Despite growing up together, Catherine Simmons and Mattis Reed were never close.
Cat was inseparable from Mattis' younger sister, Chloé, while he was busy running around on the football field.
But when Cat's new dream drags her across the country du...
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"I could slash your tires, you know."
I look up to find my best friend, Chloé Reed, standing in the doorway, looking at my bedroom littered with moving boxes and suitcases.
"How would you even know how to do that?" I ask, sitting back on my heels.
She pops a shoulder, unbothered. "I'm sure there's a youtube tutorial."
A laugh bubbles in my chest as I get up from my spot on the floor and walk over to hug her. When my arms close around her, my chin rests atop her head.
I've just returned from a three-week summer vacation with my parents and siblings, visiting my grandparents in Florida. And now I am getting ready for the big move in less than a week.
I release Chloé and continue moving the clothes I brought on vacation into the boxes I am taking with me, occasionally putting some of them into the boxes that are staying behind. I won't need that many summer clothes on the East Coast.
"You know, it rains in New York," Chloé chimes in from her seat on my bed, clearly having read my thoughts. Her face is scrunched in disgust at the idea of voluntarily living somewhere with changing seasons.
I can't help but smile at her. She's a California girl through and through. And she looks the part too. With her petite frame, tanned legs, curly blond hair, and deep blue eyes, she belongs in LA. And she has no intention of changing that.
From the age of four, she's lived here, and attending UCLA was never really a question. It wasn't for me either - until a few months ago, that is.
We had just finished our freshman year together, and everything was perfect when I informed her I would transfer to Columbia's School of the Arts. On the other side of the country.
She did not take it well.
Chloé and I have known each other since we were four. Ever since the Reed's moved in on the block just a few houses down from my parents, my two older siblings, and me. From that very first moment in front of their house, we've been inseparable.
We agreed to go to college together, so I get why she was less than thrilled to have me abandon that plan just one year in. But after years of biting my tongue and following the path laid out for me, despite knowing deep down that it was the wrong choice for me, I finally figured out what I wanted. And more than that, I found the courage to pursue it. Incidentally, that dream happens to be somewhere else.
"I'm aware," I answer her. "Consider that my punishment for leaving you."
That makes her grin smugly.
"Mom wanted me to invite you for lunch if you have the time. We should really be spending as much time together as possible." Chloé pouts, arching her eyebrows in such a perfect puppy-dog grimace that I know it's fabricated. The guilt trip. She's been trying it the whole summer, but it's much more effective in person than over video chat.
