I tried not to cry, I couldn’t afford to because I knew I would never stop if I started. But she was weeping, gasping as wet droplets fell from her kind, beautiful face.

How could this be the last time I saw her? How could I leave her here like this? We had been through so much together already and it had only been three years I had known her.

We stepped towards and grasped each other in sync, as if we could never let go. I blinked my eyelids rapidly, holding back the hot tears. My mind wizzed through countless fond memories of my dearest friend and thinking of how much my heart burned to leave her.

Then, a small voice in the back of my head gave me words of comfort, “This is not death, you can visit, text, call, and meet up with her over the summer. You may feel that this is the end of your friendship, but I doesn’t need to be!”

A golf ball-sized lump formed in my throat. There was still hope! I wouldn’t give up on her and I knew she wouldn’t give up on me. I held her tighter.

I would never, could never let her go in my heart.

That’s when I cried.