The night’s air was sticky and hot. It had usually gotten like this around the time of August in North Carolina. I look at the clock and it reads midnight. I think back to when my parents said to be home by 10:30 pm. I smirk, as I look over the cities buildings lights turning off one by one. I can hear the car’s loud engine running, as it used to be my grandfather’s. Comfort to my ears, my eyelids begin to fall. Abruptly, gasping for air, I wake up and look at the clock, 2:30 am, “I’m screwed,” I say softly to myself. I reach for my gear shift just as I hear a knock on my window. I look over, startled, and scared just to realize it was my best friend, Tori.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her.
She replies, “No, what are you doing here? It’s nearly 3 am.”
“I fell asleep and lost track of time,” I say embarrassed.
“You are so lucky I covered for you when your mom called me to ask you where you were,” Tori says, “I knew I would find you here, we used to come out here all the time as little kids.”
“I know” It seems like that was just yesterday. “Can you believe that we’re seniors next week already?” Her face that never seems to stop smiling drops into a solemn look.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask.
She answers “Nothing, nothing at all, I just can’t believe it that’s all.” Tori has been my best friend since the first grade. We have done everything together, and I couldn’t imagine my senior year without her, let alone my life. “Hey, what are you doing right now?”
 “What do you mean? I’m talking to you,” she answered with a confused tone.
“No, I mean do you have anywhere to be?”
 “Let me check my schedule for 3 am, obviously I have nowhere to be are you crazy?” she replied.
“Okay, dumb question, I know, but we are not ending our last week of summer without one last stop to Mr. J’s.” Tori and I have been going to Mr. J’s diner for as long as we could have remembered. It was the place where we grew up, we experienced the best and the worst times there, but it was ours. She quickly jumped into my car and we set off into the city. I knew we were getting close because I could see the red flashing lights right before the exit to get off that read “Mr. J’s Diner”. We walk in and sit at our normal booth in the far back right corner of the diner. We talked about our memories that we had and what our future would look like. Oddly whenever we started to talk about her future, she turned it back to mine. Before we knew it, the time was approaching 7 am. I had to get home and so did she.
I drop her off at her house but before she left, she said to me, “I’ll miss you, just know that I’ll always be around, just never forget about me, okay?”
I reply with “I’ll miss you, too,” with a slight giggle thinking she was just being silly, and I would see her next week. I arrive home and walk through the door; before I knew it my mom was charging at me. Thinking she was going to slap me for being out so late, I flinch. Instead, she hugs me so tightly that I could barely breathe. She asked me where I had been all night, I look at her confused and reply, “With Tori, she said that she told you I was with her.”
Her eyes gloss over with tears, she says, “Honey, Tori was in a car accident last night. I’m sorry, but she didn’t make it.”