**I would like to say prior to my text, I ****_am _****new to writing things, so expect mistakes and flaws. Thank you in advance.**__

__

__

__

_Then:_

I walked into class that one day. I didn’t know what to expect. The wood floors and concrete ceiling, all the same, nothing new there. But somebody I didn’t recognize, I wasn’t prepared for that.

He sat there. I knew him from somewhere. Last year. He moved here last year.

I had a vague idea of what his name was. Gabe.

My friend introduced me to him last year.

I didn’t talk to him that whole day.

The next day, he was there again. I wanted to talk to him, but what was I to say? Hello? How are you?

I couldn’t make a fool of myself. Not in front of him. We would be great friends I knew it.

The rest of the story is a blur. Hazy fragments of my memory. Platypuses and Wings of Fire.

Somehow that made us friends.

He started sitting at the table I already shared with my current friends. We hit it off right away. We shared inside jokes, making a new one everyday. We sat nearly shoulder-to-shoulder everyday. We were inseparable.

_Now:_

Two years later, I now know that we _are_ inseperable.

I listen to Gabe, my vision blurry.

“I’m leaving in January,” He says to me. On the first day of damn school.

I nod, unable to show emotion. Not in the middle of the school. Not in front of everybody else. The next days of school go past so fast, I want to slow down time, to relish his company. We talk, we laugh. We stick together until the day.

We all go to this restaurant. Me, Gabe, and three other friends.

And then I have to leave for some dumb concert.

I should hug him goodbye. I want to. My arms ache with the urge.

He left so sudden. I remember the day.

January eleventh, 2024.

Gabe is gone. And now I’m lost. I’m hating myself for not hugging him goodbye.