I don't really remember where and when this habit of ours
started,
I guess it started before I started hanging with this crowd,
that I've learned to call friends, but one thing is for
sure, for people that look at us from the side, it might
seem really weird, to see a bunch of grown men and women say
hello and goodbye by hugging each other.
Well, odd or not, that's what we do, and although it was
weird for me in the beginning, I've learned to enjoy it.

You can sometimes tell what a person is feeling by the way
he hugs you. But sometimes, you just don't pay attention.
We should have known something was wrong that day, some of
us more than other, but none of us noticed, that when he
hugged us goodbye that night, something about his hug was
different, warmer, longer, as if not wanting to let go, and
he had that sad look on his face, but we didn't think much
of it, he always had a sad look, some even told him that he
was exaggerating, that he didn't really have any good reason
to be so down, but he thought otherwise.

We were all shocked to hear the next day, I mean, we all
knew (or at least most of us) that he might, we certainly
knew that he is capable of such a thing, but it was a
nevertheless a shock!
The girls cried, all but one who just sat there and kept
saying: "I can't believe it", some of the guys cried too, I
didn't see his best friend cry, but I knew he did, his eyes
were red.

We all just sat there, all hugged with each other, knowing
that when he hugged us goodbye last night, it was his last
goodbye.
We will never hug him again.