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His name is Melvin, and he would say he is, or rather, was, one of Andrew Grave’s closest friends.
Certainly not a close friend by any stretch, just the closest.
The first time Melvin met Andrew was when they were both 8. For some reason, their school thought it was a good idea to assign grade schoolers a year long project to be done in pairs. Melvin and Andrew were the only two in their grade to complete it, united by a shared sense of responsibility that was, in both of their eyes, sorely lacking in the under-ten community.
From there, their friendship was born, with the two roaming all the classic stomping grounds for unwatched kids of their age.
Well, it was never them two. It was always them three, because Ashley was always there.
To be honest, Melvin could’ve done without Ashley. She was loud and annoying and liked to pretend he didn’t exist. Whenever the three of them are together, she would only ever talk to Andrew. Rare was the occasion when she’d acknowledge Melvin’s existence in any way, usually only at Andrew’s direct request. Melvin is pretty certain she didn’t (and still doesn’t) know his name.
In retrospect, he also thinks Ashley was trying to drive him away without making it obvious to Andrew.
That's just how it was though, back then. Ashley and Andrew, Andrew and Ashley, completely inseparable.
“They were joined at the hip,” is what he would’ve said if he were old enough to play with idioms, and “dangerously codependent,” if he were old enough to understand healthy sibling relationships. He could’ve called it “weird,” if he had any experience with siblings at all. But he was an only child, and he was only eight, so everything seemed normal.
He was grateful to be an only child too when he saw what Andrew had to do. Having a little sister (especially one like Ashley!) following him around all day seemed exhausting, and to make it worse, he even had to cook for her, buy food for her, help her with schoolwork, and all the other little things that Melvin’s mom helped him with.
Not that he’d seen any of that directly, since they prefered to do that stuff without him third wheeling. He’d certainly heard about it all the time though, since it seemed like all Andrew ever wanted to talk about is Ashley. With him, everything was all “Ashley this” or “Ashley that”.
One might be led to believe Andrew had absolutely nothing else happening in his life.
By the time Melvin hit high school, they had already started to drift apart. He was at that pubescent age where hanging out with girls was starting to feel a little weird, and Melvin knew that Andrew would gouge his eyes out if he ever saw Andrew’s sister in that weird way. Since Andrew and Ashley were a package deal, Melvin just hung out with them less and less and less.
Andrew didn’t seem to notice or mind, which gave Melvin the sinking feeling that he viewed him as a much closer friend than Andrew did Melvin.
Oh well. Melvin had other friends anyway. Real friends, who he could actually spend time with without their siblings hovering over them. Friends who can watch movies that aren’t just gross splatterfests. Friends where your vote on what to do isn’t always overruled 2-1.
Andrew seemed like he had a few other acquaintances of his own, and he was well enough liked that he could make some real friends if he actually put in any effort, so Melvin didn’t feel too bad leaving Andrew alone.
By the time the two entered college, their contact was limited to acknowledging each other when they passed each other on campus. Their friendship was well and truly dead, if it ever existed in the first place. Melvin had to hear about Andrew dating Julia through the college grapevine.
Despite all that, he would’ve still described himself as Andrew’s closest friend, simply due to the lack of other available candidates.
That is, of course, if he doesn’t count Ashley.
Sure, Andrew had a list of acquaintances far longer than Melvin’s, but none of them could be called friends. To be friends, Melvin thinks, you would have to at least spend time together voluntarily, not just out of convenience or circumstance. Andrew was almost never free when invited anywhere, and seemed to have no interest in ever arranging anything either.
Andrew only really spent time with two people. His girlfriend, rarely, and Ashley, almost constantly.
For someone who never enrolled and didn’t take a single class at the college, Ashley seemed to have better attendance at Andrew’s lectures than the average student.
Melvin wasn’t eight anymore. He knew this was weird and probably unhealthy, but he figured it wasn’t really his business though, so he just tried to stay out of their way. Whenever Melvin saw Ashley in passing, always with Andrew close by, he pretended not to recognise her. Ashley didn’t have to pretend.
Not everyone was as experienced with their weird vibes as Melvin, so some poor fools occasionally try to hit up the supposedly single Ashley. From what he hears, it never went well for any of them. The 1-2 punch of Andrew’s death glare and Ashley’s withering remarks quickly dissuaded any would-be suitors (as well as any would-be friends).
During Melvin’s last semester before graduation, he heard the news that Andrew was quarantined in his apartment. As Andrew’s “closest friend”, Melvin planned to, you know, stop by, say hello through the door, and maybe pass a “get well soon card” or something under the door just so Andrew knows the world outside hasn’t forgotten him.
But between Melvin’s classes and the struggles of navigating his own social life, it slipped his mind. He never ended up going to Andrew’s apartment.
Andrew (and Ashley) died a few months later, when the apartment burned down. When the news reached Melvin, he suddenly felt guilty over never going to visit. He tried to assuage his guilt by going to the funeral, only to learn that no one was planning anything.
Worse still, their parents, who he would have expected to be organizing it (since god knows no one else would), had disappeared without a trace. The police said under suspicious circumstances, but he thought they probably skipped town so they could let their kids down one last time.
In lieu of a real funeral, Melvin held his own little ceremony. He lit a candle, said a few goodbyes, and wished for them to find peace in the afterlife. He hoped that it would make up for never bothering to visit them, and that it would bring the friendship of Melvin and Andrew to its definite closure.
The last time Melvin ever met Andrew was four months after he died.
He certainly hopes it wasn’t Andrew though, because Melvin suspects that the woman Andrew was accompanying was probably Ashley, which made the way they were acting like a lovesick couple very troubling.
Troubling, but not too surprising, Melvin feels.
He’s got a lot of questions for them, like “what’s up with your relationship now,” and “how are you two back from the dead?” But if the vibes were weird before, they’re nuclear level now. No, as far as Melvin is concerned, these two are strangers.
Andrew and Ashley are dead, and any relation between him and them was put to rest four months ago.
So, he pretended not to recognise them. Thankfully, they didn’t recognise him either. He’s grateful for that. He wants no part in whatever funny business lies behind their apparent resurrection, or whatever taboo shit they’re probably getting up to behind closed doors.
He just wants to go back home in peace to his normal job, his normal, non-blood related girlfriend, and his normal life.
If all it costs is to never think about these two again, well, he’d be a fool not to accept.