahlina. Oh, and I'm Azaylia, not that it matters much in this story though.

"Are we forever?" Kahlina asked, snapping me out of my peaceful daydream.

"What?" I said.

"Like, I mean, are we still going to be friends in the end? After the boyfriends, and breakups, and applying to college. Are we endgame? Platonically?"

"Yes, definitely. We're forever the platonic endgame." I lean over to one-arm hug her. I would give her a proper hug but it's a bit hard when you're sitting on your roof.

We sat there, in our one-armed embrace, on the roof of my house in our little neighbourhood for what felt like our own little lifetime.

Eventually, it was dark, the kind where you feel alone, like the whole world is asleep but somehow you still manage to be up. But I didn't feel alone this time, I had Kahlina and she had me. We slowly crawled down the back of my roof and slid to the balcony, landing in a crouch that took years or practice and a few sprained ankles to master.

We've been friends since the first day of kindergarten. Twelve years gone by and no argument had ever been strong enough to break us apart. With twelve years or friendship comes many sleepovers, we had it down to a science. The exact number of pillows and blankets and then our rules.

When we were younger we made a set of rules to follow. We haven't discussed them since they were made but there's just a mutual understanding to follow them. The rule that stands out the most is that we're never allowed to talk about anything that will upset the other person because neither of us ever wanted to go to sleep angry with the other. Another was that if we were together, we were going to be together not just in the same room texting different people. Sure, there are exceptions, parents are a completely different matter, answer them if you want to continue to have any degree of a social life. As for other friends and boyfriends you can answer but don't totally ignore the other person.

That Saturday night was my beginning for a reason. The reason being that was the night things started changing.

Kahlina and I had already set my bedroom up for the both of us and brought the appropriate amount of snacks from the kitchen, because c'mon what's a sleepover without chocolate? I decided to have a quick shower and Kahlina was going to pick a movie to watch.

I'd just finished getting dressed when the banging on the bathroom door started. I quickly opened it, coming face to face with a crying Kahlina.

I reached out for her, enveloping her in my arms. She buried her head in my shoulder, gripping on to my back.

"What's wrong, Kahl?" I asked softly, smoothing her hair down with my left hand, my right still wrapped tightly around her slight frame.

"It's," she choked, "it's Justin. He's been in an accident."

In that moment, I felt my heart drop. I felt weak, powerless, my knees no longer able to hold me up. I fell to the floor, dragging Kahlina down with me.

Justin, our Justin, my Justin. I'd known him just as long as I'd known Kahlina. For as long as I could remember it's always been the three of us. Me, Justin, Kahlina. A year ago, it became me and Justin, Kahlina. We'd started dating one year ago but nothing changed. It wasn't like the movies. Kahlina was never our third wheel. Sure, we had our dates alone but during those times, Justin became any other boy that me and Kahlina would talk about.

"Is he...?" That's all I was able to get out before the sobs that were wracking my body started to claim my voice too.

"He's alive. He's being flown to the hospital right now." Kahlina answered, anticipating my question.

Kahlina had always been the stronger of the two of us. She was always able to pick herself back up and proceed to think of a million different solutions to her problems. She was always the shoulder to lean, giving the best reassurance and advice. I couldn't ask for a better best friend.

"Come on, Zay. We'll meet him at the hospital." Kahlina wiped her tears and picked us both up off the floor.

"She walks to my room and pulls two hoodies from my closet. She quickly put hers on and helped me with mine. She supported me as we walked down to the main level and out the door to my family's spare car.

Technically, Kahlina wasn't supposed to be driving past midnight but this was an emergency and my parents were out of town until tomorrow night anyways.

She drove out of the driveway and slowly to the hospital turning the twenty-minute drive in to a thirty. I understood that she couldn't be caught driving, let alone speeding, this late at night.

I was able to calm down enough to see that I missed a call from Justin's mum. I sent her a text and she'd said that he'd just arrived. I wanted to ask what happened, more specifically, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear the answer. I ended up asking anyways, I needed to know what happened even if I didn't want to.

I was not prepared for the reply. I knew that his cousins lived near the mountains in Canada and that he was going to visit them the last week before his senior year, but he hadn't mentioned rock climbing once. Long story, short, he was using a partially broken rope unknowingly and it snapped, sending him tumbling down the side of the mountain.

This sent me into another round of my sobbing, I couldn't control myself when I didn't know what condition he was in. My min immediately thought the worst and once it went there, there was no going back. I let the cries escape from my body for the entire car ride. I cried until the tears stopped coming.

By time we pulled into the parking lot, my head was pounding, and my face was sticky from the tears but none of that matter now. I wasn't sure if I was able to go in, what if he's in a worse condition then I could have possibly imagined? Hospitals hold the best news and the worst news. I was more than ready for the good news but what if it wasn't? He could walk out of there with a broken arm and a few scratches but what if he doesn't? What if he doesn't walk out of there at all?