"Artemis, I don't want school to start tomorrow," Wally groaned into his cupped hands. We were sprawled out on the beach in the early evening. The sun was saying her final golden goodbyes to the clouds and sky.

"It's going to be our senior year though. The fun won't stop just because summer has."

"But -"

At the beginning of summer, Wally read a poem about gathering rosebuds. It's an old poem by Robert Herrick that basically says "Carpe diem." Since then, Wally has been treating each ticking moment like a precious gem. A second without fun wasn't a second at all, to Wally.

"Artemis, don't you see that everything is going to change so fast?"

I nodded, allowing seconds of silence to tick past.

"We're just going to apply to schools and get accepted, then we'll have to decide if we want to quit the team for academics, then we could be on opposite sides of the world and all that was good and wholesome and pure will have evaporated!" He gestured in a round circle with his hands. I, leaning against his chest, felt heat rise. As he became more stressed, his entire body radiated like the bulb in a lamp.

"All right, Kid Monologue -" The truth was, I had been having the same worries. I just don't like to vocalize.

He sat up, and turned my shoulders so I was facing him.

"Do you see the ocean? I don't want everything to change like that. There are some things I don't want the tide to take out. There are certain things that are mine, and I want them to stay mine."

It's always strange to hear Wally talk like this. Usually he's cramming chips in is mouth or cackling with Rob or confessing his undying love to me. Serious Wally rarely showed his face. That is, until recently.

Serious Wally scared me almost as much as the future. Watching your life change is scary, but expected, like waves on a beach. Watching those you love change, however, is like being swallowed by a rip current.

I took his hand in mine. "Wallace Rudolph West, " I sighed.

"No matter how great the waves, I know we will survive them."

For a brief second, when our eyes met, I felt completely in tune with him. Our souls had become synchronized. I hate to be clichéd, but it was the most wonderful feeling in the world.

I swear a tear fell from his eye, but he quickly sniffled and regained resolve. He grabbed my waist and tugged me into a hug.

"Artemis, we don't just survive the waves. We surf them, dammit."

I laughed, in the most honest way possible. Laughter is only true when your let a little bit of your soul out along with it, and that is exactly what I did.

The sky filled with stars gradually. We spent the remainder of the night on the beach, collecting the most precious parts of our summer. Naturally, there was kissing. But this kind of kissing felt different. Maybe it was the nervous energy from contemplating what tomorrow we just felt even more deeply connected, since tomorrow was promised.

I wish I could describe what I felt more clearly, but this is the haziest part of the memory. Just trust me when I tell you this: it was magic. I don't' usually condone fairy tale nonsense, but something about this last evening of summer changed me. It was as if I promised him every sunrise and sunset I had to give, no matter the distance, or cost to myself. It was a big promise to make, especially using only my tongue and lips.

Summer ended, as it always does. School is going well.

Five years later

When the lowered his coffin into the ground, I didn't cry. I knew the casket was empty. There was no body.That doesn't mean it didn't hurt. I have never felt more hollow inside. With each kick of the wind, I worried I would topple over. I felt so weak.

The tide takes all it can.