There I was, standing over the only thing that had repeatedly slipped through my fingers.

Eugene Wilder's beautiful body lays sprawled in the middle of the floor while our class runs around screaming, some of the students spilling out into the hallway. As all this is going on, Mr. Smith grabs a fire extinguisher and screams before pitching it through a window, sending glass shattering with a deafening crash. 

"Toxic gas!" The man shrieks, "Toxic gas! Everyone out!"

I ignore him and fall to my knees in front of Eugene, touching his still chest, his large muscles firm beneath his T-shirt. "Eugene?" I whisper, silky black hair falling in front of my face as I stare down at his open mouth and bulging eyes. "Was this my fault?" I whisper, "Did I send you straight to death's door with a simple mistake?"

A chair squeaks behind us, and I turn around and catch sight of a tall, blonde boy watching me, his eyes wide in horror. A second later, I quickly recalled him being one of Eugene's closest friends, though his name slipped my mind in that moment of panic. 

"Call the police!" I scream at him, "I've just butchered someone!" 

The boy hesitates, then bolts out of the room, leaving me to my own devices. After receiving my doctorate in emergency surgery at nine years old, I knew something about performing CPR and mouth-to-mouth. This, naturally, was an amazing skill to have when I needed to lock lips with the unconscious Eugene Wilder lying before me like a prized rack of lamb.

I reach down and grasp his warm jaw and hold his mouth open before leaning down slowly, intending on bringing him the kiss of death on the spot. 

"What the fuck are you doing?" 

The blonde boy appears in the doorway again, holding a cell phone. "Get off of him!"

"I'm doing mouth-to-mouth!" "Can't you see I'm trying to save this man's life!" I scream at him. "How dare you take this moment away from me! Eugene needs air! Right now!"

The boy takes a step back, and I take advantage of his moment of hesitation to crush my lips to Eugene's mouth, my hands grasping his cheeks as I breathe life into his throat tunnel, begging whoever was on the other side to take me instead. I taste his tongue, I feel his teeth against mine; and I close my eyes, feeling for some semblance of breath.

Instead, I'm cruelly ripped away from Eugene when the paramedics arrive and crash into the room with all their gear and a long stretcher. Horrified, the two men pause when they see me lip-locked with my dying classmate in the middle of the floor. 

"Get that freaky kid off of him!" One of them snarls, "What the fuck is he doing?" 

"No!" I howl, and I'm quickly dragged back by both arms, "Eugene! I swear this isn't the end! Death will reunite us, my love!" 

The last thing I see of Eugene are the paramedics attaching paddles to his bare chest, then nothing when the door slams shut behind me. 

And I knew then that he was gone.