I Can Fix That

The wind shook the tree tops gently as tears streamed down my face. All the memories of him laughing and pestering me were replaying themselves constantly in my mind. I could still feel his arms around me, I could still hear him laughing, I could still smell his cologne...I could still see him waving at me from down the hall.

"Why Richard? Why'd you leave?" I questioned the air, gazing at the stars above me. "You killed a lot of people when you left...what really happened that day?"

When I didn't get an answer of any kind, as usual, I just closed my eyes. I wanted to forget him. I really truly did...but he never left. He haunted my every thought and I could still remember everyone crying...everyone screaming on the inside for him to come back.

I sighed defeatedly and opened my eyes again to stare at the heavens. A smile placed itself on my lips as I remembered the day I went to his visitations. When I had seen him, I had broken down in the hall...to torn to walk in. But that didn't stop me for long. I had walked into the room with dignity and up to the casket.

My last look at Richard had not been a good one. His face plastered in makeup, his hair combed back...his eyes closed and his chest not moving. Everything he wasn't, is what he was; lying there in the casket...dead.

"I miss you so much." I whispered as one last tear slid down the side of my face.

That was when the wind shifted, and something began to take shape next me.

A human shape, almost transparent yet almost visible, was sitting beside me and placed one hand on my cheek. I sat up and stared into those crystaline eyes I had known so well. We both stared at each other, for how long I don't know, but we stared.

Then he smiled and hugged me for the first time. I broke, I began crying into his shoulder and I held him close.

When I finally stopped, reduced to sniffling like a five year old not getting candy, I smiled at him and bit my lip. I hadn't seen him since the eighth grade orientation, since before he was shot in the head...since before I tried to talk to him for the first time in two months.

"Richard...."

He smiled back at me, grabbing my hands and holding them. It was then I noticed that he was limited on time...he couldn't stay here much longer.

"I can't...I can't." I repeated, searching for something in his eyes. "You don't know what it's like...when you miss someone so much it causes you to mix fact with fiction, do you?"

He didn't answer. He just stared at me with happiness and confusion. It was as if he couldn't speak. I could see his smile fading.

"Richard...I don't know what to do. I'm sixteen, ya'know. You died in the eighth grade, and you haven't aged one bit." I laughed lightly as I let go of his left hand and caressed his cheek. "I'm not the same girl I was in seventh grade, either."

I sighed and hugged him again. I didn't want to let go, but I quickly pulled back and held his shoulders, looking into his eyes.

"I have a broken heart because I could never tell you...I could never tell you that I love you."

Richard looked over my face for a second before unleashing his cheshire cat smile as he pulled me close. I began crying into his shoulder again, weeping for the third time that night. He felt so warm, too...as if he were really alive again.

Then he pushed me back again and stared into my eyes. I could feel him searching my soul for something, though I wasn't sure what.

"I just...I just don't know." I admitted, ignoring the fact I wasn't sure what I was admitting to.

He smiled. "I can fix that."