Her

        I open my bedroom window to be greeted by the cold night air. I breath it in for a moment, then grab a sheet of paper off my table. I roll it into a tight ball, then throw it across the alley. It hits the window across from mine lightly, making a soft tapping sound. It's not loud enough to bother anyone but the person inside. I wait silently for a few moments before I toss a second ball. I wait a little longer, then throw a third. When nothing happens again, I sigh and close the window. Agitated, I lay down on my bed.

        'Damn you, Kathleen. We agreed to wake up at two in the morning to meet each other, yet I'm the only one awake. How expected of you.' I think angrily.

        I know realistically that she's probably not here because something happened, but I can't help feeling annoyed. She doesn't bail on me a lot, but whenever she does, it's always at the most inconvient times - like when I woke up after only three hours of rest. I sigh again, releasing some of my tension, and close my eyes. Soon enough, my breath is steady and I'm drifting off to sleep.

        "Wakey, wakey," A voice coos in my ear. My shoot open and I find my best friend crotched on the floor in front of me. She's stroking my nose with her index finger slowly, making it tickle.

        I grown quietly and stretch before looking over to my clock. It's three forty-one in the morning, almost two hours since I first woke up. "What do you want?" I ask, turning to her.

        "I love you too," She mocks as she jumps onto me. "I want to spend time with my best friend!" She cheers in a whispered yell.

        "Get off of me!" I softly yell back. "And be quiet. You're going to get us caught."

        She waves her hand at me, but moves off of my body. "Sorry. Now, get dressed. We have to go."

        "Go where?" I ask as I sit up.

        She playfully rolls her eyes. "Out, of course! I want to go do something. Explore a cemetery, visit an abandoned building, go to a store, a bank, a park, anything. I just want to do something fun and different before I leave you."

        The reminder that she's moving saddens me. She'll be going to some college town three states away from. That may be the way life goes, but that doesn't bring me any comfort. I'm going to miss walking across the way to knock on her door and invite her out. Now I'll have to actually plan our visits out. I'll save to save up money and time in order to see her. While that might not be impossible, it will take a lot of luck to find room in between school and work.

        I stand up and try to force the sadness out of my head. "Fine," I say to her. "Let's go."

        I stumble around the darkness of my room in search of something to wear. It takes me a while, but I'm finally able to find a pair of pants and near them, a shirt. I put them on, trying not to feel self-conscious. I know she probably can't see me, or not very well if she can at all. But the feeling of discomfort doesn't wear off until my body is covered. It's then that two items hit me - one on the back, the other my leg. I recognise them as my shoes and turn to Kathleen. She just smiles and waves at me. I shake my head as I put them on. Before I can stand back up, she's already waiting at the window with my jacket. I put it on while she climbs out of the window.

        When I hear her boots hit the ground, I climb out of the window myself. I carefully let myself drop into the dumpster below my room. I pause to make sure nobody heard me, then continue. I lift myself up and over the dumpster's wall, landing next to her.

        "Good job; you made it," Kathleen mocks me with a playful tone.

        "Hey, don't get all jealous because I'm better than you," I say with a smirk.

        She pushes me lightly, then grabs my arm and starts to pull. "Shut up and come on."

        A comfortable silence falls over us while we walk down the alley. After just a few steps, she lets go of me and starts to skip. We're not supposed to be outside at night, but there's nobody here to stop us. Normally, I don't break any of the rules. Normally, Kathleen does all of the rule breaking and I just go along with her to make sure she stays alive. But the move is in only two days. I'll take all the time with her I can get, even if I get in trouble for it.

        "Where to first?" I ask once we turn from the alley onto the street.

        Kathleen doesn't answer me. Instead, she suddenly starts running down the road. I chase after her as fast as I can. The sound of her gleeful laughing rings through the air. I can't help but laugh alongside her. For the first time, we are free of the tight clutches our parents have kept us in all these years. We are finally able to do what we want, when we want. Even if we both know it's only for a few hours, it still feels like the freedom to make our own choices.

        "First stop: The store!" She shouts happily at me.

