Sunflower Sun

It had been hot all day; a sure sign that summer had finally come and wouldn’t leave until autumn arrived. I hated hot weather, it made feel sticky and dry and I knew for a fact that if I stayed long enough outside it would surely burn my skin. But Olivia and I still sat in my backyard for what felt like all that day. I was sitting on the swing lightly twirling myself around to keep myself from the long lasting silence between us. Olivia sat cross legged diagonal of me picking at the grass. The only thing shading us from the burning rays was the giant oak we were under but ever so often we would feel a gush of hot air hit us.

“This isn’t fair.”

It was the first thing either of us had said in a while but it was something Olivia had been saying constantly for the last few months since finding out about her families move that I remained silent trying to figure out something to say that I hadn’t said before to this.

“We’ll see each other sometime this summer; you’ll only be a state away,” I finely said, trying desperately to lighten up the mood. I had become so sick and tired of feeling sad about this. It was as though we were already giving up on our friendship and Olivia hadn’t even left yet.

“My mom said we would have no time to drive out back to California from Arizona with all the moving stuff. And God knows we have no money left from the move to fly back and forth.”

This didn’t help make anything more helpful and I felt myself sink slowly into the miserable state in which Olivia was in.

“We can always call.”

“It’s not the same as actually seeing each other.”

“Yeah but we can get those web camera things so we can see each other. I’m pretty sure my sister had one back-”

“-you know what I mean, Rory,” Olivia said cutting me off and giving me a sad look, “it’s not the same as actually seeing each other.”

“Well come on, Olivia? I’m just trying to lighten up our sprits. You are leaving in two days and I don’t want to spend those days doing exactly what we are doing right now, moping and feeling sorry for ourselves.”

Olivia sighed, knowing I was right. I had always been the one to help us feel better when times got bad, Olivia had always been the more pessimistic and stubborn one. But now it seemed like it had gotten harder to try to stay happy and optimistic, when in fact my best friend was leaving in two days.

“I know I don’t say this as often as I should, but I seriously don’t know what I would do without you.”

I smiled at this, suddenly feeling like those one of those friends Olivia and I were never like. The overly sensitive and dramatic ones we would always make fun of.

“Was that cheesy?” Olivia added, giggling lightly as I watched tears fill her eyes.

I laughed, feeling a tear roll. It had been the first time I had cried in only God knows when, because I didn’t easily cry. Olivia was already leaking tears and I felt myself stand up from the swing and hug her. Another thing we did rarely.

“Shit, we probably look so pathetic,” Olivia said as we finally let go, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

“Yeah, I bet,” I muttered, smiling weakly as I dried the last remaining tears on my face.

And quite suddenly, Olivia moving didn’t seem that bad because we knew we would always have each other. In Arizona, Olivia was going to find new friends, I was sure of it because she was the most likeable person I knew. And perhaps I would make new friends as well, even though I wasn’t exactly good with people as Olivia. When senior year ends next year we would both be going out into the real world. Perhaps we will come back to visit each other again, maybe by then we would have long since forgotten about each other.

But at that moment we didn’t care because we knew we would still have all the memories. And we knew if we still cared enough about each other, we would hold them until then end.