8

As the cab began to crawl along the last stretch of the highway, I stared out of the window. My warm breath was fogging up the glass, but there really wasn’t much to see anyway it was pretty dark, save for the glimmer of headlights barrelling down the highway in the opposite direction.

 

My mind was still on JJ. Somehow after that first incidental meeting in the pouring rain, where he had both insulted me and showed me a random act of kindness, he quite quickly wormed his way into my life.

 

I became friends with a few of his friends who were all into music and bands and gigs, and when Jessica decided that I just wasn’t providing enough gossiping for her and ditched me to hang out with the ‘cool’ crowd, he didn’t even question me hanging out with them more.

 

I’d let him copy my answers before class when he forgot to do his homework, and when I got all chatty in class he’d cover for me with the teachers and tell them I was helping him with his work.

 

By the time we were thirteen we considered each other best friends. By the time we were sixteen? We were more like family.

 

As we got older he let me hide away from my family, sometimes for days at a time, well I say hide they always knew I was at JJ’s. He let me stay over at his and we’d watch Back To The Future, or some other 80’s movie and eat our body weight in chocolate. It was like our tradition for when one of us was feeling a bit s**t, always has been until recently, but then you can’t expect everything to stay the same can you?

 

Oh and when he was out getting drunk he’d always climb up onto the roof outside my bedroom window and knock on it ‘til I let him in. He’d then pass out on my bed, and I’d set my alarm for like seven so he could get home before his parents knew he hadn’t come home last night.

 

We really were tight, like I’m pretty sure he could have turned up at my window one night with a shovel and a dead body and I probably wouldn’t have questioned it too much. Or rather I’d have asked the questions, only I’d have asked them while I was the burying the body and coming up with an alibi for us both.

 

I chuckled at the thought, a genuine smile landing on my face for the first time all night. All the memories of how things were and how great my teenage years were because of him always made me smile. I look back at my phone and decide that maybe I should see what the texts said.

 

JJ �"

Don’t be a f****n dick Lex! Really! You really want to

start that s**t again? Haven’t we had this discussion?

And now you’re gonna walk out on my f****n birthday?

Since when did you become such a f****n drama queen?!?   

 

Ash �"

I’m really sry! He saw you and made me tell him

what was up you know how persuasive he can be!

 Please don’t leave though stick around maybe we

could talk about things over breakfast tomorrow? Xxx

 

I’m not even going to get started on how Ash can’t keep his mouth shut, but really? Is he serious? Is he talking about the ‘discussions’ in which he calls me a drama queen makes me feel incredibly guilty for saying how I feel and then I end up apologising, but he never does? I think he is. This has to be a f*****g joke, how can that perceptive, kind boy who happened to squirm his way into my life become so clueless? Where was my boy with the green umbrella?  

 

As I gazed into the dark abyss outside the window, the occasional fleck of light from another car’s headlights illuminated the trees allowing me to gauge how painfully slow we were going, I retreated back into my mind. Another vivid memory filled my brain.

 

One of the last memories I had before things changed   

Author's Note

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