I Do Too

                “Fine I’m going alone!” Thalia angrily shouted at Zen. Zen is her bestfriend. They’ve known each other since they were young. They study and sleep together. Whenever Thalia cries, Zen cries too. If she laughs, Zen laughs too. They are each other’s strength and weakness. See how a fish jump and dies when pulled out from the water? That’s what Thalia and Zen’s relationship is like. They fight too over small things. But this time, the fight is no longer about who’s taller or shorter, it’s not about who’s skinnier or fatter. This time, it’s different. It’s about who’s more important. Thalia or other friends. Thalia’s angry voice stiffened Zen. He tried to grab her wrist but he thought for a second then he just stands there. This made Thalia angrier. Their fight went on for weeks. Zen avoids Thalia and Thalia became angrier at him. Then summer vacation came, Thalia went to her mom’s hometown. This would be her first time going alone because for the last few years, she usually go with Zen. But she doesn’t even care, Zen chooses his friends over her.

One day, Thalia’s mother gave her a call telling her to go home the next day. Not knowing why, she agreed. The fresh air cooled her down and she was ready to apologize to Zen. She’s so excited to see him again. She wants to give him a hug. The king of hug where he can’t even breathe. She laughs at herself for having those silly thoughts. When she arrived at her house, she took a peek at Zen’s house. For some reason, she saw people in black suits, sobbing really hard. Curious, she entered Zen’s house. What she saw broke her world. Her friend, buddy, enemy, her Zen is inside on a stupid box or what you called a coffin. She stares for a while and walk slowly towards Zen’s body. She took a deep breath. Then

“Zen…idiot…buddy. Listen. You have no idea how much I like you, how much you make me smile, how much I love talking to you, how sick I am of looking for you when you’re out of my sight, how your little jokes and silly stuffs can make me laugh so hard, how much you mean to me and how much I wish you’d know all these stupid I am handling! Stand up there.”

Thalia cried as tears are uncontrollably flowing down on her cheeks. She doesn’t care about the people pityingly staring at her. She just can’t understand why Zen must leave. Then a cold breeze wraps around her as if giving her a hug. Thalia shivered. Then a whisper came.

“I do too, thank you.”

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-JK