A New Flame

No Longer Friends

"9 minutes and 35 seconds!"

"A new record girl! Well done!" Talia replied back.
I was now sitting on the side walks of New York City, trying to cool myself off after a run.

"Almost as good as you." I said teasingly.

"In your dreams Kingston." Talia rolled her eyes and smiled.

Talia sat down next to me and we both tried to inhale every inch of air we could and let the fall wind blow away all the sweat droplets off our skin. It was a fairly windy day in New York City and just the perfect morning to go running with my best friend, Talia.

Talia Waterson has been my best friend ever since we were both 10 and just little girls in elementary school. She was the new girl in 4th grade with the big earthy, green eyes and long, blonde pigtails that looked soft like silk. To top it all off, she had on a Hannah Montana shirt, my favorite T.V. show at the time. I just knew when she first came in, we were destined to best friends forever.

9 years later and we're still as close as ever. As the years grew, we grew stinger. We did everything together. Shop, gossip about boys, sneak out to parties, cried to each other- you name it, we've done it.

Talia Waterson was not only my best friend but she was my #1 shopping buddy, my biggest cheerleader, and most of all- my soulmate. There is no one else in this Earth I'd rather be with, dealing with all the hardships and beauty of life other Talia herself.

"Wanna race back up to the apartments?" I asked Talia.

"Whoever's last is paying for lunch later!" And without even being able to reply yet, she dashed in front of me and went up the hill already.

"You cheater!" I yelled enough so she can hear me. I grinned widely before standing up from the sidewalk and catching up to her.

-

"Do you think Rachel will end up with Sam in Lover's Island next episode?" Talia asked as she turned off the TV after watching the latest episode of Lover's Island.

"I hope so... they're endgame!" I exclaimed sitting up on the couch.

"Right?!" Talia replied.

After the run, me and Talia took a nap out of pure exhaustion from the run earlier this morning and ended up watching reruns of our favorite TV show for God knows how long.

"Hey I heard a new, exclusive club is opening up tonight Aliya." Talia said as she was now pouring herself a drink from our kitchen counter.

"Oh really now?", I said while staring at my phone, scrolling through Instagram.

"Mhmmm..." Talia started, "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we went to their grand opening tonight." Talia made eye contact with me, clearly trying to persuade me into going.

I avoided eye contact with Talia, still staring at my phone screen. "Talia, you know I have exams to study for." And it's not like it wasn't true.

Me and Talia are first-year college students at our dream school, Columbia University. Our freshman year of high school, we visited the campus with my mom and her dad to see her older brother, Gabe, graduating and the first thing we noticed was the tall buildings hovering over us. You felt so small yet so inferior standing in the campus, like you could take on the whole building if you could.

The second thing we noticed there were the people. Every single student on the campus looked like they had a purpose. The purpose of changing the world, no matter how big of little. It would be life-changing anyways. It took only those two things within 5 minutes being within the campus for us to fully commit ourselves 3 years later.