This story is one about two kids, a boy and a girl, I knew throughout my four years of high school. Charlie Moon and Kelsey Avery. My name isn't important. I watched them during classes. This is they're story, written in just a composition book. This is about them.
Charlie was the nicest kid. Popular for his kind soul, his smarts, and well, his family was wealthy. But he didn't act like the other dumb kids who were "daddy's boy". He didn't let his title run his life. Charlie just let life run him, but not overpower him.
Kelsey was sweet. She was well known, but not by popularity standards. She was a class clown. Pulling pranks on teachers, would walk into class eating a whole watermelon and the spoon sticking out of one hole that had been carved out. She wasn't rich but nor was she poor. Another kid who didn't let caste titles run her.
Then came their junior year. The two had been both elected as homecoming prince and princess, neither having dates. They took the floor for the royalty dance where they're eyes met, falling in love instantly. It's an insane thing to say for their undeveloped minds but it was true. Everyone knew Kelsey Avery would eventually be Kelsey Moon. And everyone knew that Charlie would be the one to give her his last name.
From that one night, they were then "Charlie and Kelsey" or "Kelsey and Charlie". Not just her name and not just his. They were said together. It was like you couldn't say just one or the other. If the two shared classes, they would be paired for partner projects. They were the stereotypical romantic couple, the Sonny and Cher of our graduating class. The Diana and Charles. Fred and Ginger. Get the idea?
For the next 20 months, the two stayed by the other's side. Charlie lost his father in a crash, Kelsey was there at the funeral to say the kind words. Kelsey came close to a deathly moment from a case of pneumonia and Charlie sat by her hospital bed every hour of the day until the eight hours of school came around. Then came May. Graduation time.
The two knew it wouldn't be easy to leave. Kelsey was headed to NYC for an internship at NBC Studios, leaving the day after graduation. Charlie had been accepted at Oxford in England to study at their law school, having to move across the ocean instantly. The time spent between them came to a point to where the couple was almost inseparable. Charlie had promised Kelsey that he would be back after he graduated law school. She held his promise to her heart.
The last day of classes before the graduation ceremony finally came. By the time seventh period had rolled around, the rest of the seniors including myself, were ecstatic. All of us except for Ms. Avery and Mr. Moon.
Charlie didn't have a seventh period, it was his study hall period. Kelsey sat next to me in calculus during that period and you could see it in her eyes when she saw her boyfriend standing outside of the class. She picked up her bag and left the room. He hugged her instantly as soon as her foot hit the threshold. The two collapsed into the others frame, their small sobs echoing throughout the hall.
Everyone in the room stopped talking to watch the Nicholas Sparks type scene out the classroom windows. Our teacher finally stood up and closed the blinds, but left the door open for the audio. I was able to slide my seat to see the couple holding on to each other, almost as if one was going to die. That's when it clicked.
Over the past few weeks, Charlie's hair had seemed to be getting shorter. I had brushed it off, thinking it was just a shaved cut, sometimes covered by a hat. He had also seemed to be getting thinner, paler. Kelsey had been driving both of them to and from school, never leaving his side. She would hold the doors open for him, helping him up the stairs, carrying his bag for him. Charlie was dying of cancer and they both knew it.
Charlie had made it to our graduation day. He made it another week after but he never made it to England. He passed away in Kelsey's arms exactly a week after we all graduated. Kelsey never went to her internship in New York. She lived for another month after Charlie's passing before she was gone of a broken heart.
Their mothers and Kelsey's father held a double funeral, burying both at the same time. The two shared a gravestone. I showed up to the funeral and watched the caskets being lowered side by side. I choked up when I saw the names engraved on the stone: "Mr. Charles Moon and Mrs. Kelsey Avery-Moon".
If you were to ask any of my fellow classmates about the couple, they wouldn't address just him or just her. It would be them. It was always them. This story as I said at the beginning is about them. It will remain as theirs.
