Best Friend

     “Hey, I’m about to hit the highway. I will call you when I pull in.” I told her. “Yes, your highness.” She responded. I laughed, and hung up the phone. It took me about 30minutes to reach Vic’s house. When I pulled in, her dad’s truck wasn’t there. I pushed a button, and called her. “Vic, I am in your driveway! Come out here!” I said, the second she picked up the phone. “Okay, I’ll be right out.” She said, almost like she was in some sort of trance. “Okay, just hurry, I want to be back before my mom cooks dinner!” I said to her, and hung up. I waited for about five minutes before she actually came out of her house. It looked like she was moving in with me! “Did you bring enough stuff?!” I asked her. She just kept looking forward at her house. I looked up at her house to see what was going on, and I swear that I saw someone in her bedroom window. “Vic, is Diana home?” I asked her. Diana was her step mom, and the only person that would have been in her room. Her dad is too scared of teenage girls, that he wouldn’t step foot in her room. “No, Diana and my dad went to the grocery store.” she said. “Well, let’s get in the car, I want to get home! I can’t wait to show it to you!” I said, with excitement all over my face. During the drive, Vic became more and more like her usual self. “Just describe it for me, Nemi!! I can’t wait till we get there to see it!” She tried to convince me.

     I just shook my head, determined to keep it a surprise. When we pulled up, she gasped. “Oh. MY. GOD. You live here?!” She asked. I nodded. She grabbed her things, and I showed her around the gate that led to my house. When we walked past the pool, she was practically drooling. I love my best friend, but she is just a tad materialistic. When we walked up to the garden leading to my house, she stopped walking. “WHOA, YOU LIVE HERE NOW?” She asked, still in shock. “Yes, I live here now. This is my house. The other house up front belongs to my parents.” I tell her. I start walking up to my front door, and lead her inside. “Am I dreaming?” She asks me. “No, I thought I was too. But, you’re not dreaming. I actually live here.” I told her, with a proud smile on my face. I show her to one of the spare bedrooms, and let her settle in. I get a text from my mom that dinner is ready.

     “Vic, Let’s go up to the main house for dinner!” I yell at her. I get a grunt from the other room. I walk in, and she is laying on the queen size bed. “Come on, let’s go eat. We can swim in the pool later….” I try to lure her out of the soft bed. Because I know her so well, it works. “Nemi, I didn’t bring a bathing suit, because you didn’t tell me that your new place has a pool!” She complains. As we’re walking up to the house, I wonder what my mom had made for dinner. I didn’t need anyone to tell me. I could smell it. It was her holiday ham. She made my favorite! You couldn’t slap the smile off of my face as we walked in. “Did I just time travel to my birthday? The new awesome house, the badass car, and now you’ve made my favorite meal for dinner?!?” It’s like I’m living in some alternate reality, where I get everything that I ever wanted! My Dad just laughed. “We already told you, we just want to do some nice things for you. Just because it’s not your birthday yet, doesn’t mean that we can’t spoil you a bit early.” He said through his laughter.

     “Dude, why don’t you just shut up and take all of it in, instead of looking for an ulterior motive behind why your parents are so awesome?” Vic said, sounding annoyed. My mom made everyone a plate, and we ate dinner in a peaceful silence. “And that’s the best compliment that a cook can get.” My mom said, after everyone was finished eating. “Huh?” I asked. “The food is so good, that no one wants to talk while they’re eating it.” She said. I nodded, with a smile on my face. “Hey, we’re going to swim in the pool this evening, if that’s okay?” I asked. My mom nodded her head in response, already cleaning up the mess from dinner. I motioned at Vic to follow me back to my house. I led her back to my bedroom, and opened the dresser. After shuffling through the drawers to find bathing suits, I finally pick out a couple. “What about this one?” I ask, handing one over to Vic. “It’s okay, I guess. I don’t know if it will fit me though.” she admitted.

    Vic was shorter, and just a bit bigger around than I am. She had dyed black hair, blue eyes, and she was pale. She was the only person I knew that was as pale as me! I am 5ft 11in, practically an amazon. My hair is dark red, and I have hazel eyes. I shooed her out of the room so we could both get our bathing suits on. “Just meet me by the pool.” I call to Vic, not wanting to sit around waiting for her. The sun is starting to set, making the sight before my eyes that much more beautiful. The amber sky is reflecting in the pool water, and there is a sweet floral scent in the air. I peel my gaze from the pool water to the front door of my house, just as Vic was coming out. “Whoa!” is the only thing she could say, as she approached the pool. I took off my swimsuit cover, and jumped in the pool. Since I did a cannonball, water splashed all over the place. “NEMI! UGHHHH!” Vic yelled.

