A/N: This is based off "May Your Heart Stay Strong,'" by Cloud Cult.
Holding his dead body in her lap she couldn't help but imagine how differently their lives would have been if this stupid game never happened.
They would have still been friends chatting over the internet until high school happened. High school would have ruined everything. They would have all drifted apart, all four of them. Him slipping away would have hurt the most. She would have cried the first week his name stayed gray on that lonely island. But by the second she would have only frowned. The third she would have had plans to attend a real high school. She would have found a way, any way, to go to a real high school. She would have asked to be sent to Texas in a stupid, hopeful attempt to see him again. But they would have sent her to some school in New York. She would have had her own small apartment. She would have grown beautiful between her sophomore and junior year. She would have had boyfriends who didn't matter. Her life would have passed on without the thought of him until one day on her twenty-first birthday she would have been dragged to a nightclub.
She would have worn her grandma's prom dress and raccoon slippers on her feet. She wouldn't have noticed him at first as she was attempting so hard to keep the beat. She would have looked just as she did at 14 in that new high school trying so hard to fit in. He would have taken a shot of something strong to gain his "cool-kid attitude". He would have known it was her even though years had passed changing her look. He would have known Harley any time any place. He would wander over coyly starting a conversation. He would watch as she gasped recognizing his shades anywhere. He would have offered to buy her a drink and they would have sat at the bar until last call talking of nothing and everything all at once. She would tell him about her first kiss, her first scrapped knee, her favorite teddy bear. While he told of his first stitches, his first elementary school crush, his first concert. He would have escorted her home leaving her with a small peck on the cheek and his number. She would have needed more.
They would have spent every moment together. She would have known she was in love because no one had ever hugged her like that. They would have done something ridiculous like move into a school bus or a small shack and started a tomato stand. Anything unusual. They would have married young. Her in her grandmother's old wedding gown. Their wedding would have been simple, the four friends, his bro, and the justice of peace. They would have been hungry. They would have been lost. They would have been in love. They would have made it.
They would cry tears of joy when she became pregnant. He would have sworn to get a good job to be a good dad. He would keep his promise soon moving them into a real home, with a back yard. She would have loved it, setting the babies room up the night after the move. She would have torn up the wedding gown to make angel clothes for the little baby. They would have been happy. They would have lived long. They would have died old, together. Their hearts would have stayed strong. Their wishes would have been simple. He wouldn't have died.
She wouldn't have shot him. She wouldn't be casting dark looks at her good dog, her best friend. She wouldn't be leaning over him tears pooling in her eyes. She wouldn't have been doing the unimaginable. Her lips would have pressed against his near a pond on their first date not while his breaths ceased. She closes her eyes placing the sweet kiss of life on his lips. And he's breathing again.