Present Day
I looked at each photograph before tossing them on the ground, each capturing memories that were meaningless now, without the one person who made each second in those pictures count. We were innocent back then. Just a couple of kids finding reasons to rebel against society. The usual teenagers who hated school and thought everyone around them just didn't understand how they were feeling. I hate to say it, but those days were the best days of my life because those were the simpler times. Everything was normal, our lives were on track even if we didn't know it.
I had a tight grip on the last photograph. We were both sitting under the tree in my backyard, shoulders touching. We had huge smiles on our faces as we shared a batch of cookies that my mother baked us.
I folded the photograph in half, and then ripped it in the middle, tossing the piece with my body on it onto the ground. I looked at the photograph again grimly.
"I'm sorry this happened to you, buddy. I wish it was me." My voice sounded like I had a cold that made it hard to speak because it brought pain to my throat.
I tucked the shattered memory into my shirt pocket, giving it a light tap. I felt myself forcing a smile even though I felt the urge to burst into tears.
Grabbing onto the gasoline, I let out a rage of pain as I doused my own home. The way I used to live is gone. I am no longer that crazy hyperactive kid with an awkward haircut. Everything has changed once I had lost him. It is insane how one person can impact you so much in a way where if you knew that you could have kept them out of harm's way, and you didn't, so you then proceed to blame yourself. Which is what I did. But I also wanted to make it up to him in my own way. I looked myself in the mirror, seeing a cut on my cheek where blood had leaked out of. She was right, I may have gone too far, but I am too deep in this now. If I find him or not, this is my life now.
A single strike of a match was all it took to remove the presence of my past life, and once I dropped it, a trail of light danced before my eyes as I smiled from ear to ear.