Turn of the Millennium
It was New Year's Eve in 1999; only an hour away from midnight. Most people were either really excited about this event, it was both the turn of the century and of the millennium, or scared that it was the end of the world. But Joey Wheeler was neither.
He sat, kneeled down on his knees, at a grave site. "I'm so sorry. It was all my fault. If I could go back in time I'd change everything. I'm so stupid, what was I thinking?" He started to cry, running a hand over the characters engraved on the gravestone. Yugi Moto, 1980-1999, The World's Greatest Gamer.
It had all been Joey's idea. He had finally earned enough money to buy himself a car; a used, kind of beat up car, but still a car. He had called Yugi up and asked if he wanted to go on a joy ride with him. He had agreed and it started out great; until he didn't see the red light. It was horrible; they had crashed right into an oncoming car. The other driver was just fine, and Joey came out with only minor cuts and bruises; but Yugi…
The passenger side of the car was slammed into by the other car, killing the small boy almost instantly. Before he died Joey had managed to get to him, hold him to his chest, apologizing profusely, pleading with his friend not to die. His last words had been, "Yami, don't…" Joey would never know what else he was going to say. And so his friend died, clutching at where the Millennium Puzzle had always used to be. But of course it wasn't there anymore. It was far under the ground in Egypt now and the Pharaoh was dead, or more like he had been dead for thousands of years, but had finally gone to the afterlife several years back.
The car accident had been three months ago. Joey was still depressed and beating himself up about it; literally. His friends had found quite a few wounds on him that he had inflicted himself. They knew that they were caused that way because he no longer lived with his abusive father. He had moved out as soon as he turned 18 and was living in an apartment by himself. Bakura had put in a good word for him and he lived in the same apartment building as he did.
"Joey, it's almost midnight, don't you want to come to the party with us?" Téa asked. Joey jumped, he hadn't heard her arrive. It was very dark out, the only light coming from some street light alongside the nearby road.
He was silent for a while before answering. "How can you….how can you even think of partying when our friend is dead?"
"Joey…"
Joey had been like this since the accident. All his friends had been very upset as well, and all of them had cried and felt empty without their cheerful little gamer friend. But they knew that Yugi wouldn't want them to stay that way, he'd want them to be happy, to remember all the good times they had together as friends, not to be stuck in the past, blaming yourself for what had happened.
That's what Joey was doing, he couldn't let it go. The cold claw of guilt and regret had a firm hold on his heart. He blamed himself for what had happened, had distorted the event enough that he now thought that he had killed Yugi himself, and for that he couldn't forgive himself.
"Why am I so stupid? Why? SOMEBODY TELL ME." He stared up at the dark and starry sky, looking for someone to answer, anyone.
"Joey," Téa placed a hand on his shoulder. He was shaking now, hugging himself while tears ran freely down his face. She wanted to comfort him, but didn't know how. "Joey, you're not stupid. It just happened, it was no one's fault, it just happened." She found herself crying now. She had been friends with Yugi for as long as she could remember, she had even had a crush on him at one time. But now he was gone, forever. She couldn't help it and started to cry as well, crouching down on the cold ground and wrapping her blonde friend up in a hug.
"What exactly is going on here?" Tristan asked. He and Bakura had just arrived, trying to get their friends together for their New Year's party. They didn't really think a cemetery would be the best spot to have a party, but here they all were. The party, of course, was planned to take place elsewhere, but they knew that Joey would be here so they had come to hopefully get him to leave. He spent far too much time at the grave site, lamenting over what had happened.
Bakura stepped closer to the two and saw that both of them were crying. Then he saw which grave they were in front of. He stared down at it, remembering their small tri-colored haired friend. He had been as shocked as the rest of them had been after the accident, but he had taken some time to break down and cry about it. He had held it all inside. Now upon seeing his friends there, sobbing their hearts out, he couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Geeze, you guys." Tristan watching his three friends as they all huddled on the cold, snow covered ground, hugging each other and crying. But it finally got to even him, and a single tear started to trickle down his face. Soon he was joining the group and adding to their mourning sobs.
Téa was the first one to stand up. "Well, sitting here crying won't get us anywhere. Let's go to that party."
Her friends were less than enthused. A dark cloud of sadness had settled over the group and it was hard to cheer up after the fact. "I'm not going." Joey stated simply.
"Come on, Joey, you can't spend New Year's Eve moping by a grave." Tristan prodded him with a finger.
The action sent the upset blonde over the edge. "AND WHY CAN'T I? You guys seem fine with it, that our friend is dead, but I'm not! I…." He was about to start crying again, but instead he took out his frustration by punching Tristan in the arm.
"Ouch! That hurt!" Tristan clutched at the arm, it almost felt like it was broken, or at least pretty badly bruised. He retaliated.
"Guys! Guys, stop!" Téa tried to stop them, but was thrown to the side to land on her behind.
Bakura and Téa watched in silent horror as their two friends got into a knock down drag out fight. It seemed pretty evenly matched, Joey was the more experienced of the two at fighting, but in his depressed state he wasn't fighting at the top of his game. And plus Tristan was a little taller than Joey, and he put this to his advantage. Without too much trouble he had Joey pinned to the ground, holding him down with one hand with the other poised to strike him. He arm still throbbed but he tried to ignore it.
"STOP IT!" Bakura yelled at the top of his lungs, loud enough to wake the dead; which, since they were in a graveyard, wouldn't be the best idea. Everyone fell silent. The shy boy so rarely raised his voice so everyone listened to him. "This, this isn't what Yugi would have wanted. He'd want us all to get along; not to blame ourselves for something that none of us can control." He looked pointedly at Joey, who Tristan had now let go. "He'd want us to have fun, not fight. Yes, our friend is dead, but death will come to all of us eventually. It just came sooner for him. We should live now, not hang onto the past, onto things we can't do anything about. It's what he would have wanted." The white-haired boy bowed his head solemnly.
The term silent as the grave took on a whole new meaning as everyone in the cemetery was quiet, lost in his or her own thoughts. Everything that Bakura had said was true. They needed to move on, to live.
Finally Joey spoke. "You're right. I've been blaming myself all this time, but it hasn't done me any good. It won't bring our friend back; it'll just hold us down. Yeah, it's gonna be tough, but I need to move on." He looked down, shuffling his feet in the thin layer of snow on the ground.
Bakura patted him on the shoulder, nodding.
"Alright then, let's get to that party; we still have twenty minutes until it'll be 2000!" Téa said, trying to cheer everyone up.
"Yeah, let's," Tristan agreed, still holding his arm but not mentioning it. He's pay Joey back for it later but now wasn't the time.
"Yeah, let's have that party; a party to celebrate Yugi's life," Joey said, following them.
"Actually it's a New Year's party," Bakura corrected him.
"Shut up, we can do that too." Joey lightly whacked him on the head. But he was smiling now, his good humor restored.
"Ouch, stop hitting people, Joey!" Bakura said, rubbing his head where Joey had hit him.
THE END