He was allergic to butter.
It was a strange thing to be allergic to as he was fine with every other dairy product. It was just butter.
It was extra difficult for him as his little brother adored it, butter sandwich was a delicacy to his little stomach.
His parents were always careful not to mix up their lunches. They packed the same things and the same amount of said things in their lunches for school, he never needed to eat much so the amount his brother ate was enough for him.
One day he was in a rush, he had woken up late because we were texting each other all night. He grabbed his lunch and arrived barely scraping the due time. He slid into his seat next to mine with a messy bedhead and a sheepish smile.
At lunch, we sat together under a tree in the field. He took a big bite into his sandwich and bits of it stuck to his face around his mouth.
"You have butter around your mouth." I laughed, going to wipe it off. Then I realized what I had said. "You have butter on your mouth!" I shouted.
He looked at me, confused, before it suddenly dawned on him and he leaped to his feet, panicking.
"Alec, I'm going to die!" he said hysterically.
"No, no, no, no, no," I repeated over and over for I could push no other words out.
"I must have picked up Noah's lunch," he mused. "I'm going to die because of something so stupid!"
Before I could reply telling him he wasn't going to die, or to repeat a new mantra of 'no, no, no's, he began choking and keeled over onto the ground. I fell to my knees beside him, trying to hold him up until he collapsed, unconscious.
I carried him to the office where they called an ambulance to take him away. I held him, sat down on a seat as we waited for them to arrive, refusing to let him go.
When the ambulance came, they took him from me and wouldn't let me in with him. They told me that I shouldn't have picked him up and carried him away after he fell unconscious, I could have made his condition worse.
I honestly thought I would never see him again and I felt like I had swallowed acid. I threw up and I was sent home with the thought that my best friend was dead and I would never get to say goodbye.
He survived that, however, and stupidly apologized to me non-stop because I cried when I next saw him.
***
"Do you have any allergies?" she asked me, calmly.
I didn't answer.
