Tetris Quest: The Tale of AJ and the World Saviors

I hadn't realized how much I'd missed the sounds of my home city until I returned. A plane was taking off from Logan International as I stepped out of the cab, and it passed overhead with a roar. The engine's roar faded into the background, but the sound of tires on concrete remained. This was my first trip back to Boston since moving to California for school, and I'd forgotten how much everything was amplified in this city: the cars, the people, even the smell of hot dog stands and Chinese food was more intense than ever before.

It had been three years since I'd moved away, and seeing all those familiar sights brought me right back to the day that Josh left. Josh Mason -- my best friend since we were in kindergarten together. We met when his family moved to Boston a few months before mine did, and while our parents struggled to make new friends, Josh and I just clicked. By middle school we were inseparable; he taught me how to fish at Myles Standish State Park and I taught him how to play Magic: The Gathering.

When we started high school, things changed for us. He got interested in computers, like most nerds do, and he spent more time hanging out with his new group of friends than he did with me. Everything seemed fine at first -- we still hung out every weekend and went to games with each other's families -- but as time went on it became harder for us to find time for each other outside of school.

Our senior year rolled around, and that's when things got weird between us. He started skipping class way too often for me not to notice something was going on. I confronted him about it once we got home from school one day, but he refused to talk about it until we were somewhere more private than my car in front of our houses.

We walked down by the river near the university where we used to study together so often that year. He began talking almost immediately after we sat down on a bench overlooking the waterway that divided Beacon Hill from Cambridge.

"I've been accepted into MIT," he told me quietly as soon as he got settled next to me on the bench. "I'm going there next year."

What? "That's great," I said slowly, trying not to sound hurt by his sudden announcement. "You're gonna be a big deal." Inside though, my stomach sank into itself like I'd just swallowed a rock whole. Where does that leave us?

"It is," he said wistfully, almost as if reading my mind or sensing my worry through our friendship bond or whatever you want to call it. "But it means that when we graduate next month...we won't see each other as much anymore."

I didn't respond right away; instead, I looked down into the water flowing past our feet and tried not to break down crying in front of him like some love-struck teenager who just found out her boyfriend broke up with her over text message. "Josh," I finally said in a shaky voice when I couldn't take it any longer; "you know how much you mean to me..."

He put his hand on mine where it rested on my thigh; normally this would've made me smile uncontrollably but now it only served as fuel for my sadness: what if this is the last time he touches me like this? "I know," he whispered gently; "and you mean just as much to me."