Mourning

Moments after his final breath left his body I could feel he was gone. The room began to feel cold and empty, it seemed smaller than it had been and I felt like I was suffocating in its walls. I held tightly to my mother, unmoving as I felt her sob, rubbing her back as she mourned. My own breath was trapped in my lungs, I focused on steadying it as we called for Kip, I stared forward as Kip announced the time of death and covered my dear friend's lifeless body in the thin, white hospital sheet. I clenched my jaw as Mom and I wordlessly gathered the items she'd brought in only moments before, and I did not shed a tear as we turned our backs from the body of our friend and walked out.

I drove us home, mother still uncontrollably shaking in her grief. I welcomed the numbness in my limbs as I guided her into the house, running her a hot bath and readying her bed. I left a cup of tea on her nightstand and the softest pajamas she owned and sat unmoving in the dark kitchen, my eyes b