DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) — The pain is as fresh as the ink in Tyler Massey's new tattoo.
"Cody [Drew] was always a brother to me," Massey said. "I've been best friends with him since I was ten."
Drew died after a stabbing attack last week. He was just 24 years old.
But Tuesday night was never about what happened on August 9; it was about the joy Drew brought to so many lives. Many of the stories shared elicited a smile and a chuckle.
Massey remembers them all — because he was there for most of them.
"We went out throwing water balloons at people," he said. "The next day the Macon County Sheriff called me asking where I was at."
Massey and Drew's water balloon exploits netted them a few stares and a stern talking to from law enforcement. But the fun, as it often was, was relatively harmless and fun.
When Drew wasn't involved in water balloon shenanigans, you could find him him teasing his older sister on her height or flashing a smile at his co-workers at the Blue Spoon.
All the candles in the world won't bring him back. But Drew's smile is still filling up hearts and memories — just like that old faucet filled up the now infamous water balloons — the faucet now forever adorning the inside of Massey's ankle as a tattoo.
