APRIL

THE NEW GUY

As I grew up, I had a best friend named Alex. He was such an incredible guy. He was almost as if he was Colton and I was Ivy. We just got along that well. We were basically attached at the hip. He lived just a few houses down from mine and we would see each other every day.

Throughout junior high we 'fell in love' well, what any pre-teen would call love I guess. He was my first boyfriend, first kiss, he was a lot of firsts.

No, we didn't have sex. We were way too young for anything like that.

During the summer before my junior year of high school, Alex called me one day out of the blue.

We had no plans to hang out that day since we was with his family. But, for some reason he was calling me.

I answered the phone and said, "hey Alex, what's up?"

He didn't respond for a minute as I heard him heavily breathing on the other side of the phone. "Emma," his voice croaked.

"Alex, what's wrong?"

I could tell something was wrong. I always knew. Well, I basically knew everything about this boy.

"I need to tell you something, can you come outside?" He asks me.

My room was at the front of the house so I went to my window to see if he was actually there because he liked to prank me. I moved the curtain and found him standing outside, in the pouring rain, just waiting.

I run down the stairs and let him inside, immediately going to get him a towel to dry off.

We go into my room and he sits down on my bed and places his head in his hands.

"Alex, what's the matter?" I sit beside him and try to comfort him.

He doesn't look at me. "I-I have to tell you something."

"What is it?" Did he cheat on me? Is he breaking up with me? Was he not in love with me anymore? A million things came into my mind as I sat there waiting for him to tell me his secret.

He looks up but doesn't look me in the eyes, "You know how I was with my parents today?" I nod encouraging him to go on. "Well they told me th-that."

He stops talking for a minute. I can tell what he is going to tell me is going to have a harsh impact. I have an instinct for these kinds of things. I grab his hand and gently squeeze it reminding him that I am here for him.

"Emma, I'm moving." He looks down at the ground as I stare at him in shock.

My eyebrows furrow as I think this through, "to where, a different neighborhood?"

"I'm moving to Washington at the end of summer. I'm so sorry Emma. I'm so sorry." I can hear him sniffle letting me know that he is crying.

I feel tears start to stream down my cheeks as I soak in the new information. I don't say anything as I just continue to cry.

Washington was across the whole entire country. What would I do without my best friend? My boyfriend? My world?

"I know this is heartbreaking, but Emma, we don't have to break-up and we still have the rest of the summer to be with each other. I don't want to leave you. You've been with me my whole life, I'm not ready to let you go."

I look at him and nod, "I can't believe this is happening. This isn't supposed to happen."

He squeezes my hand and I rest my head on his shoulder.

I didn't want him to leave.

As the rest of the summer went on, we tried to hang out every day. I wanted to make as many memories as I could with him.