Now You Know Me.

How it started.

I was excited- a break from school for three days, PLUS the weekend! It was going to be awesome- time to get started on the DIY Christmas gifts, painting, and just sleeping in.
Time to be lazy, doing whatever I want.
It was Wednesday, the first day of the break. I had woken up late by a few hours and eaten breakfast, later showered and went shopping with my two older sisters. We were planning to make Thanksgiving themed cookies, and had bought the ingredients.
I was sitting in the backseat of the car when my sister handed her phone to me; I had forgotten to bring mine along as I always did and my mom wanted to talk to me. I didn't think anything of it when I put the phone to my ear.
"Do you know a boy named William Jamison?" She had asked. I knew him, of course, we had gone to the same school since the first grade. We never talked at all, but I knew he existed. I had thought that he was in the Pre-Algebra class, meaning that he was a step up than some of us in 7th grade math. Maybe he was in the newspaper or something. "Yeah, he's in my grade, a few lockers down from mine." I had replied casually, wondering what it was about.
"He died this morning."
My mouth had practically fallen open. I remember the shock, more than anything I had ever felt before.
"What?"
She proceeded to explain that it was on the school's Facebook page, and that she would take me to the counseling open at the school that afternoon if I wanted. I was just shocked.
I was fully aware of it, death. It's something we take so lightly in our culture, until it actually happens, and then we sober up.
He'll never get to have Thanksgiving dinner again. Never get to open his locker again. Never get to turn in his book project.
He'll never get to, because he's gone.