It was the last day of summer when she left. She didn’t say why, of course she wouldn’t. Abigail Mason always had to have the upper hand.
I was sitting in my living room, thinking of crazy conspiracy theories of her absence. Maybe the government needed her for some special job. Abigail had always been a genius with
many things - politics, technology, human behavior - the government could really use a girl like
her. I was shaken out of my thoughts when my brother, Lane, jumped over the back of the couch
and landed in my lap.
“Reid, you’re killing me with your massive depression. Just go look for her, it’s not like you have anywhere important to be,” he said. 
He wasn’t wrong, but his words still stung. I’d graduated high school in May and had no plans of going anywhere for college, nor did I have plans for a full-time or part-time job. 
“You know I’m not brave enough for that Lane, and besides, I have to take you to school.” Today was Lane’s first day of middle school and I’d been volunteered by my father to
drive him there. I agreed only because he was paying for gas and because I was obligated to, living under his roof and all.
“Then go after school.”
“I have to pick you up.”
“I can walk home.”
I thought of what Abigail might say if I went looking for her. Probably something along the lines of, “Wow, you actually ?did ?something? I’m both surprised and impressed.” Of course
she would be surprised. She knew, despite my tall and lanky form, I was the? biggest scaredy cat in the world.
So many things could go wrong if I went looking for her. I could get lost and never find my way back home. Maybe I’d pick up a hitchhiker on the side of the road who ended up being a
murderer. (This one could be avoided quite easily, but you could never be sure.)

But I imagined Abigail’s onyx hair and bright green eyes; her skin subtly tan. I couldn’t just let her disappear. I’d never forgive myself.
And maybe, just maybe, I’ll find her and she’ll be so swept away by my bravery that she realizes she loves me and we’ll live happily ever after.
Fat chance.
-
There was something about driving alone that exhilarated me. Normally, I get scared if I see a car a mile down the road from me, but driving alone was different. I didn’t like to drive with people. I felt too responsible for their lives. Why would people trust others to drive them in heavy machinery with a moderate chance of crashing? I sure didn’t.
I’d just dropped Lane off at school and was headed to the first place I could think to look for Abigail - the courthouse. She was always visiting the murals in there. Mostly the mural of the wildflowers. Usually she went alone, but I remember a day a few weeks ago. Abigail had been having a bad day and wanted to take me somewhere. Me, being the Abigail-Mason-loving idiot I was, promptly agreed.
She drove my car there. She never did have her own car, her grandmother thought it was too dangerous for her to drive herself. Her grandmother never let her do anything. We’d just sat at the mural for hours until Abigail felt better.
So the first thing I did after I’d stepped out of my car into the courthouse parking lot was sprint to the wildflower mural on the fourth floor. I don’t know what I was expecting; her to be sitting there, waiting for me. Maybe I was expecting a wedding arch where the bench used to sit and Abigail smiling at me in a beautiful white ball gown. I was not expecting a man in full Roman battle armor standing like one of the Queen’s guards in front of the mural. I knew it was Roman battle armor because Abigail had been obsessed with the ancient Romans about two years ago. Consequently, I knew the man had been sent there by her.
I walk towards him, unsure of what I might say, but before I had a chance to decide, he held out his hand and in it is a scroll tied with a blood red ribbon. I take the scroll from the man’s hand hesitantly and start walking back to my car, all the while reading what Abigail had left me. The scroll read:
Dear Reid,
I know you’ve come looking for me. You want to prove yourself to me. Well, listen. Now’s your chance. I want you to find me so I can tell you what I need to say in person, then I can finally leave. If you think hard enough, you’ll figure out where I am soon. But I can’t leave until I speak to you. I’m where the night meets the Sun and the stars meet the Moon.  I’m counting on you, Reid.
Love,
Abigail Mason xo

I read the note over and over, staring at the word ‘love’ and the ‘xo’. Where would she go once she spoke to me? Why would she have to leave forever? I almost thought about not finding her, so she couldn’t leave, but my curiosity won over and I ran through all the places she could be. She couldn’t have gone very far without a car in twenty-four hours, so she was probably still in or just outside of town. The wildflower mural was out.  I’m where the night meets the Sun and the stars meet the Moon.
An idea popped into my head. I jerked the car into gear and sped off west.
-
I wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, so when I found I was right about Abigail’s location, I almost dropped dead. She was sitting on the edge of a grassy cliff overlooking the city. The poppies bloomed like an infestation. Abigail’s hair was in a long braid and had little baby hairs sticking out of the knots. I could imagine the excess strands of hair falling in her bright eyes.
I wasn’t so sure I could even walk up to her. I loved Abigail more than anything, but she also terrified me, as did the cliff. When we were kids, she used to drag me up here. An ‘intervention’ is what she called it. “You have to face your fears,” she used to say. “If you don’t, you let them control you.”
I hadn’t been up here in years, mostly because I couldn’t go without Abigail and she hadn’t gone in years. I asked her why once, why she wouldn’t go. She’d said it made her sad to see the sunset now. It reminded her that all things had to end.
But since I’d been driving for hours to the cliff, it was sunset now, and there she was. I carefully walked through the grass, avoiding things that looked like snake holes, and sat down beside her, overlooking the jagged rocks in the river.
I didn’t look at her right away. To be honest, I was nervous. What could be so important that she had to tell me in person?
I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could, Abigail interrupted me, “I don’t know how else to tell you this, Reid. I love you. I’ve always loved you. And for that very same reason, I have to leave you. I don’t deserve to be as happy as you make me. I just want to thank you for all you’ve done for me. I’ve never had a better friend. Just remember Reid, all things have to end. I would have left sooner or later. Don’t dwell on me too much, will you?”
Then Abigail did something I almost couldn’t believe. She smiled. It was a sweet, sad smile that wives give war heroes when they leave them. How could she be smiling like that? I’m no war hero.
A lot of things hit me at once. My biggest fear was coming true. The person I love most is leaving me. I remembered a similar day years ago. My mother was about to get in her car. She seemed so tall then. Of course, I was only seven years old and quite frankly, a midget. (I’d only grown to the height I was now when I was fifteen.)
My mother leaned down and whispered, “This is for the best Reid. Your father and I...we just aren’t right for each other. I love you, sweetie.” She’d kissed my forehead and sped off into the morning.
And here it was, happening again.
“Why do you have to go?” I managed to stutter. She smiled again. I just want her to stop.
I never did get my answer. Abigail leaned over, kissed my cheek, and and started to walk off, brushing the grass from her dress.
“Wait!” I shout. She turned around, this time, with tears in her eyes. I lean down and pick a poppy from the very edge of the cliff. When I get to her, I gently brush away her hair from her eyes and place the flower just behind her ear.
“I don’t understand,” I start, “but I’ll let you go. One day, I’ll come looking for you.”
And I let my beautiful Abigail Mason leave. For hours afterward, I sat on that cliff wondering if she would ever come back. Somehow, I knew she had to leave. Abigail didn’t belong with anyone, not even me. For a moment, I remembered her porch swing; peeling, faded. It had been there since the house had been built. Her and I would sit there for hours. It was the only time Abigail would regularly open up to people. All of the things she used to tell me finally made sense.
“Maybe we’re not meant for this world.”
“Why do I feel so alone?”
“Why can’t everyone be like you, Reid?”
In that moment, I knew what I had to do. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t scared. I’m only doing what Abigail is doing, I told myself. I stepped off the cliff, headed to look for Abigail in the great unknown.