Horizon

      Colors burst across the sky as the sun began to awaken. Pinks, reds, oranges. It was beautiful. Inhaling deeply, I took in the scent of fir trees and the river. It smelled absolutely amazing. I looked over at Macy and scanned her face. She was perched next to me, a look of intense concentration on her face. Following her gaze, I looked out at the forest below and spotted a bear fishing in the river. It had in its mouth a fairly large salmon and by its side another bear had its paws in the river. They grabbed up several fish from the lake before apparently being satisfied and heading back into the woods. I watched them leave until they were obscured by the trees. A small, mischievous smile found its way to my lips.

           “Fascinating, isn’t it?” A startled gasp proved what I had suspected; Macy had not been watching the bear. She had been thinking.

           “I- yeah! Bears… Amazing? Right?” She stumbled over her words, attempting to figure out what I had been asking about. I laughed and soon she joined me, but it seemed sharper than normal. Turning back to observe the sunrise, I was soon absorbed in the beauty. Everything about sunrises had always intrigued me from the colors to the sun never failing to come up. It was consistent, never failing to be there for me. Just like Macy. Glancing back at her, her concentration had returned. Something was definitely wrong and I needed to find out what.

           “Are you okay?” I asked. My worried tone seemed to perturb her. She tilted her head and gave me a big grin. A big, fake grin. I frowned at her and then made puppy eyes. Shaking her head, she picked at the grass.

           “Of course! Don’t worry about me!” Her confident tone almost made me forget my worries, but there was just something off. I could sense it in the air. Something was very wrong. When the sky finally turned blue, Macy dug around in the backpack she had brought. I heard wrappers wrinkling and papers being pushed to the side. A look of excitement revealed to me that she had found whatever it was in there and a quick motion brought out a small box. It was covered in brown paper and tied together with an orange ribbon. The top made it impossible to see what was in there. Wrinkling my brows, I looked from the box to her.

           “What’s this?” Macy faltered for a second before handing the box to me. She seemed to study me as if wondering why I was confused.

           “Open it.” I rolled my eyes and pulled on the ribbon. It easily came apart in my hands. Macy motioned to me to hurry up, excitement written across her face. Rubbing a thumb over the top, I picked the top up. Inside was a woven bracelet with a beautiful sunflower charm. The clip looked fairly old, but sturdy and elegant. I looked over at Macy and smiled only to see she was already grinning.

           “And look, the best part, I have a matching one!” She pulled her wrist from behind her back to show a nearly identical bracelet. Her grin grew impossibly bigger as I shook my head, smiling slightly.

           “What’s the occasion?” I chuckled as she proceeded to clip the bracelet around my wrist. Her infectious grin seemed to falter for a second as if I had hurt her. Desperately trying to figure out what today was, she answered the question with a roll of her eyes.

           “It’s the fifth anniversary of the day we met and promised to each other we would be friends for the rest of our lives, silly.” Macy poked me in the ribs and I shook my head, still laughing.

           “Well, excuse me for not remembering this momentous occasion.” She glared playfully as I exaggerated the last two words, understanding now why I might have hurt her. I honestly did not remember though.

           “It isn’t my fault your memory is failing you.” She snickered as I gasped in feigned offense. Once the laughter died out, I studied her face. It was as if nothing had been wrong, but the dread coiling around in my stomach made me uneasy.

           “You wanna tell me what you were thinking about earlier?” Macy’s smile immediately dropped.

           “I… Just thinking about the best way to give you your present.” Stumbling over the excuse, Macy gave me a dopey smile. Her eyes were hard though, signaling to me that I should drop it. Quickly apologizing for forgetting today, she smiled once more before quickly taking out supplies for a picnic breakfast.

 I never thought this would be the last time I saw her. Later that day, she went to the beach with some other friends. Deciding I was too tired, I told her I was not going to come. I tried to warn her about my uneasy feeling, but she laughed it off as just me being upset about forgetting our day. She had drowned after swimming too far out. If I had gone, maybe I could have saved her. Maybe she would still be here with me. Laughing. Joking. I rubbed my thumb over the charm on her bracelet. Her parents had given it to me shortly after the accident not knowing what else to do with it. My palm brushed the grass where she had sat just a week before, hoping maybe she would still be there. I knew better though. No matter how many times I rubbed my hand over the grass, she would never be right there. The sun drifted so it was just barely still over the horizon. Reds, oranges, and purples painted the sky along with a navy blue that exposed some stars. Wrapping Macy’s bracelet around a small wildflower, I stared down at the moon’s reflection in the lake below before turning around; with teary eyes I left the only thing I had left of Macy behind.