Peach Pits And Mint Bubblegum

03: I Will Never Forget

                                    r i p l e y

Opening the yellow door to his home, Ripley was met with a breeze of air conditioning, the essence of chocolate chip cookies, and his dad's cologne.

"I made you and your papa's favorite," his dad beamed. That was the thing about Ripley's dad, he was always cooking everybody's favorite foods. On rare occasions he would cook his own favorites. But today was not that occasion.

"Give me four. I need to eat as many as possible before papa comes home. He's like a bottomless pit. Especially when it comes to cookies," Ripley said with a small smile. His dad chuckled.

"Here you go. They're still fresh and gooey."

He licked his lips and practically inhaled the cookies. The gooey chocolate chips lathered themselves on the roof of his mouth while the cookie itself was being crumbled between his teeth. They were cooked to absolute perfection. He poured himself a glass of 2% milk and made his way upstairs to his room.

He laid down stomach first on his pale yellow bed sheets and looked around at the posters in his room. A Vampire Weekend poster hung on the top left corner of his westward facing wall while a Catfish and the Bottlemen poster resided opposite of it. There, he began to write.

I remember going to their concerts with Vesper. She got us tickets for Vampire Weekend on my birthday and I got us tickets for Catfish and the Bottlemen for Christmas. They were two of the best days of our lives. I'll never forgot the insane amount of euphoria I had felt being in the front row. A mere six feet away from my idols. Listening to music that filled the empty parts of my soul and challenged the sad parts of my mind with blissful happiness. And of course Vesper. Who was the cherry on top to my sundae of joy.

I will never forget her. I will never forget her smile and her perfectly straight teeth. I will never forget her craters for dimples. I will never forget her long naturally black hair that she constantly dyed. "It's up to your imagination," she'd always tell the hairdresser. I will never forget her insanely long eyelashes that her honey brown eyes would hide behind. I will never forget the Pink Floyd t-shirt she'd always wear and her dirty white converse that she could never keep clean. I will never forget the heat that radiated through my body when she touched me. Even if it was just a mere brush of the hand. I will never forget the emotions she made swirl through my brain and body. I will never forget how I was too much of a coward to open my mouth and say something. I will never forget how much I loved her.

I loved her and I never got the chance to say it.