Lifetime

Changes

Hobi crawled through my window after his Saturday evening date with Gabby, recanting every single detail of the night, from their hands touching as they reached for popcorn to the sweet kiss they shared when he dropped her off at her house.

I'd accepted whatever that little feeling was after we practiced kissing as a passing spark. After all, why risk ruining nearly ten years of friendship over the little feeling after your first kiss that I was sure everyone experienced?

He'd asked Gabby to be his girlfriend by the following Monday and we transitioned into permanent seating at their lunch table. I quickly began to miss the days we sat alone and talking video games with the quiet kids or horror movies with Jason. Hobi was completely infatuated with her, and it wasn't that I was jealous that she had more of his attention, I just wanted a little in return.

It took two weeks for Gabby to turn against me and she didn't have to say anything about it for me to know. I was all too aware of the way she pulled him closer to her side if I joined their walk down the hallway to chat before class, and how the corners of her mouth pulled down every time he mentioned me. She was never outwardly mean, giving her all the power as my options dwindled to watching my best friend slip away.

She was his first girlfriend, but not the first to have a problem with our friendship. It was actually the entire reason he never asked a girl out before our third year of high school, having confessed to me that he faced a few ultimatums from his past crushes, but Gabby used tact.

It was subtle at first, in his attention being constantly turned to his phone, dinging with continuous messages from her while we were together. Eventually it led to him starting to excuse himself, walking back to his house with the phone glued to his ear. The first time he missed our Sunday night viewing of Euphoria I cursed him out, but by the third I stopped expecting him to show.

A few things stayed the same for a bit, but ultimately changed completely. He still picked me up for school every morning, often spending the ten minute ride to pick up Gabby telling me something funny she said or about the date he had planned. The day that she got into the car, the two of them immediately starting to chat about the previous night's episode of Euphoria, was the last time I rode with them to school.

Hobi caught up with me before homeroom could even begin, grabbing me as he stood outside the bathroom to wait for Gabby. "Where were you this morning? Your mom said you walked to school."

I kept casual, chuckling. "I was walking to school." The bell rang just in time for me to sneak away without further questioning.

So that I would have a constant excuse to have lunch elsewhere, I joined a few extracurricular clubs that met during our lunch break, reasoning that I would also need them to look good on college applications.

It became part of my after school routine to walk around the city, snapping photos of things and sometimes people, with their permission, that I found captivating.

My mom usually called at the same time every day to make sure I was safe, but today she was a little early. "Hey, I'm close to finishing up. I'm only ten minutes away from the house." I answered her call as I took one last picture of the most beautiful tree I'd ever laid eyes on.

"Okay, Hobi is here. I sent him back to your room to wait for you." She sounded just as confused by his being there as I was.

I stuffed my camera into my backpack before getting onto my bike. "I'll be there in just a few minutes." I replied, starting to petal back toward our neighborhood.

Hobi looked up from the book of poetry he'd pulled off of my nightstand and was thumbing through when I came into my bedroom. He was sitting at the edge of the bed, two bags of all our favorite gas station snacks dumped onto the middle of the mattress.

"I can't believe you forgot our friendaversary." He acted shocked as I dropped my bag in the corner of the room.

I laughed at him, sitting next to him so that there was only a few inches between us. "I didn't. I just figured that it's Friday so you probably had plans with Gabby." I shrugged.

"You really think I'd miss tonight? We haven't missed a friendaversary celebration in ten years." He reached behind us for a bag of gummy worms, the bag crinkling as he opened it, popping one into his mouth.

"Well you have been pretty absent lately so I wasn't sure." I replied.

He sighed. "Yeah I've been a crappy friend lately haven't I?" It was a rhetorical question. "I'm sorry, but you've also been avoiding me which isn't helping."

"Because your world quite literally revolves around your girlfriend now." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Are you jealous?" He laughed immediately after, letting me know he was joking before I could get mad at him. "Don't worry you're still the best kisser I know."

I grabbed a small pillow, slapping it across his back. "You're an idiot."

"Seriously though, you're still a really big part of my world too. I promise I'll do better." He leaned over, nudging our shoulders together. "So are we starting with Halloween or Scream tonight?" He stood, pulling the two beanbags we used in front of the TV.

"Scream." I nodded, choosing the first scary movie we ever watched together, on the night of our first friendaversary. Since then the tradition changed, having only been able to handle one or two classic horror films when we were younger, and now spending that night every year taking turns picking one out until we fell asleep.

After that night, Hobi made our friendship and his relationship with Gabby work in a new way. We still didn't eat lunch together since I filled my hour elsewhere, but most nights, once he finished his phone call with Gabby before bed, he would sneak across the yard, both of us staying up a little extra later to talk to each other. Our friendship got even better over the holiday break and sometimes he came with me while I photographed the city, planning out the entire next year and a half we'd have together before leaving for college.

He promised to help me with studying for our history exams if I could help him with English. For the upcoming summer, we decided on a trip down to the beach and mapped out all the local college tours we wanted to take even though our number one choices were out of state. I encouraged him to join a dance troupe, which turned into us sneaking out late at night so he could participate in underground dance battles.

We developed a new sense of normal and even if it wasn't the same as before, I was just happy to have my best friend back. I finally started to feel balanced, until the first day of the new year, when a moving truck pulled into the house across the street.