Severed Ties

Chapter 15: All Good Things Come to an End

"Do you ever just... Sleep in on purpose. Because your dreams are better than reality?" His warm breath filled my ear as we lay next to each other in bed. It couldn't be later than 10, but time didn't matter right now. We lay together with our eyes closed, mind wandering. I just wish we could have a little more time.

"No I've never done that. All good dreams come to an end, and I hate endings." I whispered, letting my mouth move slightly. I was under a trance. I was asleep but oh so awake at the same time, in that way when you can't open your eyes but you hear and are aware of everything that is going on around you. It's beautiful in an eerie sort of way, it's what I imagine death must be like.

Stan and I, we have been best friends since the beginning. Inseparable. I remember the first time we met like it it was yesterday.

~~~

It was the first day of kindergarten, my mom had just walked me inside the building. "It'll be okay, Bubala, kindergarten is really fun." My mom let go of my hand and walked out of the classroom. I turned around to see that not many other kinds were there yet, and I was early. I slowly walked around, taking in what I could for being a 5 year old. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking, and to this day, I'm grateful for that.

"Ow." Said the other kindergartener as he tumbled to the floor. He looked up at me with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry." I put my hand out to help him up. I didn't know what else to say, it was my first day after all.

"Thanks." He accepted my hand and quickly stood up. "What's your name? I'm Stan, and I'm 5 and a half years old."

"I'm Kyle, and I turned 5..." I had to count out how many days it had been since I turned five, it was only four days ago, but my little undeveloped pea brain didn't know how easy that was to count. "Four days ago. Can we be friends?"

"Sure!" Stan exclaimed. He then grabbed my hand and led me to the building blocks, and he began to build.

~~~

I opened my eyes, it was a dream. Stan lay next to me, still asleep and breathing lightly. I ran my hand through his hair, he was gorgeous. The moon shone slightly through the slits of my blinds. The light streaked ever so gently in delicate lines over his face as if an artist has painted them there.

That's what this all is, just a big painting. Paint slowly dripping as things start to change. I don't want this to change, ever. Art class, when we first met Kenny. I can still smell the tempera paint as if it were still splattered all over me.

~~~

"Dude what the hell are you doing?" I laughed, trying to focus on my painting. The assignment was to paint your favorite things, and Stan was trying to paint me. He first started with a huge splat of red on the paper for my hair, then he went in with the green for my eyes.

"Viola!" Stan kissed his fingers like a French chef. "Magnifico!" He laughed at my crappy painting of an orca, orcas were my favorite animal after all.

Suddenly, orange paint flew all over me and my canvas. "I'm so sorry!" Somebody mumbled. I sat there for a second, still processing what happened. When I realized the quietest kid in 1st grade spilled his paint on me, I started to laugh harder than I ever thought I could. I wiped the paint from my face and placed orange hand prints on my now splattered canvas.

"It's alright dude, I needed some orange anyway!" I laughed. Not until then did I realize Stan had been losing his shit that whole time. He was practically on the ground laughing.

He smiled, "may I sit with you guys at lunch?"

"Sure! What's your name?" Stan got up, bracing himself on a chair.

"I'm Kenny, but you can call me Ken if you want."

~~~

I shook the memory out of my head. That was so long ago, we were so innocent. As children we had no idea that there could ever be pain in the world. We didn't know that someday, one of our best friends might think drinking was his only option. That somebody's own father would walk out on him. That one of us would die far too young. I felt moistness around my eyes start to develop, it was never suppose to be this way.

But, that's okay. Because I have learned something from the past few months. Change is inevitable. It will always happen, it will never cease happening, it has happened since the beginning. You can either embrace it and accept it or turn away and reject it.

It's about time that I started accepting change.

-THE END-