[I'll just insert general warning here: this is going to be sadstuck. Anyway, this is my first fanfiction ever. Please, feel free to send criticism. This is based off of a song I love called "Heat Haze Days / Kagerou Days" about a boy and a girl stuck in an endlessly repeating day with a sickening twist to it.]

The sun was already high in the sky, beating down on the city on a lazy August day. Summer vacation was nearing its end, but summer itself had no intentions of easing up quite yet. Today was rather nice, though, and it was only a bit past noon. A breeze blew through, providing a rare relief to the usually pressing heat.

I was at the park with my really good friend John Egbert. He was visiting me during the vacation, as he usually lives far away in fucktown, Washington. No, not Washington D.C, even worse, it's the Washington nobody gives a fuck about. Of course, you have just the luck to make best friends with people who live across the country from you, with the exception of Jade, who lives somewhere in the middle of the goddamn ocean and you're not even sure how she gets internet. Anyway, back to the park.

That troublesome sun made it hard to see the screen of my iPhone, which I had pulled out to check the time, even though I knew very well it was only a minute or two past when I last checked the time. With a sigh, I glanced to the swing next to me. John sat there, a stray cat residing in his lap. Its eyes were shut contentedly. John stroked the cat's soft fur, his own eyes shut like the stray's. It was silent between the two of us, as John was more focused on the cat's purrs, and I on the cries of cicadas in the trees.

"Y'know, I kind of hate summer."

I realized after a moment of staring off that his innocent blue eyes were boring into my shades. Our expressions remained like that for a moment, his honest, mine bewildered by his sudden truth, until his head tilted with a burst of smile that caught me off guard. His goofy and charming look was something I could feel tightly in my chest. I thanked my shades for shielding any waver in my neutral expression.

"Come on, man. You can't just hate summer," I remarked, propelling myself on the swing a bit.

"I just said I did." His face matched the stubborn tone he set out.

"Congratulations."

"I just don't get how you deal with this all the time. Isn't Texas an eternal summer or something?"

"Woah there, Mr. Washington. Just because you've only experienced the Texas summer doesn't mean you can go assuming things. I'll have you know five years ago, in February, there was a millimeter of snow on the ground before it melted a few hours later."

John snorted out a laugh. "Oh, wow, how did you ever deal with that?"

"It was pretty scary. We didn't know if we would make it," I returned with, surprise, more sarcasm.

I allowed myself a small laugh, and John laughed, too. "But really, it's too hot," he remarked, tugging at the collar of his lame Ghostbusters shirt. I could see the beginnings of a sunburn masking his nose and cheeks.

He gathered the cat in his arms and got up from the swing. "Let's go get a drink." His eyes were set on the store across the street from the park. I pushed up from the swing, and we left them behind us, swaying in the breeze.

John waited for me to catch up and opened his mouth to say something, but the cat squirmed in his arms and stole his attention away from me. It fussed about until the black blur of fur sprung from his arms and scampered away.

"H-hey! Wait up!" John called, and then he bolted after the cat.

I couldn't help but chuckle as I jogged after them both. The cat sprinted all the way out towards the edge of the park. Cars swam through the hazy river of the road busily as John chased the cat playfully. I could almost see him as a cat himself, his messy black hair and the cat's, one after the other. The cat pranced into the street, its tail whipping to each side teasingly. John's eyes were locked on the cat, hands a mere few inches from catching it, as he ran straight out into that street just as a bright red light poured down.

My eyes widened. Time slowed. John's fingers mere moments from the cat. The blur of a semi only seemed to inch forward. His head slowly turning, hair blown out of his bright blue eyes. His smile appeared to drop from his face ever so slowly.

The cat sat on the curb across the street now, its yellow eyes meeting my red ones.

A scream erupted from John's throat, only to be swallowed by the semi hurdling past.

"John!"

The scene was bathed in that red light still. No. This wasn't red light, it was John's blood. No longer did heat waves veil the road, it was his blood now. Only then did I realize I was sprinting towards him, hand reaching out until my knees gave out beside the body of my best friend. His torso was light in my arms, and his black hair stuck to his face. Red seemed to be the only color I could see. I was already sobbing, tears dripping off of my face and onto his tattered self. Not so much as a breath escaped his lips.

I was sure time had stopped just as my heart did in that moment. I begged for him to open those eyes, those blue, blue eyes and offer a relief to the color red, but I was not solaced. There was no more breeze, no more relief from the heat that seemed to sneer at me.

[TBC]