Do You Still Remember Me?

I still remember him every now and then. At the time I was ten and he barely turned twelve. The memories were still pretty fresh. We were going to the pier. The moon was shining bright and the weather was cold enough for me take a sweater.

I snuggled into the dark cloth, gently wrapping my arms around myself for extra warmth. He did almost the same but instead zipped up his jacket and let his arms fall to his sides, defeated.

We stood in silence. It was indeed a normal thing for us to escape our homes. Though our parents weren't very fond of it, our ‘late night sneak outs‘ that is. We would always get caught though, never could escape the punishment. But we were kids. We didn't know any better than to prepare for the possibility of our parents finding out we‘d snuck out. Even though he was always blamed because I was said to be the follower, I wish he wasn‘t.

So, to say the least, we were dead meat. Because this night, this particular night, we chose to defy our parents orders again and go farther than we should have. And this time there was absolutely no doubt that we would get in trouble yet again.

Still in the same spot, we watched as happy couples and 'little kids' left with their satisfied grins plastered on their faces.

"We missed them." I muttered sadly, my eyes falling from the moonlit sky. There was nothing now. Everyone had gone to their warm cozy homes. No sounds of explosives being shot into the sky. No bright shiny lights.
Nothing. Nada. Finito.

“Don't worry Nyl there's always next year.” He looked down at me sympathetically. Taking a long look at the sky I tried to absorb everything I could. After a few seconds I tore my gaze away just in time to see the guilt on his face as he walked away from the scene. Getting creeped out by the darkness that surrounded us I quickly ran to him.

Once I had caught up to him I firmly locked my hand in his, intertwining our fingers in the process. Knowing I was freaked out he gave me the best smile he could muster up, but I could tell easily that it was fake so it gave me no reassurance at all.

Now I was pretty much scared out of my life. There was definitely no doubting that. But, I'm pretty damn sure you would be, too, if you were in my position. Well, unless your not a scardy cat.

The street was abandoned and the distant sound of leaves ruffling on the ground made it seem like we were some horror movie. It also didn't help that most factories were closed down and had broken windows. Also, being paranoid didn't seem to make it any easier.

Honestly, how would you feel if you were walking past them and you thought you just saw something through the broken window? I'm sure you would be freaked out too. I mean come one. I was ten years old. Not exactly something a ten year old like myself could handle.

So you could only imagine how relieved I was when our adventure through the darkness ended. The street lights and bart lights washing away my mild case of paranoia.

He stopped suddenly. Choosing the first street light to stand under. Looking up at him as he looked down at me I couldn't help but wonder why he chose to stop so suddenly. As he continued to stare down at me a rush of guilt came crashing down at me.

“I'm sorry.” I mumbled.

“About what?” He tilted his head to the side curiously.

“For missing the fireworks.” I breathed out. “If I hadn't spent so much time deciding whether or not we should come we wouldn't have missed them. We wouldn't have wasted so much time and we wouldn't have missed the first train. Which made us have to wait an extra twenty minutes for the next one an-”

“It's okay Nyl. It's not your fault.” He said before I could continue my babbling.

“But I-”

“No.” He said raising an eyebrow. “It's not your fault.” He chuckled softly.

“Fine.” I pouted. He smiled, a real smile, and gently raked his fingers through my hair.

“Come on. Your parents are probably flip-in out right now.” He said, looking worried as we made our way toward the Bart.

“Yeah. Their probably gonna tell me I can't see you for a while.”

“I wonder why they hate me so much.” He sighed.

“They don't hate you. They just get mad at you and pretend to dislike you.”

“Yeah, I'm sure that's all it is.” He said sarcastically.

“Okay maybe they don't pretend to dislike you.”

“Ha! I'm pretty sure dislike would be taking it down a couple notches. Don't ya think?”

“I guess.” I shrugged, snickering. Our conversation ended when we sat on the old wooden bench covered in graphite. About six minutes later the intercom blasted our city and the time our Bart train would arrive at the station.

