She remembered the old photograph.

It was worn and old-- not from age, but from touch-- from folding and unfolding. From laughing over. From crying over. From harsh words. From words that, it seemed, were never said. The words that still hung in a mystery, in a silence that neither of them knew how to break.

The girl sighed and brushed her hand over the photograph again. She could remember the smiling boy in the picture-- the one with an easy humor and wonderful laugh. The only one she was truly herself around.

"Why?" she whispered, her words heavy with the sadness, the guilt, the... the anger. But mostly sadness filled her face as she looked down at the picture again--- as she'd done a hundred times before, maybe more.

"When did things change?" she murmured, snuggling her green cardigan closer to herself. 

She sighed. "Why did things change?"

This time, her voice was filled with a plea. A longing. The only kind of longing created by the wistfulness of wanting things the way they used to be. 

Memories flooded her mind--the day they celebrated their birthday together. The day they jumped into the lake in the middle of the night. The times they laughed together—the times when... he let her cry. Once, comforting her. The other time...

She tried to blink away the mist rising in her eyes, but she couldn't avoid all the tears.

"I needed you," she said in the same hushed tone, gently holding the photograph in her hands. A small tear trickled down her cheek, then another.

"I still do."

With that, she took her phone out of her pocket. Hesitating for only a moment, she unlocked her phone and blinked against the sudden brightness in the dark room. A bit of light came in through the blinds, from the sunset that was coming in oranges and pinks.

 "The perfect golden hour," he used to joke. "And when you make a wish in the ten-minute window, it'll come true.

Then he grinned and looked into her eyes.

"Wish big," he had whispered.

Remembering this, she glanced to the left of her where the window was, and took a deep breath." Please let him answer," she whispered.

With that, she dialed the number she knew by heart, but her thumb froze over the green button. Closing her eyes, she pressed it.