It was fourth grade when I had the pleasure of meeting Melanie Ortiz. She was the nicest person in the whole school, the purest of them all, she loved animals and helping any living thing that needed help. If she could she would give anything up to another person if they needed. She meant everything to me because in a world where we were kind of being forced to grow up faster than I wanted. She was the one piece in the world where I can be the kid I was and wanted to be. We were inseparable, always on the phone, watching animes together, playing video games together, basically, wherever she was I was and wherever I was she was. The dynamic duo that nobody can come against, we actually had a trio but Melanie was the glue that held us together cause without her we honestly weren’t the best of friends. She was always the glue that held our whole grade together essentially. Everyone loved her and it wasn’t because she had survived cancer at a young age, it was because she was the kindest person in the world. She was our Melanie, not just one person can have her, but everyone knew that she was my best friend. Then she moved to Long Island and everything sort of changed. I had my first boyfriend, our last part of our trio had officially stopped talking to me, and I just gained a new group of friends. Then she got cancer again, went completely blind, then it got worse. I guess because I didn’t want to see her in pain I just ignored her and focused on my boyfriend. Then she passed away and I felt everything hit me all at once. We weren’t kids anymore, now I had to grow up I didn’t have the kid escape I had for years. But I keep going cause even though she’s gone, she’s still the most important in my life.