by Unknown
Thinking about all of this caused her to cry even harder. Instead of quiet sobs, it slowly progressed into loud wails. It was almost like she couldn’t control herself and she started hyperventilating. Devin could hear her from the other room and thought he should go check on her. He walked back to her room and knocked on the door.
“Leave me alone!” she screamed. “Just go home!”
He didn’t say anything back, instead he just walked away from the door slowly. He knew she wanted him to leave, but he didn’t want to leave her alone while she was like this. He decided to just leave because he didn’t want to go against her wishes. He grabbed his keys and walked out the door. Before he even reached his car, he felt tears streaming down his face. What did he do wrong? He wondered if she was even going to call him later. He didn’t want to lose her.
He got into the car and pulled out of the driveway. He started to drive home, but then he started to feel hungry and pulled into a McDonald’s. He ordered a large fry and a cheeseburger and ate it before driving the rest of the way home.
When he got home, he walked straight into his bedroom and crawled right into bed. He had just woken up a little while ago, but he already felt himself drifting off to sleep. He wanted to stay awake incase Kim called, but something told him that that wasn’t going to happen. He pulled the blankets up over his face and let out a loud scream of anger. He thought it would help him feel better but it didn’t. In fact, it actually made him feel worse. There was absolutely nothing that could make him feel better, except maybe a call from Kim, but he didn’t get his hopes up. Kim was all he could think about. She was probably still crying at home and there was nothing he could do about it. He thought about calling her but he knew she wouldn’t answer. She acted like she really didn’t want to talk to him but he didn’t remember doing anything to upset her. What could he have possibly done? She only started acting like that after he made the coffee too strong, but was that a real reason to just kick someone out of your life? He didn’t think so. He laid still while his mind wandered from thought to thought. After about 20 minutes of dreadful thoughts, he finally drifted off to sleep.
Back at Kim’s house, it had been almost an hour and she was still crying harder than ever before. Her life was a mess and she had just let go of the only thing that was holding her together. She felt like a total idiot and she couldn’t do anything about it because she already pushed him away. She thought about calling him but she knew that he was probably mad at her for the way she treated him earlier. She felt like such an asshole. She didn’t know what she could possibly do to make it better so she just decided to try to go back to sleep. She didn’t want to be awake. She hardly even wanted to be alive. She flipped over and tried to get comfortable but before she could relax, her phone vibrated.
DEVIN: DID I DO SOMETHING WRONG?
DEVIN: PLEASE ANSWER ME, KIM. I’M WORRIED.
She didn’t answer because she didn’t know what to say, so she just turned her phone off and pulled the blankets over her face. Her mind raced with thoughts about what she would do. Marcus’s funeral was tomorrow. Could she ignore him until then? She knew he was going to be there and probably make a speech about Marcus. She also knew that he would try to talk to her there and the thought of that made her heart race with anxiety.
She thought about her options, even though she didn’t have very many. She wanted to leave town and leave everything behind so badly, but that would mean she was weak and she didn’t want to be weak. Maybe she was weak though. She felt as though she was lost in a dark room and Marcus was her only flashlight. Sadly, the batteries were dying very quickly. She thought about Marcus and what he was doing.
Over at Marcus’s house, he was just starting to wake up. He groaned and rolled over to look at the clock. The clock read 5:52 PM. Did he really sleep that long? He got up and walked very slowly to the bathroom. This week had been the worst week of his life and he wished it would’ve never happened. He wanted his best friend back, he wanted Kim back, and most of all, he wanted his happy normal life back but he knew that there was almost no chance of that. The only thing that could possibly make him happy was Kim, but she wanted nothing to do with him right now. The funeral service was tomorrow morning and he just wanted to get it over with. He decided to text Kim again.
DEVIN: Kim, please just answer me.
DEVIN: I’m worried sick about you…
The next message he sent even caught him by surprise.
DEVIN: I love you, Kim.
Kim laid in her bed wishing everything would just end until she heard her phone vibrate. She knew it was Devin, so she tried to just ignore it but it vibrated two more times. She picked it up and looked at the screen and what she saw almost made her jaw drop. Devin had told her that he loved her and she definitely wasn’t expecting that. She didn’t know whether to believe him or not, but even if she did believe him, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore. Her own life didn’t even matter, she just wanted it to end. Her life wasn’t worth living if she didn’t have anyone.
They both spent the rest of their night drowning in their own distress, thinking about each other, and occasionally sleeping.
The next morning, Devin’s alarm went off at 9:30 AM. The funeral started at 11:00, so that gave him enough time to eat and get ready. He had been dreading this day since Saturday and now the day had finally come. He wanted to just roll back over and fall back asleep but he could never do that to Marcus.
He got up and stretched, cracking his back from top to bottom. He walked to the bathroom, dragging his feet with every step. He looked at himself in the mirror. His eyes were blood red, his hair looked like a mop sitting on top of his head, and he was just a complete mess. He knew the reason too-because he was a mess without Kim.
He stripped himself out of all of his clothes and stepped into the shower. When he turned the water on, he turned the handle for the hot water first, so scalding hot water came crashing down on him.
“Damn it!” he screamed.
