I gazed off into the horizon and saw a dark gray sky. There was a storm lurking in the atmosphere. Katie and I were out on the pier, just taking a leisurely walk. It was the middle of our seventh grade spring break. We thought it would give us a thrill to walk out on the pier before a storm hit because the waves were gigantic. We stopped at the end and were watching the ocean swell up before it broke into waves.

The sky was getting darker and we could now hear the roar of the thunder in the distance. Astonishingly, Katie then got up on the railing and said, “Come on Megs. Let’s jump. It’ll be fun! The waves will carry us right back to shore. Besides, there’s no one here to get us in trouble! Come on Megs, what’d you say?”

We have jumped off the pier many times before, but never in stormy weather. This was just a bad idea. When I told her that, she got upset. I was trying hard not to be a pessimist, but I had lead in my stomach that was hard to ignore. It was holding me down and I knew it was right.

After giving me an annoyed look, she climbed off the railing. It was getting windy, and in the process of coming down, she lost her balance and fell backwards. I looked over the edge just in time to see a splash, and the deep blue sea gobbling her up. I stared down into the water waiting for her to come up. Quite some time later, I saw Katie’s body float up to the surface, face down.

I was in a daze. Could this be real? Am I in the midst of my own nightmare? These questions haunted my mind. I couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that my best friend had just fallen to her death. As I looked up into the sky, I saw a red balloon swirling wildly in the gray stormy sky. The balloon floated up and up, defying gravity, until suddenly it popped. It was like Katie’s death, in a way that only I would ever understand. Innocently, just floating along until the wind caught it and it was destroyed. The roaring sea had just taken the life of an innocent victim, as well as the clouds had taken the life of a harmless balloon.

From that day on, every time the sky turns gray before a storm I am reminded of the tragedy that happened to my best friend, Katie. With this storm feelings of sorrow, misery, and pain are brought back to haunt me. A gray sky now symbolizes the loss of my best friend. To others eye’s, a gray, stormy sky just means a day to be cooped up inside. Aside from the miserable clouds sitting in the sky, I cringe every time I see a balloon pop. It symbolizes Katie and how the sea had taken her away from me and the rest of the world. It may just be a loss of balloon for some people, but it is a loss of a best friend for me. It is a symbol of the aching and suffering of my heart the day I lost my best friend.