Kindergarten
My life started when I was five, on the day before kindergarten was going to start. My life started then because that’s when I met Jess. Jess and I became best friends almost immediately because he was scared about starting kindergarten, but I wasn’t, I was ready to meet new people and make new friends, but after seeing Jess so scared on the first day I decided that I didn’t need a bunch of friends, I just needed one. Since then we’ve always been best friends.

First Grade
Once we started first grade Jess started making new friends and he would invite them over to his house a lot more, I wasn’t his only friend anymore. Sometimes he would make me leave when he had other friends over because I guess I could be a little embarrassing. It didn’t happen that many times though, only seven or eight, and I was fine. I would go walk around town or I’d just sit on Jess’s porch until his friend left then the two of us would play with his Superman action figures or watch movies.
“We’re still best friends right?” Jess would ask me when I came back inside.
“We’ll be best friends forever.” I always replied

Second Grade
Jess didn’t want me to start second grade with him. He said he had enough friends and didn’t need me anymore. So, I disappeared.
That’s when I started to get sick. I wasn’t really sure what was wrong with me either, all I knew was that Jess never called me or came to see me, and I couldn’t go to see him because my legs weren’t working very well anymore

Third Grade
But, at the end of third grade, Jess called me. He told me none of the other boys wanted to do anything fun anymore and he wanted me to come back.
My legs started working again. I ran all the way to his house and we started our own tradition as third grade came to an end. On the night before Jess’s birthday, we decided to camp outside in his backyard. We were going to sleep in a tent and have a fire and everything. Just Jess and me. But, after his parents put out the fire we stayed outside. We laid down on the grass and looked at the stars and whenever we found a shape in them we would create a story around it.
After Jess’s birthday whenever we could we would go out into his backyard and lie down on our backs and pretend we could read the stars like books. They told stories of pirates and princes and superheroes. It might have seemed stupid, but the stars always gave us something to talk about We were best friends again.

Fourth Grade
We did not have a nice teacher in fourth grade. Behind her back Jess and I would always call her Mrs. Evil. Whenever we talked in class Mrs. Evil would get really mad at Jess and call his mom, but for some reason, she always pretended I wasn’t there.
Although it turns out that being invisible to Mrs. Evil wasn’t really such a bad thing because whenever Jess got in trouble I would go and mess up her desk or I’d run around the room and Jess would distract all the other students. Mrs. Evil almost always sent him to the principle’s office. And, everytime he was sent home we would go into his yard and read the stars.

Fifth Grade
Jess told me to leave again, apparently he was getting too old to have a best friend. So I disappeared, again.

Sixth Grade
I started getting sick again. But, this time my legs got bad right away and then they wouldn’t work anymore. That was the first time I missed Jess’s birthday. It’s not like I could buy him anything anyway because I didn’t have any money, and I couldn’t get any from my parents because I wasn’t sure where they were and for all I knew they didn’t even exist.

Seventh Grade
I missed Jess. Mostly I missed having someone to talk to about everything going on I missed having a best friend. But my legs didn’t work and I couldn’t go see him. Just when Jess was about to finish seventh grade, my arms started to go bad just like my legs. By the time seventh grade was over neither my arms nor my legs would work. And, the only thing I could think was that Jess would know what to do but, he wasn’t there.

Eighth Grade
I could tell he was sad, but I didn’t know why and I couldn’t do anything about it because I could barely move anymore.
Then he called me, and when I answered, he told me he needed me to come back. My arms started working again and I went back to Jess’s house, I was in a wheelchair from then on because my legs still weren’t working. But now that I had Jess back I knew it wouldn’t be long before they did.
Apparently, his parents were splitting up, they were getting something called a divorce. I didn’t know what that word meant, but I assumed it wasn’t a very good one because it made Jess so sad. That night we stayed outside all night even though it was cold and we couldn’t read the stars because their stories were covered in clouds. I never did get out of the wheelchair.

Freshman
  He only ever brought up my parents once, the day before ninth grade started, but I told him I didn’t want to talk about it and that was that. Although he did seem a little bit upset that I wouldn’t tell him any more, he forgot all about it the next day. We were both excited for the first day of ninth grade.
The high school was in a completely different building than the middle school was only this building was a lot bigger. I thought we would have trouble finding our classes, but Jess seemed to know exactly where we were going the whole day.
I went home before third period. I had gotten another headache, which was happening more and more often lately. I would get an awful headache for a couple of hours, but just as fast as it had appeared, it was gone.
When Jess came home, he had all kinds of stories to tell me. At lunch he sat with some boys that he made friends with, but he sat with girls too! Boys and girls never sat together in middle school. Apparently one of the girls had a crush on him, I wasn’t really sure what that meant and I also don’t know why Jess was blushing when he told me her name was Victoria, but he called her Tori.

Sophomore
All summer after ninth grade Jess would go out with his friends and sometimes Tori or other girls. I was still in the wheelchair, but my arms were getting bad again and I had headaches all the time now, but I was always there when Jess needed someone to talk to. Which was actually a lot now and it’s almost always about a girl. Apparently Tori wanted to be his girlfriend (I’m not sure what that means, but I think it has something to do with her having a crush on him last year.) but this other girl Kennedy also wanted to be his girlfriend. I had never heard about Kennedy before but Jess told me that she was, “Pretty cool.”
He asked me which girl I liked better, but I had only seen Tori once when she came over for a little while and I had never seen Kennedy. So, I told him he should ask Tori to be his girlfriend, but he should introduce me and her so we could all hang out together.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” was all he said to that.
My headaches kept getting worse.

Junior
My arms weren’t working anymore and I couldn’t go to school because I got headaches all the time. I was also forgetting things, important things. I forgot how Jess and I met. When I asked Jess he told me exactly how we met, but then he’d leave to go out with his friends or to go see Kennedy. And, I forgot again.
I went home in the middle of Jess’s junior year I was getting too sick to stay at his house all the time and he was almost always gone anyway. He was visiting colleges and going on dates while I sat at home with a headache.
That was the first time I realized that I was dying.

Senior
I had to tell Jess. That I was dying I mean. He was going to go off to Stanford for college and I wasn’t able to go with him and I wouldn’t be able to go visit him because I was too sick. One night, when he was actually home, Jess was never home anymore, I got him to go outside with me so we could read the stars. And, I told him the best story they have ever written about a boy and his imaginary friend. Then, I told him what happens when imaginary friends aren’t needed.
“They stop working.” I said.
“What are you talking about?” Jess replied, not knowing what I meant.
“You don’t need me anymore Jess. I can’t stay here forever following you around because it hurts. You have a life and you’re going to be 18 soon. An adult. A really, really great adult. I just can’t be here to see it.”
“I don’t understand why you have to leave. You came out of my imagination shouldn’t you have to leave when I tell you to?” He was getting upset now.
“You have told me to leave Jess, a few times actually.” I smiled at him sadly, “Now I have to disappear.”
I couldn’t stay there and watch Jess be mad at me, so I got up and left. I walked out of the backyard that I had spent countless hours reading the stars in and I walked down the street and I disappeared. For the last time.