To Be Seperated

Emily

It started 8 years ago when I met my best friend: Lauren Kirby. We met at a Pony Camp that I went to every year until I was old enough for horse camp.
When we were all introducing each other, she made me laugh right away. We had to say our name, age, and something interesting about yourself. She said: "I'm Lauren Kirby. I'm 8 years old, and I'm a blonde". It may not be so funny to you, but I was 8 and I thought it was funny.

We started talking, and we instantly hit it off. She was that camp friend that was pretty much the only one that you talked to because you found someone and were too nervous to make any other friends. We were in the same riding group which meant we went everywhere together. We sat by each other during every meal, and we did everything with each other.
After that week, she came back to my house and stayed for a few days. We had such a great time. We talked over the phone, and everything like that. We planned to go the camp together next year too. Same for the next 7 years. We even have a necklace with one charm for every summer we spent together.

When we got older, our parents allowed to spend weeks at a time over at each others houses. She became, not only my camp friend, but my best friend.

This year, March 2011, we got into a huge fight. It was during the school year when I was allowed to spend a week at her house, and go to her school. It's too personal to share what it was about, but it was horrible. I said that I hated her and never wanted to see her again. That's how I left her house. With those words. This went on for about 2 weeks before our parents got involved. They said that they hated to see us like this, and they arranged for us to meet up and talk about it. 4 days later, Lauren and I are sitting down, trying to talk. Our parents were giving us space, so we were alone.

We weren't getting any better. We were spitting venom in each others faces and it was just making everything worse. After a while, things got quite. After a long moment of awkward silence, Lauren told me she had cancer. She said that she was diagnosed with it 3-4 years after she met me, but figured now was the perfect time to tell me. After she said this, she walked away. As she did, I watched her with tears running down my face. She looked like a completely different person suddenly.

We made up in May, and it was like nothing ever happened. It seemed we were closer than ever. We spent a lot of time together.
On June 16, she was taken to the hospital. Something was really wrong, and she had to stay there for a while. I visited her every other day.

On June 27th I was in her hospital room saying to her that I hoped she would get better before we had to go to camp. I knew she wouldn't since there was only about a week, but I hoped. After a while, it was me, her parents, and my parents all in her room. I was wearing white tennis shoes (you'll see the significance of that in a second). She called me over to her and told me to take my shoes off. I did. She asked for a sharpie. I gave her a black one. She took my shoe and she wrote "forever?" on it. She wrote a heart on the other one. She gave them back to me, I sat my her bed, and about 2 hours later.....she passed away. My best friend......died.....June 27, 11:43.</3

That is when I put the 8th charm on the necklace. Even though I didn't get to go to camp with my best friend...I did share an unforgettable summer with her.
My best friend, my happiness, the other half of my heart, and my will to live were taken from me that night.