“Do you have a girlfriend?” the most commonly asked question during reunions. Asked by family members, friends and just recently an annoying girl. And it wasn’t even a reunion.

Damn it, fuck. I said to myself.

“So do you have a girlfriend?” Anne asked me again.

I didn’t really know what to say so I told the truth.

“No. I don’t have one. ” I told her.

I could see a smile on her face when I said that. We continued on finishing our breakfast. The mood kind of seemed nice for a change.

I then looked at my watch. It was already around 5:30, I thought to myself how she was not like me and she would get in trouble if she was late.

So I asked her. “Hey, you're going to prepare for school right?”

It seemed she dozed off; it looked like she was in deep thought, so me being a kind friend that I am, completely took advantage of the moment and tried to take a picture of her with my phone.

Just after I took a picture, the flash of my phone woke her up from her trance.

“It seems you’ve come back to planet earth, I thought I lost you there.” I said to her.

“Huh? What do you mean you lost me? I’ll always be right here, if you need me. ” she replied to me.

I wasn’t prepared with what she said. It was a completely strange response. I didn’t think she would say that kind of thing. I kinda blushed during that moment. She took notice of it, she smiled. But then she too realized what she said and looked away embarrassingly

“Hey, look at the time!” she says, to try and avert the awkwardness. “We can’t be late now can we?” she said.

“Yeah, we've got to prepare for school” I said back to her.

As we took our leave. We separated paths, her home wasn't too far away, so I was able to take her to her house first, then proceeded to go to mine.

The house was completely empty; it seemed that my brother and the others left already, so I prepared myself to go to school.

“Wow” I said to myself.

“I haven’t cut school this week. What the fuck is happening to me? Oh, well, it must be that I'm turning into a new leaf, whatever that is.” I thought to myself as I imagined myself turning into an actual green leaf… what? I'm really sleep deprived.

As I started my daily walk towards school, at the same time I was planning out how my day was going to unfold.

After classes I'm going to attend training Taekwondo training. Then after that, I either get to see the girl I like or get hounded by the bitch that broke my heart.

“Oh well, I’m too lazy to think about it so I'll just let fate decide.” I said to myself.

I was just going to go with the flow of things. Nothing really eventful happened as I walked towards school.

To my surprise I was fucking early.

Again nothing really eventful happened that morning, it was boring as fuck. So I skipped class and went to the roof of the school. I lit a cigarette. And proceed to smoke in peace.

Time passed by, the winds were blowing peacefully and it was relaxing as fuck. So naturally I fell asleep.

I was awakened by a silhouette of a girl. As I opened my eyes, I was surprise to see it was the girl I like.

I quickly stood up and with an embarrassed face I said.

“What? What are you doing here? ”

She giggled and told me. “Well, I always go here when I’m troubled by something.”

I calmed myself down and sat on the floor.

“So what’s troubling you?” I asked her.

“It really isn’t a big deal, you shouldn't pay any mind to It.” she replied.

“Come on, tell me, I might actually help, and besides you even said it yourself, you wouldn’t come here if you weren't troubled right?” I said to her.

She then looked at me and said “Have you ever had one of those days were you just felt like giving up?”

“Well, in my case, that would be everyday” I told her with a smile on my face.

She then giggled again, and it was cute as fuck.

I blushed a little bit, but as she stopped giggling, she frowned a little and asked.

“How do you cope with it?”

I then faced her and displayed a miniature smile then said.

“You just got to have the right motivations or reasons to make you smile even in your saddest moments; I found mine when I met you.” Nailed It! I thought to myself.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” she asked me. I could see that she was blushing a little bit.

“Oh, sorry I kinda got carried away with the mood.” I told her in an embarrassing look.

We proceeded to talk about things that were so random. We would talk about our futures and stuff. How were we going to spend our life, shit like that? We lost track of time. It felt like nothing else mattered just the two of us.

Then we heard the bell rang.

She quickly stood up and said to me

“Well thanks for the chat. Hey, still remember our deal still on? ”

“Hmm, what deal?” I asked.

“Hahahaha, you forgot? Our deal about the competition! If you win, you could walk me home. Remember now?” she told me.

Fucking hell, I totally forgot about that, Shit! I said to myself.

“Well, let’s make it a little more spicy.” she said to me.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You can’t talk to me until the competition is over, if you lose, then we would never talk again, understand?” she told me.

“Wait, why?” I asked with somewhat a confused face.

She then walked going towards the door leading to the staircase, as she arrived there, she then said to me.

“Cause then my father wouldn’t allow me to date you.” she said that as she quickly closed the door, leaving me to think about what she just said.

