I hadn't talked to Polar since that night. That was three days ago. When the sun came up I woke up next to him. I lightly nudged him to wake up and he yawned, stretched and turned over on his other side. It took me a while to wake him up and when he did he was irritated and seemed like he was a mile away. I asked him if he was hungry, he shook his head. I asked him if he was okay, he nodded his head. Later that morning we walked back home, and he barely said anything. The perfectness of everything the night before slowly became a nuisance. The bright sun was burning into my eyes, and the cold air was not peaceful, but stinging my skin.
While walking home I tried making small talk again, asking him what he was doing later. He kept responding with, "I don't know."
I tried calling him, I sent him a message. I'd walked all the way to his house in the rain and it was pouring when I got there. He didn't answer the door when I rang the buzzer. I waited on his doorstep for him to return home, but he never came.
I walked across his yard to leave when he finally showed up. Everything that I wanted to ask him disappeared from my mind when I saw his face. He looked irritated. "What do you want?" he asked.
I just shook my head. I couldn't remember why I was wasting my time here. He just looked at me with same irritated face and it was like he read my mind. He finally spoke up.
"Look I know we haven't talked in a while and I know I said some things to you. But didn't know what I was saying then. I thought I meant it at the time, but I've thought about it and I take back what I said."
"Why did you say that to me in the first place?" I asked, my voice cracking.
"Because..." I waited for him to continue. He looked down at his feet and sighed. He raised his head back up and continued. "I was going through a rough time with this girl I met a while back. You never knew her and I wanted to keep it that way. We got into a fight about...something." He looked disappointed, and he showed sadness in his eyes. "That's why I went with you to the forest. I thought I could get my mind off of her. But then when we were lying under the stars, and I was thinking about all of the good times we had together. I thought you could replace her."
I was a replacement to him? I spent all of my time with him. When his mom died, I was there for him. We had everything in common. I thought he was wonderful, sweet and funny. I was just used when his girlfriend wasn't around. He saw me start to cry, and I thought I saw him roll his eyes.
"Stop that, Az."
His comment just made me cry more. A sinking feeling set in when I realized I became too emotional. I couldn't listen to anymore more of his excuses and I stormed out a little over dramatically. He was a jerk. I couldn't think of a reason why he would've done that to me. It thought it was something I did. I only said about ten words to him so it couldn't have been something I said. Maybe it was something I didn't say. I wanted him to know that I liked him more than he really thought, but now It was useless because he had that girl. She must've been stupid like me to fall for him. I wanted to warn her and tell her she was wasting her time, maybe she would leave Polar and make him realized that he didn't deserve anyone.
My eyes went blurry with tears again. One rolled down my cheek and I tried the best to hold the rest in. I wasn't the kind of person to cry over other people, but for some reason this was an exception. I composed myself when I neared the central. There were people everywhere shopping and walking around, and I didn't want anyone trying to be nice and asking me what was wrong.
It was still raining. The water made the dull metal sidewalks and streets glisten. It was freezing outside, which didn't make me feel any better. I thought the tears were going to turn into ice sickles on my face. I was only wearing a thin sweater and I was soaking wet from the long walk home. I was trying not to think about what just happened or what would happen from now on. I thought about the awkward tension we would have when we saw each other on the streets. I didn't have a friend anymore, I had no one to talk to about what I wanted to do before I died or the crazy dreams I had at night. I didn't have anyone to explore the forest anymore. That was what I looked forward to most in this boring world, and it was gone because of him. I realized I was thinking about him again and my eyes started to fill up again.
When I got closer to my house, I let all of the unnecessary tears pour out. I thought it would make me feel better just to get rid of them all at once. I never had a good reason to cry. Someone who I thought was my best friend is a jerk. I accepted it, telling myself I was expecting it to happen sometime in my life, and it happened. I just didn't know it would hit me this hard. I made it to my doorstep, and I opened my front door and something hit me hard for real. It was a giant, metal box about as tall as I was, the box was a bit taller.
I wiped the left over tears off my cheek and blinked a few times to clear then from my eyes. I walked in a circle around the enormous box, not knowing what to do. I was afraid that it might be a bomb or a dead body. I stopped back at the front and pounded the metal with my fist. From the sound of it, it was empty, so I tried shaking it and something rattled inside which frightened me again, I was thinking of all of the horrible things that could be in it and not the good things.
The metal was cold like it just came out of a freezer, and it seemed thin. I tried to open the front of it, but there was nothing I could grab onto. Sighed and I stepped backwards onto a small, cube-like object that lied on the ground. Without thinking, I pressed the small button that was on one side of the cube. The cube unfolded itself into a large, handheld screen with a simple note displayed on it. At the top of the note in giant letters was, "Congratulations! You've won Life 45!"
