Changing With Autumn

Chapter 16

My phone call with Erika lasted over three hours and by the end of it she was crying, I was crying, and there were a whole lot of snotty and gross sounding sniffles coming back and forth through the line. Apparently her and Aaron had made their official and irreversible breakup when Erika had discovered him at the mall in a very uncomfortable position with another girl at their school. It was rough for her and she continuously repeated how sorry she was for being so blind and basically picking him over me and how she was the worst friend in the world. Erika was forgiven within seconds, and everything that had happened was forgotten. I was just thankful to be able to hear her voice and know that I was still the one that she wanted to come to when she needed someone to talk to. 

Although it was seriously a horrible situation for Erika to be in and I felt terrible for her having to suffer through the pain of a low-life, cheating boyfriend, I was glad that I got to be her shoulder to cry on. Aaron on the other hand, I had already begun to plan out the many wonderful and most painful procedures I could think of to make him pay for the wrongs he had done to my beautiful Erika. As for the girl he was with, her fate was yet to be determined, but I looked forward to the enjoyment of plotting on how to make her life a living Hell. Especially since she was on Erika’s cheer squad and very much aware of them being in a relationship already. Thoughts of paying off the other girls to drop her while they were doing flying stunts ran through my mind, but that was something to focus on another time, right now it was time for Erika.

It felt so amazing that things were back the way they should be between us and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief at having my best friend back and someone to talk to about everything that had been going on with Jake. I really needed someone that I could lay everything out on the table and get an honest opinion from, and I knew Erika would give me the most honest, and if need be, brutal opinion I would ever get. Retelling her the story of everything that had happened over the last couple of weeks you would think we were on a rollercoaster with the amount of “yay’s” and “awe’s” and “oh’s” that came from her end of the receiver. I started from the very second I opened his car door that night at the party all the way through up until last night when I closed his car door and I didn’t leave anything out. I told her all of my thoughts, and feelings and doubts and while talking to her it didn’t feel like it was just me stuck under this massive boulder alone anymore, instead it was me and her carrying this thing together and trying to figure out how to deal with it.

We decided that the best way to deal with it all and take our mind’s away from the drama was a girl’s night. She invited me over, with some slight coaxing and begging, because her whole extended family was having a big dinner that everyone was getting together for. She said she didn’t want to go alone and needed me there to make sure she didn’t “die from boredom.” Reluctantly I agreed, but first making sure that I had her swear not to leave me stranded this time which resulted in a very unattractive snort and a “yeah, yeah” from her. Hey, I forgave her but that didn’t mean I couldn’t hold it over her head every now and then. 

She did get me back though when she made me promise not to go full blown emo tonight so her family didn’t have a heart attack. Although I had been an unofficial member of her family for years now, and widely accepted as Erika’s weird, dark friend, some of her extended family were very stiff and uptight. So although I could hear the disappointment in her voice when I refused to allow her to give me her dinner party makeover, I did promise to wear some colors tonight, and with the squeal that came out of her I assumed that meant that she agreed to the compromise. 

When I left for her house later that night the excitement in the air was like a pulsating force. At first when I came running down the stairs in my converse, light blue skinny jeans, burgundy spaghetti strap shirt, and black leather jacket my dad jumped up ready for round two of the no dating my daughter battle, but his sigh of relief was very, very audible when I told him I was just going over to Erika’s house. He didn’t even fight me on it at all, and actually he practically pushed me out the door. It was as if me and Erika making up had made everyone in my house happy. My dad was happy that I wasn’t going to be hanging out with “the pretty boy” and my mom was happy that I was leaving the house in clothes that had a color in any form other than black. I’m pretty sure I even caught her trying to sneak a picture of it too. Even though Erika had finally gotten her way and gotten me out of my full black clothing I was just happy that I finally had my best friend back, so I was willing to take the loss on this one night. 

Halfway to Erika’s house I got a text saying change of plans and that I would have to meet her at a restaurant instead of her house for the family dinner because there were too many people going to be there and they couldn’t all fit comfortably at her place. This obviously started to worry me because all I could think about was how many people were going to be showing up to this thing, but I was gonna suck it up and go hang out with my bestie. I made it to the restaurant and it was packed, like front to back packed without an empty parking spot in sight, but as I’m driving through I spot Erika jumping up and down and waving her hands to direct me to a parking spot she had been standing in and saving for me. Just as I was driving towards her a car began honking at her to get out of the way so they could park there which caused my viscous Erika to flip them the bird and start screaming profanities at them. 

I don’t know how long she had been out there or how many people she went off on, but I know it must have been a fight for her to hold that spot. Nevertheless, my undeterred best friend held her ground and I laughed at her little squeal of joy that I could hear coming from her as I pulled my car into the coveted parking spot. Before I was even able to fully get out of the car she had run full force into me, wrapping her arms around my neck and almost knocking me back into the driver’s seat. I paused to steady myself, but I quickly recovered and pulled her close to me. 

We stayed there holding each other close for a while. To anyone else that may be passing by we probably looked like a couple of weird-o’s, but I couldn’t care less. Weeks had passed and nothing felt right. The tension between us lately was unnatural and it had caused a tiny rip in my heart that got bigger and bigger each uncomfortable day. The moment we collided everything felt like it had been put back where it should be once again and the rip had sewn itself back together. 

I could feel the tears threatening to spill and I had to swallow hard a few times to force them back down. Thankfully neither one of us had let the other go yet and it gave me time to try and school my features once again. It wasn’t until I heard her little quivering inhale that we broke apart and looked into each other's teary eyes; both breaking into a choked out laugh.

Girls are dumb.