heart to heart

Prologue

The New York lights were flaring as tears build in my eyes. I cant believe today is the day. I cant keep lying to him. I look at the time realizing that there's only a few hours to tell him my situation. I unlock my phone and open up to my messages.

Eveee

hey... can we meet upstairs?
I need to talk to you.

yea what's up everything okay?
you never use periods lol

yea i'm all good i just
have to talk you

oh alright i'll be up there
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I grab my shoes and head out the door. We've had our "secret spot" since we were 7 which feels like so long ago. I sigh as i know what's going to happen. This will be one of the last times we are up there together. As i reach the roof entrance i take a deep breath and open the door. I see him looking at the ocean of city lights that we could swim in forever. He looks at me. "Hey Ria what's up?" he goes in for our goofy handshake we made when we were nine. I thought to myself i'm definitely going to miss this. I take a shaky breath before telling him. "uhm so for the past month i've been wanting to tell you something, but i'm moving to california in a couple days." he looks at me with watery eyes but i can tell he's trying to hold it back "i'm sorry Ev i really wanted to tell you but i didn't know how, i didn't want to spend our last month in sadness and-" he cuts me off "when will you be back" "oh um i'm not sure about that right now but i'll definitely be spending the rest of middle school in california". As my eyes also start to water i feel a small tear roll down my cheek as he stares at me in disbelief. i managed to say the words "i'm sorry i didn't tell you." He doesn't say anything but he looks down in defeat. I feel the overwhelming emotions starting to rise and my breathing gets shallow as i look at him. He pulls me in to a hug and says "please keep in touch. we can call and text but i don't want to lose my best friend" he manages to say "you won't lose me we will still keep in touch i promise"

We had decided to drop the topic for now and watch the new work drivers rave about traffic just like we always do.
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I always try to forget that memory. It's not one of my proudest moments, i always wished i told him sooner so we could have spent our time together wisely.

Everett and I lived in the same apartment complex since we were 6. There weren't very many kids there since it was mainly college students or newly weds who didn't want a house just yet. We met at the complex's pool. It was a smaller pool but I have a lot of memories there. It was only us and our annoyed moms who just wanted to relax but were instead on life guard duty. We decided to play a mix of mermaids and army men because he didn't want to be a mermaid(lame). We became absolutely   inseparable since that day. We eventually moved on from the pool when one day he found the roof entrance. Nobody ever used it so we decorated it the way we wanted and that became our "secret spot". We used to do our homework there together, play games, and talk when we got a little older. We used to talk about how we would be roommates in this same apartment complex and things would never change. Until they did.

When we were in seventh grade my parents decided to move out to california. The rest of our family was there including my grandmother who had gotten sick. My grandpa was having a hard time taking care of her, so we moved down to help. I spent the rest of middle school there which was the worst experience ever. I didn't make any friends for the rest of my seventh grade year and was home all summer. Of course i still kept in touch with Everett. Well that was until eighth grade. We slowly stopped talking. From everyday, to every week, every month , then every six months ,and finally not at all.
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My mind got a little carried away while packing. I am now 16 and we're moving back to New York. The market for houses is a little to high for my Dad's budget so we get an affordable apartment. Plus since it's just us now we don't really need a house. My mom and dad had been arguing for about 4 months straight till it lead to a sudden divorce. My mom wanted my brother to stay with her in california while my dad and I are going back to New York. I don't think i'll miss Cali one bit, i've always preferred the city view.And who knows maybe Everett is still there. A part of me wants to see him again but the other part of me knows he won't remember.