This one was written for my great friend waywardwarrior, because his birthday is this month! Over on his wayward writes words World, he has a series called the Quinapoxet River. When I read the first episode of the series, I was touched, and asked if I could write one of my own. He let me, and here it is! I hope you enjoy it WWW, and thanks for inspiring me to write this! I had fun writing it and I hope you all have fun reading it!

Explanation for the whole Journey/Don't Stop Believing thing: WWW and I both love that song a lot, so if one of us is listening to it and the other is around, we always say, "Hey, guess what song I'm listening to!" I guess you could say its "our song", but in a friend way xD

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“I’ll be back for you,” he whispered softly in my ears.
Tears streamed down my face as he walked away, leaving me on the bank of the Quinapoxet River.

I woke up with a jolt. I sighed. It was just another dream.
I blinked and quickly sat up, yawning. Why was I constantly having this dream? It was bad enough that the memory haunted me every day, but to be haunted by it in my dreams too...well, that’s just too much.

I quickly jumped out of my bed and made my way to my computer. I bent down to press the power button, and then walked over to my stereo as I waited for my PC to turn on. I plugged in my iPod and set the songs on random. Then I walked back to my computer, where I took a seat and began to check my e-mail.
Nothing but junk, as usual. I had gotten my hopes up that he would send me news sometime soon, but I knew I shouldn’t have. I had been hoping and hoping for almost a year now. I didn’t know why I didn’t just face facts and move on. He wasn’t coming back anytime soon.

I hummed along to the tunes of David Archuleta as I checked some other websites for updates. The sound of his voice always got the bad things off my mind. A few minutes later, the song was over and something new came on. The sounds of Journey filled my room. The smile was instantly wiped from my face. Without thinking twice about it, I quickly walked over to my iPod and changed the song. That had been our song. It was too hard to listen to it now.

Tears filled my eyes. Memories of me and him sitting on my bed listening to that song over and over again filled my head. I remembered how my parents got mad at me for letting him stay without them knowing. The next day he had bought me a new baseball cap to make up for it. I smiled as I remembered the look on his face as he slapped the cap over my hair on that sunny day.
But that was then, and this is now, I thought. I angrily wiped the tears away from my eyes and walked over to my closet. It was time to get ready for the day ahead.

After getting dressed and eating breakfast, I decided to take a jog. Jogging always got things off my mind. I strapped my iPod to my right arm and put the headphones in my ears. After informing my parents of my departure, I heaved a backpack onto my shoulders, opened the front door, and headed down the concrete path that I always took. I hummed along to the sounds coming out of my headphones as I continued at a steady pace down the path. The cold winter air bit at my cheeks, and my feet crunched on the snow that was piled up on the ground. Small snow flakes began to fall from the gray sky, but that wasn't going to stop me from going where I wanted to go. I quickly left the path and headed left, into the forest. This was the quickest way to get where I wanted to go.

After jogging for a few more minutes, I arrived at my destination: The Quinapoxet River. I had visited it every day since the day he left, almost a year ago. This was the place where he had left me, but for some reason, I felt strangely at peace here. I took a seat on the bench that rested under a tall oak tree. I then quickly removed my gloves and set my black backpack beside me. After unzipping it, I pulled my sketch pad and a pencil out of one of its compartments. I flipped through the pages to the sketch I had been working on for the past few days, a sketch of the Quinapoxet River.

As my pencil moved across the paper, the song I had been listening to ended. Once more, the sounds of Journey filled my ears. My pencil stopped where it was immediately. I listened to the first few words. Just a small town girl living in a lonely world. Instead of turning the song off like I always did, I decided to let it play. Memories of me and him singing the song in the talent show together and everywhere we went flooded back to me.

I remembered how we had run to the Quinapoxet River after winning the talent show. We sat on the bench, like we always did, listening to music and just having a good time. This was our favorite past time. What could be better than spending time with your best friend, listening to music, sharing stories, all while being on the bank of the beautiful Quinapoxet River?
It was just like every other day that we hung out by the Quinpoxet River. That was, until he had become very serious. His expression went from happy to serious all too quickly.

"There's something I need to tell you..." he had said. "My family and I are moving away, moving away to another country. I don't know when I'll be back."
Tears had filled my eyes, I didn't know what to say. He had wrapped his arms around me.

"I'll be back for you," he whispered softly in my ear. He then let go of me. Tears filled my eyes as he walked away, leaving me on the bank of the Quinapoxet River.

Suddenly, my cellphone began to buzz in my pocket. I set my sketch pad aside, making sure it wouldn't get snow on it, and then dug my cellphone out of my pocket. I didn't recognize the number, but I brought the phone to my ear anyway.
"Hello?"
"Turn around," a male voice said calmly through the phone.

Curious, I turned around. As soon as I did, my phone slipped from my hand. It hit the snowy ground with a thud, but that was the thing I was least worried about.

Behind me stood a tall smiling boy, his black hair sticking out messily from his red baseball cap. I knew that smile anywhere. Tears filled my eyes as I ran towards him. He wrapped his arms around me. "I told you I'd be back."
"I missed you so much Peter," I sobbed. "I missed you so much."
"I missed you too...I missed you too," he replied, trying to keep back tears of his own.

And there we were, reunited, on the bank of the beautiful Quinapoxet River.