“Lucy was a brave person. She knew she was going to die, but she fought on like she was going to live forever. I looked up to her, like she was my idol. Nothing could stop her reaching her goal, like even when she knew she only had a day or two to live, we went along to the Hanson concert and met the guys. She loved them more than anything, especially you Zac.”

I said looking over at him and his brothers in the front row. His eyes were watering and he looked away. I continued reading from my paper.

“We would stay up all night sometimes, talking about how gorgeous they were” I said a smile creeping onto my face as I looked at Zac.
“Her favorite songs were of course “Lucy”, and especially “I Will Come To You” and she had a weird passion for snakes. Many of you would’ve heard of her snake, “Madeline”, it got her in quite a bit of trouble when she took him to the park one day” I said and I heard quite a lot of people snickering at the memory of that day. After a further minute or so of talking, I wrapped up my speech.

“So here today I want to farewell her, and I was very happy to be a part of her fulfilling her one wish of meeting Hanson. I think at this moment she is watching and almost fainting from excitement of Hanson singing at HER funeral.” I said and a few people laughed.

“So goodbye Lucy Mackenzie, I am very proud to be able to call you my best friend” I finished, tears now streaming down my face. A small applause filled the church and I took my place once again next to Zac. I grabbed his hand and started clutching it tight once more. The priest introduced Mark and Teresa, and for a further 10 minutes, both Lucy’s parents and the priest spoke about her.

“Now, we shall listen as once again Hanson sing.” The priest announced and the 3 guys left their seats. The backup music started again and they started to sing.

"The day… that I left Lucy…” I started crying almost hysterically as Zac belted out that first line and Teresa scooped me into a hug as we both cried. After a few minutes, the song came to an end and everyone started applauding the guys. Tay and Ike briefly smiled, Zac staring at the floor and refusing to look up. They then joined us back in the front row.

“Zac, you were really good, thanks for doing this today” I said to him

“It was a pleasure, how could I refuse? It’s for a good cause.” He answered and took my hand. After a further 20 minutes of speeches from the priest, her godparents and Mark and Teresa once more, Hanson got up for their final performance.

Great, I Will Come To You. Here come the water works. I thought to myself.

“When you have no light to guide you, and no-one to walk beside you, I will come to you, ohhhhh, I will come to you”

“Why do they have to sing so beautifully?” I thought to myself as the tears started to fall once again. I sat, almost swaying to the song as they launched into the chorus.

“When you have no light to guide you, and no-one to walk beside you, I will come to you, ohhhh, I will come to you.”

I buried my head in my hands and listened to them sing, all 3 was struggling, you could tell. After the song was finished, the priest finished up and the version of Lucy from the CD started up as me and Lucy’s family started the walk to the coffin to place the flowers on it. Mark and Teresa went first, then after her immediate family went, I grabbed Zac’s hand and walked up to the coffin. I placed my single rose on the coffin, and just thinking about her made me break down. My legs went to Jell-O and I collapsed onto Zac and he had to hold me up. I just couldn’t handle it. Zac half carried me, half dragged me out of the main church part and into the next room and laid me on the floor. Mark and Teresa rushed in and I told them I was OK, just a little overworked. They gave me a worried glance, Teresa gave me a hug, then they shut the door and left, having no choice but to rejoin the other guests.

“Zac, what’s wrong with me?” I cried, tears forming, and before long I was bawling my eyes out.

“Nothing’s wrong with you, you just had trouble realising the reality of Lucy being gone.”

“I can’t handle it, why did she have to die Zac, why did she have to die?!?” I cried, at this point I was almost hysterical.

“Jordanna it’s OK…”

“It’s not OK!” I screamed and Zac jumped. I didn't want to scream at him, but at that moment it seemed to me he deserved everything I was going to dish out.

“She died Zac, Lucy’s dead - and I’m never going to see her again. I didn’t even get to say goodbye. Don’t you go telling me it’s OK. Have you ever had a best friend die, and you didn’t even get to say goodbye?!?… NO! So you can’t tell me it’s OK, because it’s NOT!”

I screamed right into his face. Tears were forming in the corners of his eyes and were seconds away from spilling over his cheeks. But still I kept yelling.

“You don’t even know how I feel so you just keep your know-it-all comments to yourself. I loved her so much, and I didn’t even get to say goodbye, I DIDN’T EVEN GET TO SAY GOODBYE!” I screamed. Zac sat in silence, tears just running down his face.

“I didn’t even get to say goodbye” I said quietly and I buried my head into his shoulder and he hugged me. I cried for about 5 minutes, and I’d finally snapped out of my hysteria and was calm.

“Look, Zac…”

“Jordanna, I had no right to tell you it was OK, and you’re right, I DON’T know how it feels to have your best friend die, I’m so sorry…”

“Zac, it’s not your fault, you haven’t been anything BUT supportive this whole time ever since that day at the park, and now you put up with me screaming in your face for trying to help me, how can you even look at me?” I asked, tears still sliding down my cheeks.

“Why wouldn’t I want to look at you, you’re... beautiful”

His answer shocked me and I looked at him, eyes wide. "Woah, that was a reality check" I answered and we both knew the time was right. We leant over, and after staring at each other for a split second, we locked lips. A tear trickled down my cheek and a salty taste filled my mouth, but still we kissed. After a few more seconds, we pulled apart and looked at each other. Then we both went beet red and started looking at the floor.

“Sorry Jordy, that was my fault”

“No it wasn’t, I wanted it as much as you did” I said back and we both tried to stop the sly smiles appearing on our faces.

“We’d better get back, they probably think we died or something” Zac said then went white when he realized what he’s just said.

“Oh my god, Jordanna, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that”

“Zac, forget it, I do that all the time” I reassured him and he sighed with relief. He grabbed my hand and hauled me up.

The first thing I did was hugged him. Everything I had in me went into that hug, and it seemed to go for an eternity.

“Thankyou Zac, you wouldn’t believe how much this means to me what you’ve done today”

“Jordanna, I already told you it was my pleasure, let’s just hope Lucy would be happy with us, do you think she’d be happy?”

“Yeah, she’d be extremely jealous, but she’s the type of person that, if you’re happy so is she”

“She sounds like a great person, I would’ve liked to get to know her better”

“Believe me, she WAS a great person”

“If she was half as good as you she must’ve been amazing”

“Thanks Zac, it was more like I was half as good as her”

He smiled at me.."So I'm guessing she was one hell of a person then?"

"You bet" I said, smiling. It still hurt me to think about her, but I would get there, I knew we should be celebrating her leaving, she was going onto bigger and better things, so that's exactly what I had planned.

“Well, what are we waiting for, let’s go, this party is only just getting started!”