See You Later

A Story by Sunny

If you say goodbye to a friend on a bridge, you will never see each other again.

Your best friend is not very superstitious. She believes in some things very much, others, not so much. You hope that this is one thing that she does believe. She is telling you a bunch of stuff about how she is going to miss you. She tells you that she is leaving for a little while. You tell her not to say goodbye to you because you won't be able to handle not seeing her ever again. She tells you that it's not true, that she will be back in a couple years and you will hang out and have fun again. Still, you beg her not to say it, please. She kisses you on the cheek, and says goodbye, and you try not to cry. She says it is okay, if you don't believe it, it won't happen. You don't believe a thing she says, but you nod and agree.

~~~~~

Your father has just asked you a very strange question, if you have talked to her lately. Such a strange question because you just talked with her yesterday and your father was in the room. You notify him that, yes, you had just video chatted with her yesterday. She had said that she was very excited to come home and hang out with you, why did he ask? He sighs. You shift. He sighs again. He softly explains that he had just gotten off of the phone with her sister, your best friend was in the hospital. You think about the cliche. It is stupid but it makes the hurt... not so bad... You mean, how cliche can it be. You haven't seen your best friend for months, you just talked to her yesterday, and she is in the hospital because o- You swear out loud and push your fists against the side of your head. You tell your father that you have to go now.

~~~~~

You know that it is stupid to try to get to the hospital before something happens. You are never going to see her again. Stupid stupid stupid to think that just because you saw her online the day after she left, that your superstition really was just that. You are not going to get to see her alive at the hospital, you just know it. You get sick in a cup in your fathers car. His eyes are still focused on the road when he pats your back carefully. You are directed to her room by a mutual friend in the waiting area. The second you acquire her room number, you bolt. The toe of your shoe has barely passed the threshold of her room when you hear the flat-line. You want to cry, but you cannot. You were expecting this so you could not be shocked. You don't even go into the room, your foot doesn't get the chance to hit the ground. For a moment you are frozen. Then you turn around.

~~~~~

You go to her funeral, but you leave when they close her coffin. You have never been to a funeral, and you do not want to see her family carry her body. You don't want to see her go into the ground. Instead you go to the last place you saw her in person. It is not a far walk, and there are so many people, no one will notice that you disappear for a while. There used to be a lot of traffic in this area but everyone just started to use the new roads when you moved here. That's why you two chose to meet here. That, and the fact that this is where you always played together here. You met everyday, no matter the weather, even if it was only for ten minutes. You stop thinking about this as you consider the edge of the bridge. You hop onto it. It is wide enough to walk on so you pace for a few minutes before sitting. You look down and notice that the water looks closer than it used to. The space beneath is deep, you know because one summer the water dried up and the two of you played in the dirt... There are rocks under there too. You remember trying to move the boulders together. Heh, they just wouldn't budge, no matter how hard you pushed. The water is moving really fast... You can't see your reflection. You lean in and ease up your grip on the edge a bit, then you yank yourself back up. She would hate you. She would yank you out of the water and punch your arm in the back of the ambulance and she would try to ignore you for a week or only respond with simple sentences... You finally start crying and it feels great. You feel like you are talking with her and she is right there to listen like you always were for her. You scoot off of the edge of the bridge and onto the stone road. "I'll see you tomorrow..."