The box sat unopened on the table, dirt clinging to the cover and a strange liquid pooled near a corner, the puddle slowly creeping closer to the stack of bills near the edge. The box was in surprisingly good shape for something that had spent that last ten years underground, but I almost wanted it to be damaged. It had been here nearly a week, the shovel that had been used to dig it up sat dejected in a corner, hidden in the shadows. The box smelt earthy and green, but my cat Jasmine refused to go near the kitchen ever since the table had become the box's permanent home. I avoided the kitchen too, preferring to either order in or go out, not wanting to eat in the same place as the box.

     My roommate Valore had told me that I was ridiculous and that by the time she got back from vacation, I had better have opened the box or she would throw me out of our apartment.

     Being homeless wasn't exactly how I had planned on spending my adult life and I knew I needed to open the box soon or I'd be stuck either on the street, or staying with my parents. Apartments were hard to find in the small city where I lived and I liked the small flat above the cafe where I worked. I knew I had two days until Valore came back but I didn't want to open the box. She only knew about the happier moments in my childhood, but everything from the age 13-19 had been kept from her. I liked Valore liked a sister, but there were was few secrets that I held close to my heart and had never shared with anyone.

     Eight days after I had dug up the box, I dreamed of them again. The five of us, the five leaves of a clover and the old oak tree in the back of the park.

     "Come on Tallie!"

     "I'm coming Lukie, but it's not my fault that I'm vertically challenged!"

     "Yeah, yeah. Keep complaining." Claire laughed, her sandy hair coming loose from its bun. She stretched out a long arm to pull me up but I swatted it away and nimbly climbed up onto my customary branch. Tara, with her fiery hair y sat on my right and Josh with his calm smile sat on my left. Luke and Claire sat across from me, their fingers not so secretly entwined, ready to start to meeting.

     "So, how is everyon-"

     I woke up with a jolt. I hadn't seen any of them in years, not since the-. A lump formed in my throat and I found myself unable to get back asleep. Memories crowded in my mind, each one trying to get me to view them but I covered my ears and stumbled out of bed in an attempt to block myself from them. The floor under my feet was cold as I walked towards the kitchen, almost unable to stop myself. The clock on microwave read 2:49 and my stomach growled, the scent of baked goods lingering the air from the morning's baking. Traffic lights blinked red outside my window, my eyes drawn not to them, but to the box sitting on my kitchen table.

     "The time capsule." The words had stuck in my throat all day, but now under the cover of darkness they flowed free. With those three words all the memories came flooding back in a quick, unrelenting stream.

     Claire and I had been 15 and Tara, Josh and Luke had been 16 when the five of us had thought it would be fun to bury a time capsule in the park. We had all thought that in ten years we would all still be together in the same place, even if we weren't friends, but oh, how wrong we were. We didn't even last a year after college.

      Tara, she moved away the first chance she got, driving fast with the windows down, her red hair flying in the wind. She never liked the city and in a blink of an eye, she was gone.

     Claire was harder to let go, with her soft smiled and warm hugs but she was the first married and she moved to the suburbs, leaving me lonely.

     The memories of them were painful enough to relive; how do you admit to yourself that you weren't important enough for people to stay? But it was Luke and Josh that made my heart strings break.

     Josh had been ready to follow his dream of traveling for a nature magazine, writing about this jungle one day, that desert the next, but one car ride changed it all. One intersection was all it took to land one of my friends into jail, and the other in the ground.

     "Mreow?" Jasmine bumped her head against my shoulder, snapping me out of my memories. Blinking, I wiped away tears I didn't know I had and bit the inside of my cheek to keep more from coming. Sadness blossomed in my chest and a lump grew in my throat, making it hard to breath. Most days I was able to forget that the person I loved was accidentally killed by one of my best friends, but that darn box had changed everything.

     "Why is this so hard, Jazzy?" I whispered, my sweet cat bumping her head against mine. "Should I open it?"

     "Mreow."

     "Is that a yes?"

     "Mreow."

     "Are you just going to stare at me until I open this box?"

     "Mreow." Her amber eyes bored into my brown ones and finally I broke. My hands reached out and I took the box into my lap before running my hand over the cover. I took a deep breath, my chest shaking as I unlatched the top and placed it on the table. Inside there were a few letters all in sealed envelopes addressed to individuals and other small trinkets and scraps of paper.. I had five letters addressed to me, which I found strange, because I didn't write a letter to myself. I didn't dwell on it, nothing instead the funeral pamphlet. My breath caught in my throat as I looked down at a smiling Josh on the cover; the way he wanted to be remembered. Claire must have dug the time capsule and placed the pamphlet inside. She knew I wouldn't want to remember the funeral, and the trial afterwards, but she was smart, knowing I couldn't just forget them.

     "Wait. If Claire dug up the time capsule, then could this letter be from her?" I asked Jasmine who just gave me a look and flicked her tail. Breathing slowly, I studied the handwriting on the front of the envelope carefully and let out a gasp as I realized that my name could only have been printed so messily by the hand of a journalist. The letter dropped from my hand like it was on fire and I reached out blinded on the table, grabbing my phone. I wasn't ready to do this alone. Opening a group message, I added Claire, Tara and Luke and took a picture of the time capsule. My finger shook as I typed out a message, our first group message since after the funeral, but the three simple words I texted them seemed fitting.

     They were perfect for remembering, reminding them about the life we had before incense and orange jumpsuits. A way to remind them of happy times. A way to just plain remind them that I existed and didn't want to go through with my life without my best friends. I hadn't seen them in years but being without them it was like missing an arm or a leg. Glancing up at Jasmine, I hit send and smiled softly to myself, the words of my text sticking in my mind as I started back to my bed.

      Hey, remember this?