I woke up to a very subtle chirp. The sun had poked its way through the curtains and presented itself in my eyes. I rolled over and put my feet on the ground. There was a golden halo of sunlight across my face. The alarm clock screeched. I lazily smacked the snooze button.

I sat up and looked in the mirror. There was a piece of paper stuck to my cheek. I didn’t realize I fell asleep looking through the old pictures you drew me. I peeled off the paper off of my face and just laughed at the 3 hole imprint tattooed on my body. I stared at its crinkled existence. I didn’t really remember what this was a picture of, but a cloud of memories surrounded me and painted a smirk across my face.

My alarm clock had yelled again. It was already 6:30am. I picked myself out of bed and left the collage of pictures crumpled into my gray sheets. I didn’t really bother to get dressed. I threw on a sweatshirt and hobbled down the stairs. I opened up the door, and let it slam behind me. I took a breath of fresh air.

The sky was a mixture of golden smiles and gray afterthoughts. It reminded me of the night we snuck out and stayed out all night star gazing. The orange and yellow sunset that night slowly faded and distorted into a dark gray abyss that opened up eventually and let stars shine through. Colors like this just paint your memory in my mind.

I began to walk up the street. I could hear the soft scuffing of my slippers against the pavement. I picked up a rock from the cement and tossed it into a stop sign. It made an obnoxious noise. The sign reminded me of your red sweatshirt. I had to walk away from it.

I walked up to the library. You could see all the computers through the window. Surely the library wasn’t open at 6:45am. But I could almost just see us through the window. I could see us “working” on our science project. And how we got nothing done and almost failed. We just wasted time laughing and looking up silly websites and messing around with the moving pictures. I thought I saw the bright light from the computers shining but it was just the partial sunlight reflecting off of the window.

I walked through the grass in-between the tall pine trees we always hung out under. The sparkling dew drops caught onto my slippers and soaked into the fabric. Kind of like how the last time I saw you. My fingernails dug into your back and tears had soaked into your sweatshirt. I remember the sunset that day. It matched the fast fading golden color the sky had now. It was warm and sweet like you.

Suddenly I was home. The sun had gone away completely now as I realized you were gone, too. I dragged myself back up the stairs onto my messy bed. It was 7:15am.

I unraveled my sheets and I found one of the first drawings you ever gave me buried in the ruffles. It used to be so bright. All of the colors were meshed together. Now they all seem mucky and gray. But in the corner where you had signed your name was a bright red blotch. It seemed a lot brighter than anything else on the page. It stood out like your jacket. But it was further away from everything else.

And I miss my best friend.