From the gym’s storage room comes the smell of moldy mats. The lines on the court make it clear where each of us stands. A dove fell to its death in the corridor. Akutagawa looks better than he ever did inside the textbook. The trees are affixed to beams on the roadside, almost like crucifixions in a line. All they want to do is stretch out their limbs, but they can’t break free from their uniforms. They have to look left by making a few rights, and when instructed they can about-face single file. Youth is the only salvation they can find, so I’m praying on my knees that you never grow up. We tossed Monday onto the curbside. Even the garbage man passed him on by, so he rolled around and rusted in the sea air. The thing that made it so hard to breathe was the fact that this was no place to live. Maybe we're on the wrong planet after all. I don’t remember it being so difficult admitting to all of the things that I like. I guess I’ll take a deep breath and dive down below the waves. I’ll dive into the very depths of your heart, deeper than anyone would have believed possible. Waiting here in vain inside the large train station. My ice cream melted at the same time the horn’s whole note played. The closer we get, the more we come to know. And when there’s so much we don’t know, we gaze at the school district across the river. Don’t ever talk to us about tomorrow, and we hate talking about our future even more. Fireworks are beautiful because they last a moment, but honestly I wish they’d last forever. I pretend not to see all the things around me, and pretend not to know all the things that I do. I can’t believe that I’ve grown up so much and learned to wear a smile like everyone else. We threw Monday right into the river. He was cut to ribbons when he hit the water and split the reflection of the full moon in two. The thing that made my chest hurt so much was the fact that we came to understand each other. Maybe all of us are psychic after all. I don’t remember it being so selfish admitting to all the things that I hate. I guess I’ll take a deep breath and dive down below the waves. I’ll dive into the very depths of your heart, deeper than anyone would have believed possible. We might not be normal or what anyone expected, but we at least wanted to be somebody special. But since we were unable to become anybody special, we at least needed a single person to accept us. Either by you, or maybe even by me, or maybe even by all of us stuffed inside this garbage pail. If you were to ask me, then ever since a long time ago, you’d already made something special out of yourself. We threw Monday out the tallest window. He burned up in the atmosphere and left a giant crater in my heart. It looks exactly like the one so many others have. But I know that we really aren’t one in the same. There’s nothing scarier than goodbyes. So let’s make a promise right here and now, a promise that we’ll never grow apart. We vowed, knowing that “never” isn't forever. Love and friendship must be deeper than anyone had thought possible.
