Gloria stood at the face of death. The face glowed in her presence ascended every single vein in her body to twitch and focus on nothing else because what was in front of her. The face transformed and molded by death. The face of a person that had a name and life, now was nothing but the word dead. Her friend Kris put her hand on Gloria’s shoulder, “It’s alright sweety,”

But it wasn’t alright. She put her heart and her soul into this person. This person was her life and now feels like her death. “What’s alright,”

“It’s ok, I know how you feel, we all loved Harry, and this is going to be really hard, just let it out,”

Gloria laughed. As if she ran out of tears and all she had left was laughter, “Sweety you can’t just stay here all night, get some rest, try to sleep, ok?”

“How can I sleep when I can’t breathe,”

“Shhh, it’s ok, I really want to make you feel better and for now just give it a rest, Harry wouldn’t have wanted you to be stuck up on him forever,”

“That’s easy for you to say,”

“Just relax, it’s going to be ok,”

“Well everything’s not ok because I just let this happen,”

Kris held her fingers over her face and took a deep breathe, “It’s not your fault, you have to stop blaming yourself,”

“Why blame myself when it’s clearly everyone else’s goddamn fault!”

“You can’t just--”

“I’m so sick of all this why did they have to fu--”

“Alright! I’m done with hearing this! Gloria you can’t just play God and rearrange life into what you want! It’s life! This happens! He died! You’ll die! I’ll die! That doctor over there will die!”

“But this time it just had to happen now! Right when I’m getting my life back on track and not just wandering around from city to city looking for adventure! When I finally found a boyfriend! When I finally found friends! When I finally found a place I’m comfortable in and can call home! Then I get a drunk driver to the boyfriend and now what?! What’s next?!”

“Gloria what if there is no ‘what’s next’?!”

Then it was silent, the air was thick with screaming and tears. Time stopped for a moment, Kris regained the air in her breathe and Gloria closed her mouth. Kris looked up at Gloria, “Once something bad happens doesn’t mean the worlds going to come crumbling down beside you. Harry’s dead. And you’re not Harry. I don’t think you get that. You spent all this time being deeply infatuated with him you don’t give yourself enough space. You’re turning yourself from ‘Gloria’ into ‘Harry’s Girlfriend’. And you’re way more than that. And all that’s happening right now is a blessing. Harry’s death is dumb luck. It’s going to take some time to get over, but it’s better to rip off the bandage now.”

Gloria picked up her purse and pulled out a handkerchief. She wiped off her face and blinked a few times, “I want to go home,”

With that Kris put her arm around Gloria and walked her out to her car. Kris drove her back to her apartment so she could get some rest. Just as they arrived it was about seven in the morning and the blue of the sky began to arise.