POP POP the feeling of the vibrations running through my body as I watch his fall to the ground. Sprinting towards him when I puzzle that he can no longer fend for himself. The face of the man I used to love has now lost all of its colors and the lips I used to kiss are now purple with no breaths. No sign of the gunman. 

2 weeks later. 

Ding Dong, the short but loud sound of the doorbell rings throughout the house giving me an escape from my thoughts. That must be her. I walk to the door with my head low praying it is just my mother. While opening the door slowly, I see a taller and older woman's figure through the crack. “Sky, if I were a killer, I would have pushed the door all the way open by now.” My mother says with a straight face. A sigh of relief flows out of my mouth as I open the door fully to embrace her.

“I need to get a peephole so I can see who I am opening the door for,” I say in a stressed-out manner. 

Nodding back at me with a sympathetic smile, she asks “Are you ready to leave?”.

 I look down at the striped matching pajama set I have on and run to my room. “20 minutes” I say laying the all-black dress on the bed.

“We’re going to be late” she states as I run back and forth from the bathroom to my room and from my room back to the bathroom.

“I’ve been stuck in my thoughts all day I got carried away with time” I yell from the bathroom, over the now running water of the shower.

 I step onto the cold tiled floor and let the hot water run down my body. When I close my eyes and put my head under the pressured water all I see is him. When I rub the shampoo on my scalp all I remember is him always asking for me to massage his head. When I rub the conditioner on my ends I remember his countless attempts at braiding my hair for future practice for our daughters. I step out of the tiled floor and onto the soft carpet. I ring out my hair in one towel and wrap myself in another. I ran to the bedroom to change into the dress. 8 minutes to go. I ran back to the bathroom to dry my hair. I put my heels on. 0 minutes to go. I shut the door to the car and we got on the road. 10 minutes away. The stop sign at the end of the road is so bright and red that I thought about it the whole ride there. When I step into the funeral I immediately see them all together. Axel, Brooke, and Mason. We were all best friends with Noah when we were younger but I haven’t seen them in over 5 years. 

“Sky! Sorry we meet again under such circumstances” Brooke says in a shaky voice.

“Yea it sucks like this but it's been so long” I reply waving to the others. 

In the few seconds, I have to get better looks. I pick apart their traits. Brooke with her thin, a little past shoulder-length blonde hair and green eyes. Mason with his light brown short hair and brown eyes. Then there's Axel with his black lengthier hair, icy blue eyes, and scars that are only noticeable if you look closely enough. I stare at him a little longer than intended.

“Sky, I'm so sorry for your loss.” He says as he brings his arms out for me.

 It runs a slow chill down my spine making me want to go but I stay because I’m intrigued. 

Muffled in his chest I say “Thank you Ax''. He smiles pulling me back as he remembers me calling him that in middle school. Mason has always been the shy one so I didn’t expect him to say anything at first. “Hi Mason, it's nice to see you again” I say in a kind tone.

He hugs me and mumbles “I'm sorry for your loss”. 

“Thanks Mace” I say back ruffling his hair like a child to make him less uncomfortable. 

After lots of crying and putting ourselves through misery, the funeral is finally over. My mother leaves right away because she has to catch her flight back home. I hug everyone goodbye and thank them for coming. The 3 of them are still here seeming to be waiting for something. Brooke comes up to me hugging me once again. 

“I know it's been a rough couple of weeks for you but why don’t you come back to the hotel with us to catch up.” She says in a hopeful tone.

“Just a little while, it's getting late” I say back.

I ride back with Ax since my mom left and Brooke and Mace left together. The car ride is anything but silent. Already we are catching up on things but he seems to put pieces together about me faster than I can do it myself. We don’t beat them to the hotel but we arrive shortly after. One drink turned into two drinks turned into three before I started to fade away. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who noticed, considering shortly after I did, Brooke suggested crashing there rather than attempting to make it home safely. 

“I have an extra bed if you care to use it” Axel says with a warmhearted smile. I blink slowly trying to form my words. 

“Y-ye-yes please” I manage to stutter. 

He practically carries me upstairs due to my jelly legs. 

When we reach the 13th floor, he leads me into the room. As soon as I step foot into the room, all I can think about is crashing into the deepest sleep of the last couple of weeks. Floating in Egyptian cotton. No sooner does my head hit the pillow than there's a knock at the door. Ax looks into the peephole but doesn’t open the door. Instead, he starts pacing and runs his hands up and down his face. Running his fingers through his hair he starts apologizing. I lay on the bed confused watching him slowly unravel. 

“Axel, what's wrong?” I say with a concerned look

“How did they find out? They must've followed you here” He says back angrily

“What do you mean? What are you even saying?” I reply, rubbing my temples

“I should've never brought you here. All I wanted was for us to be together” He states staring me down. I stare blankly at him while my brain is working slower than usual. I stumble out of bed to make my way to the door, to see who he could be referring to. I go to open the door but the safety lock is on and it won’t open all the way. I can see through the small opening that the police are on the other side. A million things race through my head. What are they doing here? Why is he so afraid? Please tell me this isn’t about Noah. He grabs me from behind, throwing his hand over my mouth begging me to keep quiet. Dragging me further and further away from the door we eventually reach the balcony. I fight as hard as I can to break free from his grasp. Just as the police kick in the door, I try to push him off of me but he pulls me closer as we both take our last breaths, falling from the sky.