If It's Bad News, It Can Wait

My three best friends and I planned a weeklong trip
for our spring break during our senior year of high school

We were untethered and free and grown

We left before the sun rose and began the first leg
to Virginia Beach for a couple of days
before heading out to camp on the Outer Banks

When we arrived, we spent the first night playing video games
we brought from home in our hotel room

In the morning, we ventured out into the world
and wandered around until late at night
like spectators or ghosts
as artificial lights burned brighter than daylight
The boardwalk was teeming with youth
brashly claiming adulthood like it was the last day on earth

We retreated back to our hotel, exhausted

The phone in our room rang out at an ungodly hour
(when only bad things are on the other end)

I answered and gave it to Danny
so he could hear his brother passed away

He dropped the phone and bolted out into the hall,
blind with grief

We ran out after him, unsure of what to do

He threw off our embrace and escaped down the stairs to the beach

and haunted the shore of the Atlantic for hours and hours

I waited and watched from a nearby park bench

When he came back, we got into the car and drove the twelve hours back home
and made it just in time for the funeral