I stood there for almost a whole minute -60 seconds- before a single tear fell from my left eye. It rolled slowly down my cheek and onto my lip. I licked my lip. My tear tasted like the ocean –salty and calm…yet sometimes roaring with anger.
I sat down slowly on the black leather couch. I felt something hard beneath my cushion. I stood up quickly, as if I had just sat down on a crate of dynamite. I had a feeling I knew exactly what was under that cushion.
I remembered the day before. That penny had meant so much to her…
"Oh, look, a penny!" she exclaimed with glee equivalent to that of a toddler on Christmas morning.
"It's just a penny, no big deal," I replied nonchalantly as I attempted to twirl my hair around my finger. But when I didn't feel any hair, I remembered why. I didn't cry though. At that time I thought I was immune to tears. I thought my eyes had dried all up.
"But it is a big deal! The penny is new and shiny, and it's facing heads up!" she squealed, her eyes as wide as an extra large pizza from Pizza Pie.
Pizza Pie was our favorite hangout…we had met for the very first time there.
"I'll have one large pizza," she said to the man behind the counter. She dropped her money on the cold tile floor.
I was in line behind her, and I bent down to help her pick up the paper money and the change.
"Thanks," she said with a smile as I handed her the $5 bill and the 2 quarters I had picked up from the floor.
"Oh, you're welcome," I replied in a friendly tone of voice. "You're not going to eat that whole pizza by yourself, are you?" I asked. "I mean, you're so skinny…"
"No, I'm not going to eat it all. You can have some if you want," she offered kindly.
"No, no, that's not what I meant," I said. I was practically stuttering I was so nervous. I was always nervous around new people and strangers.
"I know," she said, laughing. Then we exchanged names and phone numbers.
"We can make a wish on this penny. We can wish for a miracle. I think you know what I'm talking about," she said, holding the penny up to the light. It was very shiny.
"Yes, I know what you're talking about," I replied, rolling my eyes. "But it's no use."
"Of course it is! Don't talk like that! There's still a chance that a miracle will happen!" she said, punching my shoulder.
"Well then you can wish on the penny, but I'm not going to," I insisted defiantly.
"Okay, I will wish on it," she replied. She put the penny in her pocket, to save the wish for later.
A few minutes after I had discovered what was under the couch cushion, my father came downstairs. "Why are you crying?" he asked, concerned.
"I don't want to talk about it…" I answered. I continued crying as I ran up the stairs to my room.
The next day I knelt down on the kneeler and said a prayer. After I wept for awhile, a man I had seen way too much in the past year came over. He told me he had wonderful news. I told him I didn't want to hear it.
Then a woman walked over to the wooden box that was now home to my best friend. When I realized who the woman was, I had the urge to slap her.
"You should not be here, Susan! Go back to your ex-husband!" Susan's husband yelled at her. He was completely outrages. And why wouldn't he be? It was entirely Susan's fault that his father was in a casket.
"I don't have feelings for Oscar anymore! Not after what he did to your daughter!" Susan protested as the security guard dragged her out of the funeral home.
Her husband's last words to her as her husband were "She was supposed to be your daughter too!"
Susan and Robby Ray were divorced soon after. Susan was sent to jail along with her two-time husband Oscar.
I dropped by Robby Ray's house once cold, gray day in January. "I thought you might want this," I muttered solemnly as I handed him the note.
"Where did you get this?" Robby Ray asked, tears streaming down his face.
"I found it under my couch cushion. Miley put it there the day before she died," I replied, my own eyes brimming with tears.
"Well it means a lot that you would give this to me Lilly…but I think you should have it," Robby Ray said kindly, handing the note back to me.
"Thank you," I said, hugging my best friend's father. Miley would always be my best friend as long as I lived (which I didn't think would be much longer) and even after that. We would be best friends in heaven.
I read the note for the umpteenth time as I walked back home.
Dear Lilly,
I cannot believe I am telling you this, but I am going to die tomorrow. You see, my stepmother Susan made the mistake of telling her ex-husband Oscar that she is remarried now.
Oscar is a very jealous type of man, and he wants to kill my father. I will not let him do that though. I will tell Oscar to kill me instead.
I know that Oscar will kill me tomorrow because tomorrow he gets released from prison. I'm not sure what he was in for.
So Lilly, I just wanted to let you know that I will be murdered tomorrow. I will miss you. I love you. You are the best friend I could ever have. Love, your BFF, Miley
P.S. I think you already know this, but the wish I made on that penny was that you would survive your cancer.
I cried so hard as I read the letter. It was very sweet of Miley to allow herself to be murdered just so that her father wouldn't be.
It was also very sweet for Miley to wish that I would survive my cancer, although I thought that was very unlikely to happen.
Miley was honestly the best person I could ever hope to know.
The next day the man I had seen at the funeral, the one who had wanted to give me good news, showed up at my house. That man was my cancer doctor.
"Lilly, I'm very, very sorry for your loss, but don't you want to hear the good news?" he asked cheerfully.
"I suppose," I answered hesitantly. How good could the news possibly be?
"Well…you're going to live! The cancer is gone! Even though you lost all your hair, that chemotherapy really paid off!" the doctor exclaimed enthusiastically.
I know I should have been really excited that I was going to live, and I kind of was. But I started crying.
I was crying because I knew the only reason I was going to live was because Miley had wished on that penny.