To my dearest friend, Darius,
I will start this with a thank you and end it with a thank you. I still remember when we first met in science class during 6th grade. We had a seating change, and I was put beside you. Little did I know that you would turn out to be the best—and only—friend I’d have left by the end of the story. I know the story is still being written, but you get the point. We started chatting every day, and you became less weird to me each time we spoke (to be fair, you were breaking mechanical pencils and taping up your cuts). After we became friends in science, we found out we had the same third-period geography class, so we started walking there together. I remember how we’d sometimes take the long way to see how close to the bell we could get without being late. We even had a substitute teacher once, and you came up with the perfect excuse to keep us from getting in trouble. We had a pretty big group of friends in science; those were the days. By the end of 6th grade, we had it all made out. Everything seemed perfect.
Then came 7th grade, the best and worst year of my life. I remember the beginning like it was yesterday: no anxiety, no fear, no problems. I was finally free from everything. I got you and William in my classes and a few other friends in my advisory. Things were going better than I could’ve imagined. I was happy, extremely happy. But as we all know, most good things must come to an end, and unfortunately, that hit me harder than I could’ve ever expected. Just as everything was going well, things started to fall apart. I got an ulcer from worrying about things I didn’t even realize were on my mind. I endured pain every day, got the stomach flu the day after Thanksgiving break, and my life started to crumble right before my eyes. In just two months, everything turned upside down. I didn’t know what to say to my friends. They all slowly drifted away. All of them except for one, and that one was you. Out of everyone, you were the one who stayed. You went from being someone I talked to about website ideas to being the most important person in my life. You had every reason to leave, but you didn’t. I don’t know why, but I’m so glad you stayed.
After everything that could go wrong went wrong, you supported me through that year. Everyone else must’ve thought I sounded like a lunatic, but not you. I honestly don’t know where I’d be if you hadn’t stuck by me. I know we still don’t see each other in person as often, and when we do, it’s usually cut short. But even just seeing you in person means the world to me. It proves that you truly care about me, and for that, you are a real one, man. I wouldn’t be in a good place if it weren’t for you. I wish I could express how I feel because it’s overwhelming. I know I’ve talked to you about this before, but I needed to make a tribute so I’d never forget you or our history. I hope you won’t forget me either. You’ll forever be the person who single-handedly kept me going. Thank you.
Remember Flame Tools? Or Flame Game, heck, even that scratched project Cosmic? I remember those very well. I still can’t believe we exceeded 460 viewers on that website that we got blocked (sites.google.com). I may have more skills now, but there's just something about the old quantum that still screams “I AM BETTER!” and honestly, we wouldn’t have been as close as we are now without those websites. Just think about it, we were finding out funny things just from our chromebooks. I wish I could just go back to 7th grade and find out what went wrong.