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They were teenagers when they first met, where they so happened to sync Timezones to see each other’s posts on a travelling forum somewhere lost to time.
Diego was a sophomore barely getting through high-school, his live being filled with various gigs he could find. he had work boots one size too large, a beaten down green jacket, unshaven with big dreams to venture from his home town.
Lucie was a junior with a life filled to the brim with study, and the crumpled paper of report cards. Wearing nothing but pristine, picture perfect catholic girl clothes, and a white clean headband.
Diego couldn’t bring himself to remember what she posted about but when he found her, he couldn’t explain his ecstatic reaction through reading her post; a girl his age who wanted to explore the world like he did! It was a thing of celebration for him, he never thought someone his age would love the idea of travelling the same way he did.
When he saw a post by Lucie talking about her desire to meet somebody her age on the forum— Diego swore he never messaged anyone faster in his life, but he had no idea how fast Lucie would reply. But when she did, Lucie and him fit well together. Their personalities just seemed to click from their first messages, they found small talk interesting enough to snowball into shy Virtual video calls in mere weeks.
Lucie warmed up enough to Diego that she was comfortable teasing him about his interests or what, and Diego would be a liar to say he hadn’t played up his reactions to just make her smile. He would be a liar to say he wasn’t loving the way Lucie laughed, or how it warmed his heart to see her smile genuinely at his cheesy jokes.
Lucie was the first person to actually tolerate Diego’s true silly personality, and he’s pretty sure he was the first guy to be genuinely interested in her rambles about studying, design work, and fashion. Sometimes diego would show her his horrible outfits just to see how she reacted, he loved seeing her feign angry typing or scolding when she saw them.
But no matter what Diego would always be there for her whenever she needed him to be. It was him who noticed the little shifts in Lucie’s behaviour, just knowing she was upset whenever he saw the slight crease in her brow and her relentless finger tapping. Quietly reassuring her worries for her future, telling her how smart and wonderful he knew she was that she would definitely be accepted wherever she goes. Comforting her by making fake travel plans with her to take her to brazil, talking to her about the sights near his hometown and in return she would talk about the sights in France when she felt better.
Somedays they had their happy laidback calls where they goofed off like any other teenager, other days they had vulnerable phone calls with each other when times were rough in their personal lives. Not to mention the all-nighters filled with intense studying for exams to the quiet confessions they would make about their lives, sometimes one would fall asleep during their confessions and the other would silently laugh at the other.
Sleeping on call wasn’t uncommon but Diego cherished it each time it happened between them, he loved looking up every once in a while to see his favourite person curled up against her chair or head down on the desk.
By the time they were 19, they were inseparable from one another. They moved in together, and planned out where they wanted to go together. What sights they wanted see together, places they wanted to experience together. Diego couldn’t picture a life without his best friend, and Lucie couldn’t picture a life where he wasn’t there standing by her side.
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Diego and Lucie on a kitchen counter in their shitty apartment, sweating their asses off with water and a few frozen treats shared between them as their shitty fan whirls on in the background
Lucie muttering something in french as she gently patches Diego up from a particularly bad fight with the landlord, this time Diego couldn’t let The landlord continue to dehumanize the amazingly complex Lucie to “white trash who’s only good for her body”.
Lucie would’ve felt better by that act of heroism, if it didn’t mean Diego would have to get hurt. The two stayed in their living room together that night, Diego curled up in Lucie’s lap and Lucie gently braiding his hair into what she called a ‘viking warrior’s mane’. Diego would deny it if anything asked if he liked the hairstyle, but he liked the feeling Lucie’s hands press against his scalp.
Diego taking care of Lucie after her flight to Brazil, her jetlag hit hard on the moment Diego collected her from the Airport. Pushing Diego to take care of his friend in person for the first time, Lucie would never admit how much it meant to her that Diego cancelled all of their plans for a week just to take care of Lucie. Diego putting Lucie on bedrest unnecessarily, treating her like she was just a sickly baby kitten he brought in. Nursing her back to health with the help of hearty home-cooked stews and a little bit of exposure to Brazilian culture, helping her adjust slowly to the completely different culture she now lived with him in.
