Those nice sunny days

Lawrence’s favorite month was April. He liked that time of the year because he loved to watch the flowers bloom in the trees, on the prairies, in the garden that belonged to his grandmother, and even in the cracks of the sidewalks.

During those nice, sunny days, I would sit with him in the park. Often, I would fall asleep, but Lawrence would just laugh and lean against me and we would be in complete peace and silence.

The silence that we’d have together wouldn’t last long, though. We’d be rudely interrupted by a phone call from his cell phone. His father would be asking where he was and why he wasn’t home yet. Lawrence would look at the ground with a displeased look and I’d just smile politely at me as he spoke into the receiver.

His parents weren’t bad people, at least, not that I knew. But they did seem overprotective over their only child. Lawrence, nor I, saw no need for that. We both knew that he was already sixteen years of age and quite capable of taking care of himself.

After walking my friend home, he’d give me a wistful smile that made me think everything would be okay. But the sounds of booming thumps that came, which were his father’s footsteps, made me think otherwise.

Lawrence would see the worry in my face and he’d reply, “Everything’s fine.”

He was such a laid back person, and that to myself was comforting. He was always the one supporting me, and I wondered who it was that supported him. When I tripped and fell, it was Lawrence who would crouch down to my level and help me up. If I ever forgot my wallet or had no money, he’d pay for my share of what I needed and wouldn’t ask to be paid back.

Lawrence was a kind, but quiet person. He’d have no problem talking to me, but some subjects were off limits, especially about his home life. I’d been to his house once before, but that was when his parents were off in a formal party, hosted by the company of where his father worked.

When I saw Lawrence’s room, it was empty and clean, but still elegant. It seemed as if he never touched his room or did anything in it. I could understand, I suppose, because most of the day, we were in the game room and also outside just sitting by his pool.

His house was pretty huge, but he didn’t like talking about it or anything else like that, that could’ve separated us into two different worlds. His parents both worked for two successful enterprises that made them a lot of money and they apparently had a large amount of expectations for their son.

I was never envious of him, because he always seemed to amaze me.

The pressure that his parents always put on him was heavily intense and yet he still smiled nonchalantly everyday that I saw him. I suppose he knew of who or what he had to live up to, but he knew he couldn’t be perfect.

Lawrence had his own dreams after all, and so only focused on that and anything else that was important to him. If he had to, he’d tell off his parents just to make it his own life and uncontrolled. I do remember one night when he called me at two o’clock in the morning. I picked up the phone and asked what was wrong. At first, there was only silence, and I was thinking of hanging up, but then came Lawrence’s voice, cracked and distraught. “Lawrence, what’s wrong?” I asked, confused, as I rubbed my eyes open. I heard him take a deep breath and exhale a heavy sigh. “I can’t sleep,” I heard him mumble with a waver in his voice.

I kept him up that night; or rather he kept me up. I didn’t understand what had happened but it seemed as if there was conflict in their house. Neither of us got any sleep as we kept awake on the phone, just talking about things that would randomly come to our heads; anything to distract Lawrence from the situation.

It was unhealthy for him to do that; to keep all his anger in and keep himself from expressing any of it, but I wasn’t one to push, so I didn’t pry. I just thought that he should talk about it whenever he wanted to. Besides, he knew that I’d be there to listen. We were the closest of friends after all.

The next day after that night, both of us arrived at school, tired and anxious. He was twitching all day, and I was just grumpy, but whenever our eyes met, we’d smile; he’d be thanking me for whatever good he’d thought I’d done, and I’d assure him that I’d always be there for him.

This would seldom happen though. Lawrence was a pretty self-composed person and he would rarely ever have a breakdown, though the few times that he did, he would only tell or seek support from me.

Usually, when we were trying to make ourselves feel better, we’d go out and stuff our faces with either cheap junk food or the most expensive cuisine in the city. Of course, most of the time, we’d be more into junk food, but Lawrence loved Italian food. He’d insist on us going to his favorite Italian restaurant and ordering all the specialties.

He claimed to know how to speak Italian, himself, but when I insisted that he say something to me in that language, he’d refuse, turning his head away. Sometimes, Lawrence could be shy like that and he hated it, but I only found it cute.

I liked especially when he was being silly. He’d make the funniest jokes and we’d end up laughing all our worries out as we giggled uncontrollably on the grass.

We’d spend most of our times outside, either in the park or exploring some new territory that we could make into our new secret place.

He loved to explore and also finding new things or places. I was one of the only that he’d invite to go adventuring with him and it gave us both excitement.

At the end of the day, Lawrence would be lying, tired, on the ground with eyes closed and breathing hard. I would slowly make my way out of any obstacles that were there and finally catch up to my best friend.

Lawrence was much faster than me and had much more energy. But eventually, we’d both run out and replaced with muscle aches and exhaustion. He’d give it two days or so until he’d call me to go back to that same place we’d been before and make it our own territory. Sometimes, we’d invite our other friends as well and just all hang out there.

Lawrence was, as I knew him to be, a happy and well-fulfilled child.