     It wasn’t long before she jumped in too. We splashed, laughed, and swam until there was no sunlight left in the sky. The moon was now out in it’s full beautiful glory. I could always appreciate beautiful sunset, but there was something about the moonlight that just makes me feel whole. I climbed out of the pool, and sat down at one of the little tables around the pool. Vic climbed out after me. “I’m starving!” She says to me. “Okay, we can dry off and see what we have in the kitchen.” I tell her, handing her a towel. I dried off, and put my cover back on. “We should come back outside and hang out though!” I say to her. She nods enthusiastically. Going through the cabinets, they are stocked full of snacks. Cookies, snacky cakes, chips, quick to make noodles, crackers, and the list could just keep going on and on! “Dude, do you have a whole grocery store in here?!” Vic asked me. I shrugged. “I had no idea that there was even food in the kitchen. I haven’t thoroughly gone through the house yet!” I told her. We picked out a few things, and headed back out to the table we had been sitting at.

     “Hey Nemi, do you think that your parents would let you have a party before school starts?” Vic asked me, with hope in her voice. I laughed at her. “Dude, who would we even invite? I can’t pick everyone up and take everyone home! We only have like one other friend that can even legally drive!” I told her. She scoffed at me, faking offense. “You know that I can drive, I just can’t do it legally.” She said. “I don’t know if I want to have a party. I’m sure we could have a couple of other friends over, if we wanted.” I said, breaking the growing awkward silence. The last time I invited Vic to a party with any of my other friends, it never worked out. She doesn’t really get along with my other friends.

     “We should get out tomorrow, and try to meet some new people!” Vic said to me, pulling me from my thoughts. “Where would we go? I don’t know anyone around here yet.” I told her. “We could go to the mall?” She suggested. I thought about it for a moment. Going to the mall to meet people sounded a bit weird, but whatever. I shrugged. “Why not? I need to get some stuff for the school year anyways.” She said. What she really meant, is she wanted me to buy her stuff. Whenever we went to the mall together, she always tried to talk me into buying her stuff. “What do you need for the school year?” I asked her, eyeballs raised. “I still need to buy some clothes, and a few books for the college classes that I’m taking this year.” She responded. “Let’s go inside, we can go when we wake up tomorrow.” I told her.

     I headed to my room, and pulled out my favorite pair of pajama pants and a tank top. “Hey, do you have a pair of pajama pants I can wear?” Vic asked, as I was heading to the shower. I walked over and opened the drawer. “Pick out a pair!” I told her, with a smile on my face. She stood there, in shock. She had spotted the bathroom in my bedroom. “This is the best thing I’ve ever seen!” She said, running to the bathtub. I laughed at her, and walked over to her. “There is also a bathroom in the room that you’re staying in, but I don’t think it has a tub like this one.” I told her. “There’s a bathroom in my room too?!” She asked me, excited. I nodded, and started walking to her room. It was a spacious room, with a TV mounted to the wall, a plushy queen sized bed, a dresser with a vanity mirror, a closet, and a bathroom. I walked into the bathroom, and started looking around. It had a beautiful onyx counter top, a big ornate mirror, a huge luxury bathtub, and a nice standing shower.

     “Dude!” Was the only thing that I could say. She peeked in, and gasped. “Do your parents expect you to pay rent on this place or something? Like, who spends this kind of money on an extra house on their property?” Vic asked, thinking out loud. I shook my head at her. “I’m going to go take a shower.” I say to her, walking out of the room. I can’t wait to wash the chlorine out of my hair! I turned on the shower, and waited for the steam to tell me that the water was hot. I stepped into the shower, and let out a sigh. When I was done, I dried off, got dressed, and flopped face down on my soft bed. It didn’t take long before I was out like a light. In no time, I drifted into a dream.

     I was walking around the mall with Vic, and we were chatting about what we were going to do after. We located the food court, and started the food discussion. “What do you want to eat?” Vic asked me. I looked around the food court. Mall pretzels are like my kryptonite, but I know that Vic doesn’t really care for them. We settled on the asian restaurant. It was just like the one from the mall by my old house. We ordered noodles, egg rolls, and bourbon chicken. Vic was carrying the tray, and we were trying to find somewhere to sit, and I ran face first into something. By something, I thought it might be a brick wall. I took a step back, and looked up. My face was instantly red. “OH. MY. GOD. I am sorry!” Vic said, nudging me with her elbow. I couldn’t say anything. He was super hot. He had to be over 6ft tall, because he was taller than me. He had dark blue/black hair, it was flowing down his back freely. I can’t tell you what color his eyes were, because I was too embarrassed to look him in the face.

     “Nemi, have you forgotten how to person?!” Vic asked me, nudging me again. I turned to her, and then found my voice. “I’m so sorry!” and walked quickly past him. “NEMI!” Vic called out to me. I went and sat at the furthest empty table that I could find, and waited for Vic. I was so embarrassed! Why didn’t I say anything? I’m not usually like that around people. He was hot, but he made me feel uneasy. “Dude!!! What the hell is wrong with you?!” she yelled at me. I just looked at her, shaking my head. “Why didn’t you even like introduce yourself? He was nice.” She scolded. We ate our food in silence after that. I got up to throw away the trash, and froze again when I spotted him standing by the table, closest to the trash can. There were 3 other people sitting at the table, engaged in conversation. I rushed to the trash, quickly threw it away, and turned to walk away. “Are you avoiding me?” A teasing voice asked me.