Tears slipped slowly down Corliss’s face as she read that small bit of paper that had been in the letterbox. Her hands shook as she read it for the third time. She still couldn’t fully grasp what had happened. She wasn’t expecting anything like it. Her mum had given her a small bit of paper when she came down for breakfast, pitying glancing met her from all sides of the table until she had had enough and ran to her room. The first time she read the letter she couldn’t breathe. The second time she almost vomited. She didn’t cry until now, her third time reading it. It was a simple looking note, just a piece of paper, folded up the way he always folded things, written in black ink. She was expecting some silly joke or a time to meet up. He used to do those things all the time, he loved sending letters. It couldn’t have been further from the truth. They wouldn’t be seeing each other soon enough at all. He was gone and wasn’t coming back. He was moving even further than the other side of the world. She reread it for the fourth time:
Dear Cor,

I’m so sorry that I couldn’t stay longer. I just couldn’t live this life anymore. Everything was too hard. It wasn’t your fault. When you went on holidays I just couldn’t keep myself going. I will miss you, but please don’t follow me. Thank you for all the good times we had together. I’m sorry I couldn’t go any further.

Your Best Friend,
Bas
P.s. Remember people teasing you because your best friend was a boy? Well, you won’t have that problem anymore.

Now she was on the floor of her room. She didn’t know how she had gotten there, one moment she had been standing and the next she was on the floor. Clutching the letter to her she sobbed. Her tears overwhelmed her and she curled into a ball. She was shaking. He had actually gone through with it, she thought. He had been feeling so much better, but now he was gone. As she shook, her dark hair fell across her face. Her body shuddered with the breaths that didn’t want to come out. She just wanted to stop breathing, but she knew that wasn’t an option at the moment. She wished it was, she wished she could have been the one to go instead of him, but she knew she couldn’t. She stayed on the floor, she was too exhausted to do anything else.