At that moment I was so happy. All I could hear was the words “Date you.” I didn’t ponder that much on the father part. I didn’t know it would hunt me later on, but anyway my mind was still occupied by the fact the she said “date” and “you” in the same sentence.

I could hear the wedding bells being rung, I could see our future wedding going on as she walks down the aisle, and then we would say our wedding vows to each other, then kiss, and it was fucking magical.

But the bells that were being rung right now were the school bell. I woke up to reality from my day dream, and quickly went to my classroom.

I arrived at the classroom as the lecture was going to start so technically I wasn’t late, I proceeded to sit and waited as time passed by.

It was finally the time to be dismissed; nothing really in particular happened in class today, the same shit as always. So I was a little bit excited to go to the club room for a change.

When I arrived, Jiro and Anne were already there. I was a little shock with how Anne greeted me.

It wasn’t like before, she went near and waved ‘Hi’ to me, nothing special, no childish actions or anything.

I was shocked; I wonder what could have happened to her. Oh well not my problem.

We then started our training it was rough as hell. Considering the amount of cigarettes I was smoking, it completely lowered my stamina. I felt weak as fuck. But I proceeded to continue on; I had this determination to not quit because of what the girl I like said.

“I’ll endure this pain, I shall do this, and I’ll never give up!” I told myself.

The thought of her ran through my mind the whole time we were training.

When training was about to end. I saw Anne in a sad state, so being her new friend and all. I went to her and asked what was troubling her.

“Hey, are you ok? What’s on your mind? ” I asked.

“Oh, nothing, I’m just stressed out with the upcoming competition.” she replied.

“Oh, if you feel stressed out then eat desserts, it always works, trust me.” I told her.

She was still kinda sad so I told her,

“How about after the competition, if you win, I’ll take you out and we could get some ice cream.”

She then showed a smile and laughed “Hahahahaa, you don’t really have to.”

“Nah, it’s totally ok with me.” I told her.

With that her energy and childishness started to show up again.

“Then I have to win the competition!” she shouted with determination.

When the training ended, I was the first to leave the room, remembering I still have the appointment with that stupid fucking whore ex of mine.

I ran towards the gate of the school as fast as I could, to see if she was there. To my amazement she indeed was there. She actually waited for me. I slightly pitied her.

My plan was originally to leave her there but I really felt sad for her. So I approached her.

“Hey.” I said to her.

She waved at me and said “Hey”.

We started our walk going home. I thought we were going home, but she wanted to go to a nearby café to talk.

As we walk going to the café, I could see she was shivering, I didn’t really felt it was cold, but maybe to her it was already enough. So I let her borrow my jacket that I always keep in my bag for emergencies.

“This feels like back then.” she said.

“Yeah...” I said in reply.

“Remember back then we used to hang, and we would always be together.” she said to me.

“Remember our first kiss? Hahahaha….. You were so clumsy back then; I remember you accidentally kissed my nose.” She giggled as she was telling me these.

Then a tear fell from her eyes and she said “I’m so sorry for what I did that night.”

“STOP IT!” I shouted.

I didn’t want to remember those moments; it only filled my heart with sadness.

We continued to walk towards the café that was in our sight already.

As we arrived outside the café. She then collapsed; I caught her body as it was falling to the ground.

I didn’t know what was wrong with her. I kind of panicked that moment.

“Hey what’s wrong?” I shouted at her.

“COME ON, DON’T DO THIS TO ME!”

As I held her hand, it was so hot. I assumed she had a fever so I touched her forehead, it was raging hot. She had a fever. My instincts were right.

I carried her in my back and ran as fast as I could to the nearest hospital but I couldn’t find one.

“Hang on, don’t do this to me, you hear?!” I shouted at her.

It then proceeded to rain. I ran faster and faster. But the rain grew much stronger. Winds blew harder and harder, the rain turned into a storm, I couldn’t see anywhere to shelter her from the storm.

So I quickly ran towards the nearest thing that could provide shelter, as I ran to the nearest place which was the nearby park where there was this small tent. I quickly ran towards it, to get some protection from the rain.

I covered her body with anything that could to help her heat up.

“HEY! Don’t sleep! It’s not going to help” I shouted at her.

“Fuck, what am I supposed to do here? I don’t fucking know?! SHIT!!” I thought to myself.

Then Alexis reached out her hand to touch my cheek and spoke.

“It’s been really cold lately. Not having to be with you these past few months, I’m really happy I got see you again. ”

She then proceeded to take something out of her pocket, it was a letter. It was all wet, with her weak hands, she handed it over to me. Then her hands feel, she was silent.

She was silent, so very silent, so quiet.........so very quiet.