G is for...

Y is for

Yellow.

Yellow is the happiest colour in the rainbow. You can't argue with that. It stands out in the world, yellow. It pops against the muted tones that we so often see. There was a lot of yellow in this classroom. The yellow pencils that were strewn across the random desks. The yellow paper that was pinned to the walls. The yellow chalk that was bright against the black chalkboard.

But, there was something else that was yellow in this room. At least, that's what colour Tommy was to me.

He's always been yellow. He's always been happy, he's always been bright. He's always been vibrant to me, he's always stood out. Tommy was my yellow, but what colour was I, to him?

We had been silent, since Samuel left. Tommy hadn't spoken, but his hands hadn't stopped their comforting movements in my hair. It relaxed me enough that I had closed my eyes, counting my breaths until finally we could leave this place.

Though, if there was anyone I wanted to be trapped in a room with, on a day like today, it was him.

"You remember when my parents died?" I asked him, not opening my eyes.

His movements in my hair stopped, just for a second, likely out of surprise. I didn't talk about my parents much, it was painful. It's only been three years since they died, but sometimes it felt like only 3 months, or 3 weeks, or three days.

"I remember," Tommy told me, resuming the way he was playing with my hair.

"Do you remember what you said to me?" I asked him. Though, I already knew his answer, of could he would.

"I told you that they're still here with you, they'll never leave you," he said quickly.

"Do you think that's true?" I asked him.

"Yes," he replied.

"Do you think... do you think all the kids that died, do you think they'll leave? Do you think they'll go to heaven, or do you think they'll be stuck in this place forever?" I asked him, a tear sneaking past my closed eyelid.

"I don't think they'll be stuck here," he told me in a whispered voice. "I don't know where they'll go, but it won't matter where they go, because they'll be here anyways."

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"When people die, maybe they're not still here physically, but they'll forever be here in our memories. We'll remember them, and they'll live on, through us and through their families and friends," he explained.

"What if, when we leave, there's nothing for the people to remember us by?" I asked, barely making any sense.

"You don't have to worry about that," he told me. "You especially. I'll always remember you, Lia."

"Yeah? What will you remember?" I asked him.

Tommy sighed, and I wasn't sure he was going to answer my question, due to his silence.

"I'll remember the first time you spoke to me," he told me, changing my mind. "When we were in kindergarten, and you asked if my shoes lit up. You said if your shoes don't light up, then they're boring and you should ask your parents for new ones."

A small laugh escaped my lips as I remembered the same thing he did. "But they did, so you had nothing to worry about."

"I'll remember the first time I came over to your house," he continued, and I opened my eyes to look at him. He wasn't looking at me, his eyes were focused on the wall opposite us. "And you took me into your backyard, and you showed me your favourite tree."

"It's a a good tree," I said, I raised my body off his lap, sitting upwards so we were level with each other again.

"And, even though at first I thought you were weird for having a favourite tree, the way your eyes lit up when you talked about it... well, it made me think that maybe I was weird for not having a favourite tree," he continued.

"And, I remember the time we went to the school dance together. I remember you said it was just as friends, but I didn't want it to be just as friends," he said, and his words caused my heart to stop. "And, I remember how beautiful you looked in that purple dress, and how badly I wanted to kiss you that night."

"Purple dress?" I breathed out. "That was homecoming last year."

"Yeah, it was," he looked towards me. "I wanted to tell you that night, but I was scared."

"What?" I said, and my heart was beating so quickly I thought it might jump out of my chest. "What did you want to tell me?"

Tommy's eyes looked straight into mine, and the greenness of them, the same tone I had been so jealous of, was so dark that they almost looked brown.

"You know, when I heard those shots, do you know what my first thought was?" He asked me, not telling me the answer to the question I wanted so badly to hear.

"My first thought was you. I've never told you," he said. "I've never told you how I felt about you. I never wanted to be just friends, Amelia."

I was trying to control the way my stomach was riding a rollercoaster. "You didn't?"

"No," Tommy said.

Tommy moved his face closer to me, and I moved my face as well. Closer and closer we inched, our eyes staring back at each other. Until, eventually we were close enough that my eyes closed. It didn't matter that I lost that sense, because I felt his lips on mine and every other sense I had intensified. As our lips pressed together, I swear I could feel everything in the entire world.

The knock on the door came at the worst time, as it caused us to move away from each other. We looked at each other for a second longer, Tommy's cheeks were tinged with red. Then, we turned to look at the door.

The officer had already opened it, his face visible in the gap between the woods. I could have felt embarrassed that he probably just saw us kiss, but I couldn't bring myself to feel anything other than elated.

"Tommy Faids," he said, "your guardian is here to collect you."

Tommy looked back to me, and he didn't have a smile on his face like the others did when their names were called. He pressed another kiss on my lips, a quick one, before he rose to his feet. He walked towards the door, turning back towards me once he was there.

"I love you, Lia. I always have," he said.

Then he turned, and he took a final glance towards me, before he walked out. Leaving me all alone.