It was the summer before 8th grade. We were so young and careless. We didn’t expect bad things to happen. We were young and young people don’t die, right? That’s how we thought until it happened. I was at the hospital visiting my pappaw when it happened. My best friend, Darian, texted me, as well as many other people, saying that a kid 15 years old had died in my town. I called her. She couldn’t find out and neither could I. A few minutes later she called me back and said it was a kid named Tyler. “Tyler? Tyler who?” I asked. She was freaking out. She had the biggest crush on a guy named Tyler.
“I’m sure it’s not him. He’s only fifteen. There’s no way…” Only to find out, it was him. Darian was breaking down. We didn’t know how it happened, when it happened, or why it happened. It just happened. When I got home, I looked it up on my computer to find out for myself. “15 year old Tyler was taken to UT hospital earlier this afternoon. He and his friends were at an abandoned house when Tyler threw a rock at the window causing the glass to shatter and fall on his leg where a main artery is. He died later this afternoon. Doctor’s said there was nothing they could do.” He had bled out.
A few days later me and Darian went with one of our church leaders to his house because it was only a couple of blocks down. “Now be prepared. What you’re about to see is going to be rough.” His home was very small and cluttered. We went in to see his mom. “Here are all his pictures. This one is my favorite,” she said holding up a picture when he was about three years old. She was crying and Darian was too. I usually didn’t cry, but I had tears in my eyes. She gave us all a picture of him. After we were done, Tyler’s dad bought him a truck that he let us sign our names on, since he would never get to drive it.
The next Wednesday, we went to church. Afterward, we were waiting for our parents when we decided to sneak off to go to the bonfire they were having for Tyler. We went, but decided not to go to his house because there was nobody we knew well there. Instead, we went to the abandoned house Tyler lost his life at. Darian started going insane. Crying and shaking. She was beyond mad. “Why did this happen?” “Why me?” She kept asking. I kept telling her it wasn’t her fault. She picked up a huge rock, and launched it at the window. The window shattered. Had we’d been any closer; we would’ve been in Tyler’s shoes.
The funeral came soon enough. I stayed with Darian that night, and we went together. We went in and went up to the casket. I could feel the looks on both of our faces. Disbelief, shock, anger, and sadness all mixed together. Darian put a note in there; a note that no one would read. I had a heart- shaped necklace on that said “My Heart”. I put that in there. We stayed for the whole funeral. Everyone was crying so hard that you couldn’t hear anything else.
Alix, one of Tyler’s best friends, was crying loudly saying “It’s my fault! It’s my fault!” Come to find out, he was with Tyler when it happened along with two others. Alix said Tyler started bleeding everywhere, and he tried to wrap his shirt around his leg. Tyler had some weight on him, and Alix tried to carry him home. But he knew it was too late. Nobody felt the way he did.
A year or so after the incident, I realized I had lost the memorial card I had gotten at the funeral. I looked everywhere. I was so mad at myself. I cried myself to sleep that night. It’s been about three years now since the accident happened. I never found my card, me and Darian don’t talk anymore, but I guess everything happens for a reason. We will never forget that summer. It will forever been burned into our minds. It’s still hard for me to see Darian at school and remember all the things we would never forget. Every now and then I think about Tyler, and I know Darian does to. But I guess we just want to forget what happened, but we will never forget the cheerful, teenage boy that is still so alive to us.