Everlong

Hello

I've waited here for you

Everlong

Tonight

I've thrown myself in two

Out of the red, out of her head she sang

He was there, waiting, but he couldn't wait. In just a few minutes, they would be there, and this time it was going to be the best ever. It was going to be perfect. They would be together, for the last year that it didn't count, the last year before they would REALLY have to study for their graduations, and it would be the best. He couldn't wait. He had gotten so anxious that he had walked all the way to the train station, starting at eight that morning, with his bags and everything, and he had arrived at about half past noon after stopping to get new school supplies and lunch. He was there, he was waiting, but he really couldn't wait. Where were they?

Come down

And waste away with me

Down with me

Slow how

You wanted it to be

I'm over my head

Out of my head she sang

There! There she was! She was smiling, in her classic yet distinctive way, her gaze fixed yet timid on him, looking exactly the way she had when he left her. The same hair, face, eyes, lips. Only this time, he didn't see just the brown hair and eyes, the fair skin, the red-pink lips. For the first time ever, he put them together and saw beauty in his old friend, something that he shouldn't have seen, he knew all too well. It couldn't happen, certainly not now. It was supposed to be the best year ever, this would most certainly mess up every single plan that he had made, every single thing that he had promised himself he would do, every single opportunity that he had sworn he would never pass up. He knew of the swift, unforeseeable coming of sudden death, and he wanted to live it up, day to day, because he knew that he would never be able to avoid the danger that so quickly approached. He was going to take it slow, easy, and fun.

And I wonder

When I sing along with you

If everything could ever feel this real forever

If anything could ever be this good again

The only thing I'll ever ask of you

You gotta promise not to stop when I say when

She sang

He rushed up to say hello. She kissed his cheek and for the first time ever he wished that it didn't have to be so casual, so friendly. This suddenly wasn't enough. The thought terrorized him temporarily, for the first time, and certainly not the last. She was perfect, why hadn't he seen it before, why hadn't she forced him to see it? He searched his clumsy memory and realized almost immediately. she had tried. He just hadn't seen it. Was it too late? They began talking, almost at once.

Breathe out

So I can breathe you in

Hold you in

And now

I know you've always been

Something in her voice was gone, it was wrong. It wasn't the way that it was before, no tone, no sweet, singing melody in every word, even as she cursed. She wasn't the way that she was before. She sounded excited for what was coming; yet somehow defeated as she talked to him, as if she pitied him while at the same time resenting his existence. She was more relaxed, she slumped instead of standing up as straight as the walls he soon would run into, she had an indifferent look on her face, yet still a happy one. He had no idea of what was different about her, other than this. He knew the symptoms, yet could not place the illness. He had no idea what it was, but something was different about his friend.

Out of your head

Out of my head I sang

Then he came, finally! The three best friends were, once again, all together. They hugged, talked, laughed, and tried unsuccessfully to pretend they weren't crying. And so it began. They were back to where they were supposed to be, friends till the end, they knew that it wouldn't ever be perfect, but it would always be perfectly real, raw, unmasked, unchanged- it would always be love.

And I wonder

When I sing along with you

If everything could ever feel this real forever

If anything could ever be this good again

The only thing I'll ever ask of you

You gotta promise not to stop when I say when

She sang

They looked toward the trains passing them by, happy but sad smiles still on their rosy faces, the three who would always be together, the three who would be everything the world wanted them to be, the three who knew, but could never know, how much they meant to each other, what the new year had in store for them, what they would soon embark on, where their journey would lead them- it would be a happy and beautiful one, yet one from which they could never return.

Arm in arm, the three best friends walked into the next world.