Ever since kindergarten I had a friend F. My mom and his mom would take turns on which one would bring us / pick up from the kindergarten. One of my earliest memories was on what I believe to be his 4th birthday. It was power-ranger themed.

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After kindergarten I switched schools. Only to be randomly greeted by him (and some other people from my kindergarten) at my school at the time, around 10 years later. I was super happy!

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Our friendship was going good. We had a mutual friend D. We would hanging in class and at the break / gym class. We passed so many good times the 3 of us.

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At that time, I was very sedentary. So I would not participate in the gym class at all to just hangout at the benches with other people that didn't feel like participating.

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And then there was the day. I believe it was a Wednesday. We had an early class, followed by gym class and then lunch.

I remember we were all playing this mmorpg online at the time, and since I had experience at the game my friend pulled up a piece of paper from his notebook with the champions he would like me to help him learn how play - "can you help me with those champions?", I remember him saying as he stuttered a little bit (he was a stutter since a little kid). I took the paper and said something along the lines 'yeah man we play together right after school!!'.

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And then there was gym class. The people that were participating were playing soccer. His team lost the final match and he was visibly very pissed. As he left the field and came walking towards me, visibly angry and unexpectedly shouted "MY HEAD HURTS", and some people thought that he was joking. I kind of froze there for a couple of seconds until the teacher looked at me screaming "GO GET THE NURSE".

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So I sprint to the nurse's office and get her there ASAP. As we get there, he is laying on the ground saying that he is in so much pain. We evacuated the gym, and a maybe 20 minutes later he leaves in an ambulance.

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Two days later the principal comes into our class to tell us the day of his burial, and that it would take place next week (it was the first time we had any news about him ever since that gym class). So this took many of us by surprise, including myself. Who would've guessed.

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So I shed some tears and grieved my friends death. I kinda shut in, and so did my friend D. (they actually lived in the same building). I think D. took it much worse because it took him 2 months to leave his place after the event. And when he did, he switched schools.

I was asking myself so many questions. Trying to make sense of everything that was happening, as much as a pre-teen could. Including the ride back home in the bus, where I didn't say a word.

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Following my friends passing, I noticed that most if not all the girls from my class started posting (there was this social media website by Google, called Orkut at the time that was very popular at my school). Talking about his memories with him. How they would never forget him.

The thing is, most of these girls would out right bully him. Make fun of him for being skinny, make fun of his speech difficulties, for him not being a 'chad', I don't know. But that left a really bad taste on my mouth. I never looked at them the same again after that.

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And then there was a girl in my bus, M. She was petite, honestly one of the hottest girls at the time. I guess if this event took place today she would be a girl that listens to Ariana Grande or something (maybe she does now? who cares). Either way. She comes to talk to me in front of other people in the bus, and says "I saw you crying the other day. It was over your friend right? That's like, so pathetic of you".

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I don't recall what happened after that. I probably didn't say anything. But that REALLY stung me.

Oh yeah and that girl also spat on my friends face, just because she though that he was ugly.

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Now, almost 10 years later. I took a last look at my Instagram before deleting it. It made me think of the whole thing. I never actually forgot it.

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I never forgot you, F.