He turned the cold water on as fast as he could and let out a sigh of relief and then a groan of anger. After he was done letting out weird sounds of emotion, he started washing his hair until he heard his phone ping, which meant he got a text. Thinking it might be Kim, he attempted to step out of the shower and not far after, shampoo ran into his eyes, causing him to slip and fall. At that moment, Devin couldn’t care less about getting back up. He just laid there thinking about how much he truly hated his life.
When he decided to get up, he got back into the shower, rinsed his hair, and washed his body. After, he stepped out and wrapped himself in a towel and brushed his teeth. When his teeth were clean, he walked out of the bathroom, still wrapped in his towel. When he got to the kitchen, he pulled a toaster strudel out of the freezer and stuck it in the toaster before walking to his room to get dressed.
Devin was so used to going to funerals that he knew what he was going to wear from the top of his head. He pulled a black dress shirt and black dress pants out of his closet and put them on, adding a belt to make sure that his pants weren’t too loose. He walked back to the kitchen and pulled his toaster strudel out of the toaster, burning his fingers. Nothing was going good for him that day.
After he finished eating, he checked the clock. It was 10:45, which gave him just enough time to drive to the funeral home. He wanted to get there as soon as possible so maybe he could say a few words to Kim. He knew that she would be there early so he grabbed his keys and headed out to his car.
When he got to the funeral home, he walked quickly through the door. When he walked into the room, he almost instantly felt the presence of sadness. He glanced around the room, looking at all of his military friends. They all were very close with Marcus, but none of them were as close as Marcus and Devin were. He looked around the room and recognized almost everyone, but the one person he did not see was Kim. He looked in every single corner over and over, but she was nowhere to be found. He decided on sending her a text.
>
DEVIN: Where are you?
When he looked up from his phone, he saw a girl with brown curly hair and quickly walked over to her.
“Kim, I need to talk to you.” he said, tapping her on the shoulder.
When she turned around, he realized that it was not Kim. He slumped his shoulders and walked over to the casket. When he looked down at his best friend, it brought back so many memories that Devin burst straight into tears. He thought about all of the things they had done together, he thought about all of the fun they used to have, and most of all, he thought about why Kim would just skip her brother’s funeral. Still crying, he walked to a seat in the front row and sat down.
He listened to a few different people say a few things about Marcus until they called him up to say something. He cleared his throat and walked up to the front of the room.
“I didn’t really plan to speak today, but I do have a few things I want to say about him.” he coughed, holding back tears. “Marcus was the most courageous person I’ve ever met. All he ever wanted to do was protect people. He protected me quite a few times and I know that he’s been there to watch over almost all of you.”
“Marcus lived a hard life, growing up without his parents. He never really had anyone to look up to as a kid. But one thing that Marcus did have was a kind heart. He loved everyone, no matter what mistakes they’ve made in the past, and that’s why I’m proud to call him my best friend.” tears started forming in his eyes.
“When I look around the room, I see a lot of people crying. There is nothing wrong with crying, but I don’t think that’s what Marcus would’ve wanted. He would want us to be happy that we’ve had the chance to know him and he would want to be remembered as a hero. If anyone deserves the title of a hero, it would be Marcus. Marcus was a true hero, but instead of a cape, he wore a uniform.” he flashed a quick smile and walked back to his seat.
He sat there while a priest read through a few scriptures, cried a few times, and occasionally looked around the room for Kim. Every single time he checked, she was still nowhere to be found. His heart continued to beat, faster and faster. He didn’t understand why she would skip her own brother’s funeral. This was completely insane.
After the service was over, he got up and walked over to the casket. Looking down at his best friend, tears started cascading down his cheeks. He was about to have to say goodbye to his best friend for the last time, and he wasn’t ready to do that yet. But then again, would he ever be ready? He didn’t think so.
He touched the cold, lifeless hand of his best friend, unstoppable tears rolling down his cheeks.
“I can’t bring myself to say goodbye to you, so I guess I’ll see you later.” he let go of the hand and rushed out of the funeral home to his car. He wanted to go straight home and bury himself in his bed, but he had somewhere he needed to go first.
He drove for 20 minutes, occasionally chewing on his fingers. When he arrived at his destination, he got out of his car and walked straight through the door. What he saw when he got inside absolutely tore him to pieces. Kim was sitting on the floor in a black dress, bawling her eyes out. He didn’t know what to do, so he sat down next to her and pulled her close to him.
“Why weren’t you there?” he asked quietly.
“Because everywhere I go, all I feel is depression.” she replied.
“Kim, let me help you.” he practically begged.
“Devin,” she stood up. “Don’t you get it? You’re just like Marcus! How can I get past the death of my brother when you’re a walking breathing version of him?”
Devin stood up too.
“As much as you may think I’m like your brother, I have been spending the last couple of days staring at a female version of him! You look just like him, but that didn’t stop me from falling in love with you!” He raised his voice.
“I am in love with you, Kim, and if you think I am just going to leave you alone like that, just because I do stuff the same way as your brother, you’re absolutely cra-” he felt a pair of lips crash against his, causing him to widen his eyes.
“Shut up, Devin. Just shut up.” she kissed him again, wrapping her arms around him.
After kissing each other, Kim finally pulled away and looked into Devin’s wet eyes.
“For the record, I’m in love with you, too…”