It was the first time for Lucie that she saw his sweet personality up close, she saw it in his fretting when she stumbled, his worry creased brow when she accidentally cut herself with a knife, the gentle hold he’d give her in the mornings when she was cooking breakfast and the nervous glances he shared to her when he noticed anyone scary looking next to her. They’ve been living with each other for 6 months when Diego started to mutter soft words to her in Portuguese, she wouldn’t learn the weight of their meaning until Diego he to teaching her his mother tongue. Lucie being nicked by Diego as his “little apple” after he saw her affinity for apples, it was teasing the first few times until she was sick with food poisoning after they ate at a shady restaurant.
Lucie arguing with a shop owner after they tried to excuse them trying to rip Diego off ten whole dollars extra on a water, adamantly demanding they own up to their mistake and offer a discount; she got the deal in the end, she always does. No one dares to match Lucie’s level, and those who do either end up losing out on more money or end up getting Lucie to pay her due. Diego loved watching her, it filled him with a sense of pride seeing her fight actively for what she believed was right. Diego saw the power his best friend held in her, she was more than a free spirited woman and he loved her for that.
Diego loved everything about Lucie, he could recall a lot of things he loved about Lucie and remember most of how she lived with him.
Because thats just how much he loved her.
He remembered she liked collecting little patches from wherever they travelled, he remembered how she always used a particularly cheap apple comb for her ends, he remembered the little taps on his shoulders of her silently asking for his permission, and he remembered the faint scent of apples on her clothes when they hugged.
he remembered her.
He could recall when she made a fuss about diego forgetting to put his own laundry away as if she would’ve do to for him anyways, or how her eyes lit up whenever she woke up to a breakfast in bed, or how she grinned when he realized she switched their hair products.
And he never truly forgot how she excited she was to come to brazil for the first time, her infectious joy and welcoming presence was overwhelming the first time he felt it. how could he when Lucie was a person after all, how could anyone forget a person? But with time, he started to forget the littler things about her.
About what stories she told him on the many nights they spent in their cramped rooms, nestled into a mess of blankets with his head tucked into her shoulder and their hands intertwined.
He forgot about the little affectionate french nicknames she gave him, and he forgot about the map she had decorated with stickers for places they would travel.
He forgot about how she laughed whenever Diego said something stupidly charming about the obvious, he had forgotten how she used to badly sing in french during the nights they had way too much to drink. Or how he had to hold her head up whenever she cried about her horrible parents because he wanted her to know he was there for her.
He doesn’t want to come to terms that he’s slowing forgetting the things that made her Lucie, that he will soon forget everything small about her.
That he’d only remember that she was a confident, smart woman who was more assertive than he could’ve ever been, how she was the real reason why he learned how to argue for what he knew was right, or that she was only one who believed Diego wasn’t just some dumb kid who knew nothing about survival.
Lucie was everything to Diego, he loved her more than he had ever known. She was the best fucking friend hes ever had, there is not a day where Diego grieves the missing half of his very soul. It pains him that with each passing day, he knows that he’s forgetting more and more about his best friend and that he’s slowly losing every detail he used to pride himself in knowing about her.
He knows that she believed in him enough to stay, enough to learn about him more than his own family did.
—————
But now, He’s forgetting about her.
He’s forgetting his best friend, Lucie Pocharde, the best and most courageous woman he’s ever met.
He’s trying not too forget her, he’s been rereading old texts recently, logging back into old accounts to look at what they posted together, and recently he’s been going through old photos.
Old photos of he’s taken of Lucie, alive and smiling, standing in front of beautiful sunsets, busy streets, and lively atmospheric cafes. Old photos where she made stupid faces to the camera in odd angles, and even in death, making him laugh for the first time in months. Her warm personality spilled from every candid photo she took, and the ones Diego took of her enjoying their surroundings only captured how breathtaking of a woman she was. She was larger than any monument she stood by, brighter than the sunsets they watched together.
These small momentos of Lucie when she lived the life she wanted to, where her face only held her excitement and bewilderment for how beautiful the world was. It was these small things that kept her memory alive when his memory failed him, yet it couldn’t stave off the deep seated feeling of emptiness he felt.
He missed Lucie.
He missed his best friend.