Erin closed her eyes as she felt the warms tears trickle down her ice-cold face. Her flushed cheeks felt like fire against the icy air. A pounding in her head blocked out the sound of the cars driving by.

She was sitting on the very steps where she has met him, met David. It hurt just to think about his name on this December night. Erin opened her eyes and felt the cold and the snow and the sadness melt away until she was back to that fateful April morning two years ago.

Right in front of her sat an awkward lanky fourteen-year-old boy. His shaggy brown hair just brushed his eyes and his legs seemed to long for him to know what to do with.

She looked up and looked away quick so her new lab partner, the new boy David wouldn’t notice all the glances she was stealing as he stole her breath.

After class she took a risk, asking, “Wanna have lunch?” the words just spilling out. They did. Flash forward a week and they were best friends. Erin felt the loneliness leak out her more and more as she spent the majority of her time with David.

Flash-forward a few months and she was in love. But not your cliché girl falls for her best friend in the end way. She fell in love the way that she knew her best friend would always be there, in the way she could tell him anything, in the way he felt closer then family. Erin never wanted to lose David. Flash-forward a year, to the day Erin’s biggest fears came true. David called Erin but his cheerful tone was gone. He asked to meet her at their favorite coffee place, “Gina’s,” and when she saw him she could visibly see the pain on his face. She ran to him and after a long talk she discovered the cause of his suffering, cancer. More specifically, cancer of the lungs. Inoperable cancer of the lungs.

Erin couldn’t breath, he ears filled with a loud ringing and David blurred as her eyes filled with tears. She held him close for the rest of the night and then went home and cried.

Flash-forward through the next four months. Months filled with doctor’s visits, extended family visits, and the ever present visit of tears in her eyes. Erin watched David grow weak, but the gleam never left his eyes. He remained her beautiful best friend through it all. Flash forward a final time to this October, to without a doubt the very worst day of Erin’s life, the day that David lost his battle. Her world came crashing down around her but Erin just felt numb. It was as if life started going through her, rather then her going through life.

So here she was, sitting on the steps of the school on a cold December night, wishing more then ever that David was here. She whispered, “I miss you,” and for half a second Erin would have sworn she felt the wind warm up and wrap around her- like a hug from heaven. For the first time in a long time, she smiled.