Pieces of You

"Kid, you're an unstoppable force." My grandpa smiles at me and then reaches for his fork for another piece of his famous chocolate cake.

"You think so? I really want to get into this school." I placed my plate on the table and fiddled with my fingers.

"You will get into that school, don't sweat it. But you've got this, it's already written in the stars." My grandpa says with a mouth full of cake.

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"Okay, everything is packed. You ready, Gabriel?" My mom squeezed me so hard I swear I could feel the air popped out of my lungs.

"Ready." I took a deep breathe and got into the passenger seat.

"Your grandpa would be so proud of you, Gabriel." My mom gripped the steering wheel and turned to look at me for a moment.

"Mom, please." I turned my body towards the window and let a few tears slip.

My grandpa passed a couple of months ago, right after Nan's death anniversary. He had gotten depressed and needed to be fed through a tube. A couple days later, his heart had just stopped from what the doctors described as 'Broken Heart Syndrome'. I remember he told me a couple weeks before he got hospitalized, "When Nan took her last breath, it was like someone took away my eternal light. But you leave sunshine everywhere you go, I get to feel some of it when I see you, Gabe." He used to sing 'Walking on Sunshine' to me on his best days. My tears poured and they fit with the gloomy day. I don't think I have any sunshine left to leave.

"The rain looks like it's finally at an end." My mom said peaking her head a little to see outside the window.

"Grandpa didn't lie." I ducked my head down to see the top of the sky through the windshield.

"Yeah, why's that?" My mom furrowed her brows at me with curiosity.

"He said he would be here to walk with me my first day at university." I stared at the sunshine peaking through the clouds just as we had arrived.

We pulled into the visitors parking, that was already filled with a lot of lost looking freshman and crying parents. I got out of the car and headed for the trunk to start getting my things.

"Geez, don't try to leave me so fast." My mom pulled me for possibly the biggest hug and tightest.

"I need air to breathe, mom." I said to her but truthfully I didn't want it to end.

We finally made it to my dorm with all of my things, because who makes two trips? I opened the door to find another student already occupying half of the room.

"Um, hey." I'm not really sure how to greet someone I've never met but going to spend an entire year living with.

"Hey, I'm Evan." He stood up to greet my mom and I.

I've been here for around three months now, I don't think I could really love it anymore than I do. Evan and I discovered we're both from the same city, a couple hours away from the university. We're basically best friends or maybe just the only friend we have is with each other. We both come from single parent homes. Evan was hospitalized a while ago, after the apartment building he lived in had caught fire from a restaurant next door. He was trapped inside for what he described felt like hours. Evan said that sometimes he can still taste the smoke his lungs and the fire burning his hand. He was thankfully rescued before the fire had taken over the whole apartment.

"Wanna study outside? Feels like a waste of sun if we spend it inside." Evan said already packing his things, I didn't even get to respond.

"No." I got up and packed my things with him.

We get outside to see the grass area is already completely filled with students who had the same bright idea. We found a little spot after a further of a walk than I had wanted.

"Don't laugh, but I need my sunshine." Evan laughed and put on 'Walking on Sunshine'.

I sucked in air just loud in enough for him to hear. I hadn't told him about my grandpa, and I wasn't ready to. I packed all my things up, dumped them into my backpack and left.

"Gabe, where you going?" I could hear him say behind me.

I tried to avoid Evan after that for a couple of days, but I felt bad not explaining why I can't talk to him. He had finally broken the silence between us and asked me what happened. And I finally spoke about my grandpa. I told him about the song and that his passing was hard for me. When my grandpa passed, he had taken my sunshine with him.

"If I knew, I would've never-"

"I know, I'm sorry I just left."

Evan sat next to me on my bed. "When I had arrived to the hospital, that song was playing."

Evan and I had probably the dumbest idea, to set our parents up. A sort of parent trap for thanksgiving. He had convinced his dad and I convinced my mom, to have a thanksgiving dinner together since we already live in the same city. Evan had drove me home for the break and he went home after meeting my mom.

"Can we make grandpas famous mud cake? I want Evan to try it." I looked at the dishes trying not to make a big deal that I can finally talk about him without crying.

"I think we could make that work." My mom rubbed her hands on her apron and picked up the potato peeler.

Thanksgiving dinner is about to start and I'm a little scared my mom is going to figure out what Evan and I are trying to do. I hear the doorbell ring and I basically bolt down the stairs.

"I got it!" I yell to my mom from the entrance hallway.

"Okay, tell Evans dad I'll be right there, just need to finish frosting our mud cake!" She yelled back.

"Hey. Hi, Mr. Davis." I had signaled for them to come in.

"You must be the great Gabriel I keep hearing about. And you can call me-"

"Mark?" My mom called out from behind me.

We all turned to my mom and then back to Evans dad.

"Lindsey?" Evans dad, apparently Mark, said.

"You guys know each other?" Evan and I said in unison.

"Not really." They both also said in unison.

We all sat awkwardly at the dinner table, unsure how to break the tension. Is Mark an old boyfriend of my moms? Evan and I exchanged 'dude' and 'I know' looks.

"Are you guys going to tell us how you know each other or are we seriously eating in silence?" Evan had finally said what we were both thinking.

Mark and my mom exchanged looks.

"We met... we met at the hospital during the time your grandpa..." Mom looked down at her plate and put her fork down after playing with it.

"When were you at the hospital, dad?" Evan had some serious interrogating vibes.

"It was during the time the apartment building caught on fire and you were put in the induced coma." Mark looked up to look at my mom.

"Your grandpa wasn't looking well. I had stepped out of the room to let you talk to him and Mark walked into the waiting room. I was a mess and I couldn't stop crying."

"I got water and tissues for the both of us, I told Lindsey about the incident and I listened about her, well your grandpa."

It's weird to think my mom and I had lived through the same day in a different way. That day, my grandpa asked me to play 'Walking on Sunshine' for him and told me, "I will be with you on your first day and every day after, it's already written in the stars, kid."

"So, this is.. Evan? Well, I'm glad to see that he made it." My mom looked up at Evan and Mark and smiled.

"Well, barely. I was put on a transplant list for a right lung, it had died from all the smoke." Evan took a bite of the cheesy mashed potatoes.

"Yeah, we were fortunate that he had gotten a lung a couple of hours after they had brought him in." Mark said nodding his head.

The room felt quiet and nobody wanted to speak anymore. We all had the same thought running through our minds. The smell of the turkey and mashed potatoes filled the room. The candles my mom set as the center piece were now starting to drip wax onto the table.

"Evan Davis." My mom stated as a fact.

"Yeah?" Evan turned confused.

"That's the name of the person my dads lung was donated to." My mom placed her hand on her heart and tears filled her eyes.

My grandpa had never lied to me. He was there for my first day of school and everyday after. After all, it was already written in the stars.

By Paola Lissette