saddened and surprised

nice guy from highschool, FB friend, passed away. wake up call: life is short.
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(added Saturday) he had a livejournal.
I remember him in classes. Art class, I made a picture of a skinny, cackling black guy wearing sunglasses walking in front of a mural of Marilyn Monroe's face. He leaned over and asked how did I get the idea for that? I shrugged, dunno.
(Wait, nevermind. I found the picture. The guy is smiling and swinging his arms. Maybe I changed it. Only in my mind he was cackling. Like a good witch. But the picture made me laugh. It's not a great work of art, but it had a happy quality.)
And at the 5 year reunion, he was shocked to see me. I was shocked that he was shocked. Nice. I'd reminded him of when he called me "that feminist chick." He sort of made fun of me. He said "I said a lot of stupid things." But it wasn't anything bad. He was just a wisecracking sort of guy. It was nice to see him. Later he friended me. "Missed ya at the ten year."
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When my friend called and told me she heard he died, I was in Panera bread, looking at a picture/painting of a face and beret and a loaf of bread.
You know how it is when you can't believe someone is gone? Really? Even though you never really talked to them?