The Brightest Star

Chapter Six

Nothing could hurt more than the necklace, she thought. She was so wrong. She had chosen to write a short entry to describe the last memory. She had planned on doing that for the rest of the objects because she couldn't allow herself to lose time. But for this one. She could not not write every single detail down. That dried rose was a symbol of their friendship and of the last happy day they ever lived.

"It was the early middle of July. The thirteenth, to be precise. The day was splendid. We had spent it with a bunch of friends before they all left to attend other businesses. Alex had left a week prior to that day to join some friends on holidays. It was only the two of us. Like it always was. We didn't feel like going back home so we hung out around the lake where all the restaurants and shops are. We were starting to get hungry and so we stopped at a place we had never tried before. I was looking at the undisturbed lake while you went in to see if they had any space for us.

"There's a forty-five minute wait! But I'm starving..." you said coming back to me, completely outraged by the waiting time.
"Do you want to try elsewhere?" I asked you, hoping you'd say no.
"No, it's fine. I really wanna try that place."

You sat next to me and we were slowly rocking back and forth to the rhythm of the nearby music. A man was playing his accordion not so far from us.

"This is so cliché." you laughed.

"What?"
"Come on... The old man playing his accordion at night. The restaurant lights. The light breeze. The smell of water. We might as well get up and dance right now."
"I don't think so," I answered laughing.

But you were already up, your hand holding mine, forcing me to follow you. You were always so reckless. Always ignoring what people could think of you. You were living life with all the passion you could. You held one of my hands and placed the other one on my waist and I placed mine on your shoulder. I should have known nothing was gonna go according to plan. Your perfect cliché scene turned out to be a disaster. If you weren't walking all over my feet, you were dragging me along like a doll, apologising at every step you would take. Some people silently watched, some timidly laughed at how clumsy we were but you didn't stop. Nothing would have made you stop because you were living. And when you were living, everything around you was a detail. You could end up in the craziest situation but it was okay, because it was a detail. I admired you so much for that. For your strength, which I thought was unbreakable. I thought...

We kept going for a while until a man came up to you. You were quick to say no but not quick enough.

"Would the gentleman be interested in a rose for his lady?" the man said, handing you a flower, waiting for his money.

"It's nice but no, we're not..."

You couldn't finish your sentence that the rose was already in your hand. You reluctantly gave him his money while I was trying with all my strength not to laugh and die of embarrassment.

"Milady," you said bowing, offering me the flower.

"Sir," I answered, accepting your flower.

"You can toss it out when we go home, if you want."

"It's fine. I'll keep it for now."

I never tossed it out. I couldn't. You didn't really believe in symbols. For you, memories were made and meant to be lived and you could only remember them by fully immersing yourself in what you were doing. I was never like this. And if you could annoy me sometimes, and if today a part of me hates you, this flower was the symbol of us. Everyone around us misread us. Only we knew how strong our bond was but not in the way they thought. Not all soulmates are meant to be lovers, and we really knew how to love each other. Even if it was only for a moment. And if today I love you as much as I hate you, the love I carried and kept carrying for you was always endless. Because with you I lived. Because with you I was different and because you made me believe in a bright future.

The night ended two hours after that, as I asked you to bring me back home. If only I knew it would be the last time I'd see you smile, I'd have taken more pictures. If only I had known it would be the last time I'd hear your laugh, I would have recorded it. If I knew your brother, my best friend, would die the very next day, I would have extended the night with you forever, in hope that tomorrow would never come.

But it did."

Salvador Dali said that when we are asleep in this world, we are awake in another. If it is true Lia couldn't wait to meet them both again forever. Even if it would only be ever possible in her sleep.

She knew what was left to write. And she wasn't sure she was ready. Bowing her head down, she had to breathe to stay focused. Everything felt like collapsing and colliding inside of her. Her pain, her love. It was lost in her heart, lost in her eyes, lost in her thoughts and lost in her words. It was lost in all she was and everything that made her.

Deep down, she knew she would be okay. That everything would eventually turn out fine. Lia knew her life wasn't cursed. Still, she needed a moment or two to breathe and pull herself together. Even if she knew that after the storm comes the sun, that a problem was never eternal, she had to breathe. She didn't want to accept it but even heroes can die in their own stories.