Promise Me //1D Completed [✔️]

My Best Friend

Tegan's P.O.V
November 2012

~~~

It's been a couple weeks since the funeral. The headstone has not arrived quite yet, but Mrs. Fisher and I are visiting to place flowers at the grave.

I sit in her suburban, staring out the window, passing all the places Oliver and I used to ride our bikes to. Mrs. Marjorie Willis had me see a grief counselor yesterday. Yet, it was awkward and cliche.

The only thing that distracts me is when I am packing up my room at home, preparing to move to London. I am ready to leave Leyton, it reminds me too much of him. I always think school is hard to be at without him, then I pass his old room at home and I feel emptier.

We stop at the cemetery. I grab a decorative airplane on a stake I picked out for him. Mrs. Fisher grabs her bundle of winter flowers from the dashboard.

Silently, Mrs. Fisher sticks the flowers into the wooden frame dividing the graves. I shove the airplane into the grass. Soft sniffles come from Mrs. Fisher.

While moving to London will heal me, I don't think I'll ever be completely home again. A part of me will always be elsewhere with Oliver. I suppose this is the price you pay from having an incredible bond and amount of love you recieve from knowing people in more than one place.

"I'm going to the car." Mrs. Fisher murmurs, wiping her nose.

I cross my legs in front of Oliver's grave.

"Oliver," I clear my throat. "People keep telling me life goes on, but to me, that's the worst part. They say that time is a healer, but what they don't know is that I already know that isn't true. Time is not a healer, it's a replacer. Replacer of people, memories and ideas. We both knew, life is a revolving door of people who come and go. You were my permanent in a temporary world. Something I have learned though, is that no matter how much time you've spent with someone, it will never feel enough. I am unsure of most things about who I am right now. But I find comfort knowing that in a way, you are still with me. I never asked you if you thought ghosts were real, but I will tell you, I believe in them. Your spirit lives on, accompanying me. I am happy for you because you wanted to be a pilot and now, you can fly high. You were too good for the soils of Earth. You belong in the clouds."

~~~

Inside Oliver's room, everything is left as it was. His calendar on October, every day crossed out, except the 31st. His last day. His dirty clothes covering the floor in front of his dresser. His PlayStation remote sitting on his nightstand. His bed is neatly made. I smile at how organized and messy Oliver can be at the same time. His school work covers his desk. As I looked around at his scattered pencils and papers I notice a paper titled "My Best Friend". I pick it up, staring at his barely legible handwriting.

"Everyone knows a best friend is someone who makes you laugh hysterically and uncontrollably, your smile shine brightly and your life immensely better. The girls don't like her, boys are scared of her, but I wouldn't want to spend my time with anyone else. Alone, we seem silly, together we are something. My best friend's ideas have amounted to four years of colds after dancing in the rain and weird, yet memorable conversations. Being soaked alone is cold. Being soaked with a friend is an adventure. Four years of an infinite amount of memories. For some, it's the friendship of many, for me, it's the friendship of one. Tegan Jane Swallows."

Together we are something.

~~~

Rewritten May 2020

CRYING AGIAN

this death may seem boring to you, but it's so important to Tegan's relationships with the boys