A Dream, A Destiny 2

Serenity

Ash POV

Sere looked at the tickets quizzically for a brief moment. I could tell her expression she was confused. "Concert tickets?" she repeated confusingly. "Why are they important to you?"

I swallowed hard with guilt washing all over me. Hanging my head, staring down at the tickets in my shaky hands as I stuffed them in a ziploc. "Gary and I- we were going to this concert on the day of- the day of the accident." My words escaped from my mouth. Sounding more shakier than my hands.

"Oh, Ash," Sere whispered, her eyes huge as she gently grasped my hands. Her palm covering over mine that felt warm travelled all over me.

"He told me to meet him at the concert because he had to do something for his dad," I continued. I just couldn't stop talking, even though reliving Gary's last day hurt me physically and emotionally. "I was being a jerk about it, calling him a daddy's boy, telling him to hurry up and... he didn't show up." I ran a hand over my face, my skin touching my own. "His mom called me to tell me what happened but even though she was crying so hard I couldn't barely understand her, I didn't believe it... There's no way Gary could be dead, I told her. I remember like it was yesterday. Even after I saw Gary's totalled car, it still felt like he was playing a bad joke on me."

Sere nodded hesitantly as her eyes were beginning to water. Mine felt the same way knowing my vision was getting blurry, but I tried not to show it to her. "I know. I couldn't believe it when I heard either," she said in a voice that was more than a whisper. "He was such a nice guy. He always said hi to me in the hallways."

I nodded. That was Gary in a nutshell. He always had something nice to say to everyone. Out of our entire clique, he was definitely the most down to earth. "Yeah. He was."

Sere wiped her eyes clean with a fresh paper towel before holding out her blue pencil. "I'm putting in my lucky pencil too," she said.

Involuntarily, I grinned. "You're gonna be all out of luck, Sere."

She shrugged. "At least I won't be using it," she theorised. "Last week I caught myself sharpening it."

I raised my hands, holding out a ziploc. "Then by all means, put it in"

Sere affirmed, a thoughtful look on her face as she looked up at me. "I don't really have that much to put in here," she told me, sounding slightly dejected as she fidgeted. "I don't have many things that mean a lot to me."

My heart went out to her and I draped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her body close to mine. "That's okay. The things you've put in already are all that matter," I assured her. My lips meeting on the top of her head again. "I mean, I don't really have anything else to put in. Just this photo."

I opened my wallet after taking it out from my pocket and carefully took out a picture of me grinning as my mom carried me on her back. My grandad had given it to me two years ago when I went to the hospital to visit him a few days before his fatal heart attack. I had a couple of pictures of my mom while the others my dad had the rest destroyed, the prick. This one photo in my hand was the only one which showed us both.

Looking over my shoulder at the photo, Sere asked, "Is that your mom?"

I nodded, realising that I'd never thought to show Sere a picture of my mother. "Yup. That's Delia, my mom," I said, a proud note creeping into my voice with my eyes gazing on me and my mum.

"You look just like her." She smiled up at me and I impulsively gave her a quick kiss on the lips. Flushing with pleasure, Sere cleared her throat and continued. "You both have smiles on your faces. That's a compliment, by the way."