        The convinent store isn't that far from our homes, but we still run the whole way there. I find myself grateful we live in the smaller area of the city once we hit the parking lot and slow down to a walk. My lungs feel like they're ablaze, as though I've been breathing in cold, wintery air all week. We strut in through the doors and separate. I'm not sure what she wants to do, and I don't think she does either, but I decide to take charge of the snacks. I grab chips, jerky, candy, cold sandwiches, some donuts, and a few other snack items. When I can barely carry it all, I go in search of her. She's by the drinks when I reach her, her hands also full with various snacks. She grabs a few drinks, then we walk up to the counter.

        "Eighty dollars," The cashier says.

        Kathleen turns to me. "Eighty dollars," She repeats with a smile. "Your treat."

        "Oh, my treat? Okay." I say with a playful tone. I pull my wallet out of my pants and hand him a hundred dollar bill. I hold the door open to her as she walks out.

        "What about the change?" The worker asks me.

        "Don't worry about it," I respond. "It's yours."

        I step outside next to Kathleen. "That was nice of you," She says, nudging my arm.

        I shrug. "I felt like doing something nice."

        She smiles at me before turning serious. "For the record, I had full intentions of paying when I suggested the store. It turns out though that when I grabbed my wallet, I didn't grab my card too."

        I laugh. "No worries. You'll pay next time."

        "Right," She says softly. "Next time."

        I want to slap myself once the solemn feeling reaches me. That's if there's a next time.

        Silently, I follow her into a line of trees. An urge to turn around and go back hits me, but I force myself to ignore it. I already know it's only because it's so dark out and no one knows we're out here. I'm feeling paranoid, but there's no reason for it. For some reason, all the crimes in our city are committed out in the open, not in the woods.

        By the time I decide to ask Kathleen where we're going, she has already stopped walking. I watch her sit on an old, faded tomestone. The one across from her is literally falling apart, but I don't think to care. I make sure there isn't a name on it, then sit down. She hands me a bag of cheese-flavoured chips. She opens up her own bag and we start to eat together. We have light conversations about the silence of the world in between bites. For the most part though, we don't say a lot. We just snack and enjoy the comfort in each other's company.

        After a while, when all the snacks are empty, we get up and start to walk again. We weave through the graveyard until we find a very worn and beaten path. It leads us to a church that looks like it's been caught on fire a couple dozen times. I voice a concern about violent drug addicts, but she just laughs at me and jumps through one of the windows. Nervous, I follow her. Should something happen, it'd be better for me to be with her. I'm not a very strong fighter, but I am a fast runner. So at the very least, I can get help.

        "Hey, Eric, come check this out," I hear Kathleen call out to me.

        My thoughts fall apart as I make my way to her. She's sitting in one of the pews, holding a bible. When I sit with her, I realise that it's been hollowed out and there's a key inside. She tells me that she put it here a few months when she find out they were going to be moving. I learn that it opens the door located under her apartment. It's a 'secret hideout' apparently. The key is given to me as a parting gift and I'm assured I won't have to worry about getting in trouble. Her uncle owns the building and he's promised to keep the space empty in case she comes back. The conversation quickly becomes emotional. Soon, both our eyes are watering and I can hear her voice cracking.

        We spend about an hour exploring the ruins before we agree it's time for us to return home. We talk more about the move the whole way back to our buildings. The sadnesss is heavy on both our souls, but it has to happen. The subject has been danced around for the past week and now our time is running out. Everything that we've been keeping in starts to pour out. By the time we get to the alley, the sun is starting to rise and our eyes are starting to pour.

        She's about to climb onto the dumpster when I pull her into a tight hug. "I'm going to miss you," I say.

        "I'm going to miss you too," She says back.

        "We'll have to do this again sometime."

        "Yes, we will."

        I follow her up to my window, then watch as she crawls across the boarding leading to hers. She lands safely into her room, then turns to me. We share a look before saying 'goodnight' to one another. Then, we close our windows and climb into our beds. The knowledge that I'll only have one more day with her weighs heavy on my mind. I eventually fall asleep, covered in my own tears and clutching the key she handed to me. I wish things never had to change.