The room was dark and I was alone. Most of my friends no longer visited. I didn’t expect them to. The sun had set completely but I didn’t remember it happening. My unfinished lunch sat on the table- a third of a bottle of eight dollar tequila and half of a bummed cigarette.

Suddenly she was there standing halfway in the doorway to the kitchen, one hand idly tracing a pattern on the yellowed wall. Rachel. It had taken more than a year but I was finally accustomed to her random comings and goings. I closed my eyes and inhaled. The accompanying vision was always the same- a sweet wild flower blooming along a slow moving river on a perfect summer day.

“Did you miss me?” She whispered. The touch of her breath on my ear sent a tingling wave of shivers down the length of my skin.

“Yes.” I croaked, knowing that she wasn’t real, but not caring. It didn’t matter anymore. She was more real than the rest of my entire life.

“It’s ok, I’m here now. I’ll always be your best friend and I’ll be here until the very end.”