Chapter One: The Festival

It's been raining for some time now. Maybe a few days, could be a week. It is early October where it finally feels like fall is on the horizon. We keep our door open, letting in the sweet smell of the earth with the chill of the wind ride throughout the house. The sound of the water hitting the roof is soft and nice.

In a few days, the town will be buzzing with people from all over just to see the carnival and booths. Our small country town celebrates the season of cotton harvest. The "celebration" is just a way to get the town some tourists. Just another way to put us on the map for even a day. This festival is supposed to be fun, but all I can think about is him. It's been a few years but he still is on my mind.

About five years ago, things were fine. I was in my last year of high school, full of memories of friends and family, band and sports. Things that any senior would always dream their last year would be. That was the life. Still, that was when everything went to crap.

It was that summer that I lost one of my best friends. Someone who was always there when I needed him. Someone who never cared about how awkward or weird I was. I lost the person that made me laugh. All because I told him about my plans for the future. The day I moved into my college dorm was the last day we ever spoke. Things have changed, and so have I. I only hope that this year, he will somehow see that.

I am now twenty-three, living in a small one bed apartment and working at gas station a few miles out of town. I haven't been to the festival since my senior year and I am nervous. I haven't hung out with, well, anyone since I got a job and moved out. All I ever do is try to stay afloat. To finally see some old friends from high school, the ones that moved away or went to different states for college, they are all coming back for the reunion at the festival.