“Will it ever be the same?” Caleb wondered, “I thought true friendship was supposed to last forever.”

He sat in his room with a blank mind, feeling lost, knowing his friends would be so far from him. Nothing felt the same for him at school and even in the comfort of his own home. Every day at the lunch table, something was always missing. For days at home, he would lay around the house with little to no motivation to do anything. Without his friends, what will keep him alive and well?

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A few days ago, school got out, and Caleb, along with the rest of the group, knew what was coming. It was going to be the last few days they all got to spend together with Chris and Conner. The night before everyone arrived, Caleb had slept over at Kyle’s house, just hanging out and having a little fun before the big weekend coming up.

The next day was Saturday, and everyone was starting to pull up one by one. First, it was Owen. When he first came through the door, he was very quiet and didn’t seem like he was too excited to be there. Caleb was a little concerned by this, yet didn't bother him. Then Conner came, and he had lots of energy and instantly started talking with Caleb and Kyle until the rest of the guys got there. When Chris finally showed up, it was noon. Caleb, Owen, Kyle, and Conner were all just on their phones, occasionally talking to one another. But when Aiden showed up, everyone was shocked because he said he wouldn’t have been able to make it. Everyone was glad he could, though.

It was around 5 p.m., and Shannon was bringing in surprise pizzas for everyone. We all rushed to the table to consume as much as we could to stay full for the night. Caleb felt like a bear eating before hibernation. While everyone finished up their food, we all tried to figure out what we were going to do for the next two days. Suggestions were being thrown all over the place.

“We should all go see a movie,” Aiden suggested.

“No,” Chris replied, “I think we should go to the mall and mess around.”

There were many ideas getting put out over the course of 30 minutes until Caleb thought hard to come up with a good idea.

“We should stay up all night and have a backyard camping trip,” he says.

“That’s actually a good idea,” everyone agreed.

It was after dinner, probably a little after 8 p.m., and everyone had managed to relocate outside. Caleb, Conner, and Chris soon became busy setting up the fire pit, and everyone else was setting up chairs and prepping stuff for smores around a nice flat spot in Kyle’s yard. Music was playing, and everyone was laughing and having a good time. Or so Caleb thought. Owen was sitting in a corner by himself, curled into a ball, and with a bright light shining on his face. 

“Owen. What are you doing over there?” Caleb questioned.

“Don’t worry about it!” he said cockily.

“Come over here and join the rest of us,” Aiden and Conner told him.

“Fine,” he said with an annoyed tone.

Owen finally came and sat by the fire to enjoy a smore or two, and it looked like he was even having some fun. But again, shortly after the smores, he was back to being on his phone. It was a repeated thing for him, and it started to annoy everyone around. No matter what anyone would try, it wouldn’t work. It even got to the point where Aiden and Kyle tried to take his phone from him because they both knew it was hurting Chris and Conner. Even though they have to leave. After everything we’ve been through together, Owen was practically ruining the whole thing for them. 

“These are the last few days me and Conner get to spend with you Owen,” Chris says, “ you would think to put your phone down and have a little more fun instead of sitting there in silence. If this is what you’d planned on doing the whole time, then you should’ve stayed home and not have showed up.”

“W-wow, just wow,” he stammers, “ I didn’t mean for it to upset you; I’m sorry.”

Aiden remarks, “Chris, that might have been a little too far.”

“Maybe you’re right. But he needs to know how it makes me feel. He’s my friend, and I came here to spend time with you guys. So he can either be here as that friend I know or go home for his girlfriend's sake,” Chris remarks angrily.

“Ugh,” sighs Chris, “ Look, Owen, I know you love your girlfriend and all, but can’t you just tell her the situation at hand, and then maybe she’ll understand and leave you alone?”

“No. It doesn’t work like that,” Owen replies.

“Can we just leave him alone?” Aiden suggests, “It would be so much better if we didn’t argue over this.”

Caleb sits quietly while trying to comprehend what is going on. He doesn’t know what to think or how to feel. While everyone is calming down, he decides to go inside to set up a movie for everyone to watch.

“Where are you going?” Conner asks.

“I’m going to put on a movie for us to watch. Wanna come?”

“Yes,” he replies.

Eventually, after some encouragement, everyone decides to come inside, and they all watch one of the greatest movies ever, Over the Hedge. Everyone enjoyed the movie, as it was funny, had a good plot, and was relatable. Kyle stands up randomly, but no one questions him. He soon comes back with a huge bucket of popcorn and a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper. The movie was going well and Owen finally put his phone away and started to enjoy the time getting spent with everyone else.

A lot of time had passed since the movie started, and now it’s past midnight. Everyone was full from all the food and soda, and most of us were tired. However, Caleb was wide awake. He wanted to jump up and move around due to the sugar rush from all of the Dr. Pepper. He felt like a child after drinking at a birthday party.

Everyone grabbed their sleeping bags and started to shift out to the trampoline where we were going to sleep, and when Caleb checked the time, the clock on his phone read 12:36 a.m. Everyone around him was yawning because they were tired, but when Caleb turned over to Chris and asked him if he was tired, to his surprise, Chris’s response was no. Because the two of them weren’t tired, they stayed up way later than they should have. With everyone falling asleep one by one, there was nothing for Caleb and Chris to do. While lying in the dark for what felt like forever, the two decided to go for an early walk. It was probably 3:30 in the morning, and the sun was going to come up soon. The whole town was foggy and moist, but the cool air filled Caleb’s body with a sense of calm.

“You know Chris?” Caleb asked, “I will miss the days we would spend together. School will never be the same.”

“I know, man. If it were up to me, I would stay here for the rest of my life,” he replies.

“I just never would have expected it to happen so soon,” Caleb says with a hint of sadness in his voice.

“Yeah, I’m sorry bro,” responds Chris

After walking around in the dark for nearly an hour, they found their way to the park close to the river. The moon was just barely high enough for it to reflect on the water, but it was still there. They were both standing there, and Chris reached for a stone to skip. The sound of the smooth, flat rock hitting the water made a clicking sound. After 3 or 4 stones, Caleb reached for a stone and skipped it. 

“1… 2… 3… 4… 5…,” Caleb counted as the stone bounced off the flowing water. 

After skipping stones for 10 minutes or so, Chris and Caleb walked over to the hill to get a better view of the sunrise, as they knew it would be coming soon. Suddenly, Chris gets a text from Conner asking where they were. Chris tells them, and they soon make their way to the top of the hill.

“Good morning guys,” Kyle says.

“Mornin’,” Caleb replies. 

Everyone sits on the hill to watch the sunrise in a line across the hilltop for the best view possible. They all talk for a while about their most fun times together. Every memory they’ve had was probably brought up during the trip down memory lane. Some of the best images filled Caleb's head, and he was having so much fun laughing and reminiscing over the good times he's had with his best friends. All the times at each other's houses, every day at the lunch table, whenever we were in class together, there would always be room for good memories. Although there were bad ones, the mixture of arguing and physical fighting only made our bonds stronger throughout the years.

Soon enough, though, everything had to come to an end. After reminiscing for so long, it was just around the time when Caleb would be seeing 2 of his best friends leave. The last thing Caleb wanted to do was give both Chris and Conner a hug with four last words to speak to their faces.

“Goodbye. I’ll miss you.”