=BART TRAIN ARRIVING=

“That's us!” I shouted jumping up from my seat.

“Yeah, come on.” He laughed. The train doors slid open, and I could easily smell the faint scent of smoke from a burning cigarette. As I stepped inside it became easier to detect where the smell was coming from. My nose scrunched up. I turned to my right to see a man in his twenty's smoking away, killing himself slowly, but now it wasn't only his lungs he was killing. He was killing our lungs as well. Then he saw us, and scowled, putting out the stick of death.

“Thank you.” I said as we walked past him.

“You're welcome kid.” He gave us a fake smile.

-Ten minutes later-

The train stopped.

“That's us again.” I jumped from my seat and ran out the Bart doors as he followed behind me, laughing. Once we were out of the Bart Station we walked calmly till we reached our street. We were pretty close to my house. Well, the driveway to be exact when a sudden light shot into the sky. We both turned excitedly to the sudden noise as the light shaped itself into the form of a Koi fish, I smiled. He grabbed my hand carefully and grinned widely.

"I Love You Nylasis Ann Veils. Happy Fourth of July"

"I Love You too Maxie your my bestest friend ever."

"Yeah, forever and ever."

“Nylasis Ann Veils, where have you been!” I gasped, startled by my moms sudden yell and the door opening furiously.

“Momma. I-”

“How many times have I told you, Max? How many times have I told you not to sneak off like that.” Max's mother yelled at him. “This is the last time. I'm sick of telling you this Max.”

“But momma. It wasn't his fault.” I said to my mom.

“Nylasis Ann Veils you are in serious trouble Missy, so I suggest you shut your mouth this very instant.” My mom scolded

“Now we have told the both of a countless number of times not to sneak off. It's like you two don't even understand a word we're saying.”

“Me and Max's mother have come to an agreement.”

“We are moving away.” Max's mom said.

“What!” Max and I shouted.

“You can't do this!” I cried.

“Come on mom! I'm sorry, okay? Please don't do this.” His mom grabbed him, pulling him toward their car. “No! Nyl!” He screamed.

“Tom!” His mother yelled to his father. His dad and mine came from the house wide eyed. Dumbfounded Max's dad listened to his wife. “Please take him to the car.”

“Max!!” I screamed running toward him till my dad trapped me in his arms. “You can't do this!! This isn't fair!!”

“NYL!!” Max yelled again before he was stuffed into his parents car. Our moms quickly said their goodbyes. Max's mom rushed to their car and got into the back seat to keep Max from getting out.

“MAXIE!!” I kicked and screamed. “Let go of me!!” I screamed at my dad. His father started the car and they drove down the street. “Let go!!” I scratched at my dads arms, crying. “Please!”

“Dustin, you can let her go now.” Letting his arms fall I ran right out of them like a bullet. Racing down the street as fast as I could, but the car was out of sight.

“Max.” I whimpered. “Maxie?” Breathing heavily I came to a stop at the corner of the street. “No. No. No. No.” I repeated pulling at my hair in agony. Running back toward my house my parents still hadn't moved a muscle.

“Nylasis, listen to me.”

“No!” I screamed. “ I HATE YOU!! How could you do that! How could you let them take him away from me like that! How could you!”

“Nyl.” My father said trying to hug me.

“No. Get away from me. I hate you both! Don't ever talk to me again!”

I guess our parents had been planning everything for a while. That same night they took him away my mom ended up telling me everything. They moved everything little by little so Max didn't suspect anything. They fooled us.

Things weren't very great for a while. I had eventually began to talk to my parents but I had lost my reason to keep going for weeks and weeks. I wouldn't eat, sleep, or talk. I would stay locked in my room all day crying and crying. I would even sit by my window waiting for him to knock on it.... until I realized that he wasn't coming back. He was gone.
Forever and Ever.