My best friend from the time we were ten emailed, texted, called or messaged me on one or both of our social media accounts every single day after it happened. She would check on me, write me long emails making sure I knew she was absolutely always here to listen no matter how much I repeated the same thoughts, feelings and sentiments.
She always knew, it seemed, what the right thing was to say. If I needed a listening ear, she just listened. If I wasn't sure what to do next, she'd offer advice without ever pushing me one way or another.
She'd distract me when I needed to stop thinking for a bit.
One of those distractions was starting to watch the new book to television adaptation, The Vampire Diaries.
Vampires were pretty popular in television and movies that year. The first book of the Twilight series had been turned into a film the previous year and the books were released to supply the sudden demand for them. Renewed interest in both the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series as well its spinoff Angel led to increased purchases of the dvd and views on Netflix.
The Vampire Diaries looked cheesy to me to begin with. I'd read the Twilight series because she had mentioned loving them and despite being sure they were tween novels, I gave them a shot anyway.
Shortly afterward, because she'd already started the show when it began, she recommended that too. I decided to go ahead. It gave us something to talk about that wasn't my failed marriage.
Just three years later, a spinoff was in the works based off of a few characters that were originally (no pun intended) meant to be part of a single season, two at the most.
She and I spent a lot of time texting and messaging about how much we were enjoying this series. Certainly, I was more than I expected to.
I didn't know to begin with that Ian Somerhalder was one of the main actors in the show.
I'd been a huge fan of his previous work from his short-lived story arc on Smallville to his racy, sexy character on Rules of Attraction.
When The Originals was announced, we both chattered excitedly about how much we loved the idea of a second show in the same universe. We were looking so forward to it.
Then, in October of 2012, she was taken from us by a distracted driver. She never got to see The Originals air.
I stopped watching Vampire Diaries for a while. I tried a few times to binge it but always managed to stop around the last season she got to see.
I've had a lot of time to think since then and this year, just a couple of weeks ago, The Vampire Diaries came to an end.
I knew she would have been in front of that tv watching the end and texting me about it as she did. I also knew she'd want to kick me if I didn't watch when she can't.
I gave another shot at binging and tonight, knowing I would feel a major sadness that the end of one of the last things we shared had come, I watched the finale.
WARNING. SPOILERS OF THE FINAL EPISODE OF THE VAMPIRE DIARIES AHEAD
What I wasn't expecting was how overwhelmed with grief the last episode left me tonight.
The entire series was about the ups and downs of two brothers who, no matter what they've put each other through, always take care of each other in the end. They love each other above all else.
Somehow, I expected the series to end with all of my favorites getting their happily ever after. Maybe I felt like that because I had just finished Bones, another series that ended this year and had wrapped up rather nicely, so I assumed that TVD would as well.
One brother sacrificing his life and dying, allowing the other to live a long and happy life before finally getting to see one another again only in the afterlife... That hit way too close to home.
Before the episode ended, I was shaking, trembling and sobbing. I was doing the same when the episode ended and for a solid 20 minutes after.
I was trying so hard to stifle the sobs because I just didn't want to try to form the words to express why I was a wreck to anyone else. I just wanted to sit here for a while and cry and miss my friend... my sister by choice.
I'll continue to watch The Originals and hope it's a while before this one ends.
If I took anything from this episode, it's that I too hope that one day, I'll get to greet her on the other side when my time comes, hug her tight and finally have peace.
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