blessing in disguise - rafe cameron

02

Giving my mother a quick glance I nodded in agreement. Maybe it was a good idea at link up with Sarah. After all she was the only one who I really cared for, even though I might've fucked up our friendship with my past actions.

"Do you still have my phone?" I asked her, to which she skillfully pulled it out of her back pocket and handed it to me as if she had prepared it.

I tightly grasped my phone; it's been a while since I've used it.

Shortly after, I pressed the power button and impatiently waited for it to finally boot up. And just as I expected, my phone couldn't stop blinking for a few minutes.

Reluctantly, I tapped on the phone icon and glanced at the displayed contacts. Numerous missed calls and messages were displayed on my screen, and a sense of fear creeped itself into my body.

My gaze fell onto the latest message.

It was from Sarah.

While I was away, she had sent me hundreds of messages. Initially, it was ten to fifteen messages a day, but as months passed, it became less. But to my surprise, the last message wasn't older than two weeks.

So she didn't forget about me.

I briefly smiled down at the screen, causing a tear to also find it's place on it, which I quickly wiped away. Tilting my head back to suppress any further tears I quickly grabbed a tissue and dried my cheeks before redirecting my attention back to my phone.

I toyed with the idea of calling Sarah but quickly decided against it and instead chose to send her a text.

I repeatedly typed and deleted individual words, unsure of how to reach out to my best friend after being gone for almost a whole year.

But without overthinking it further, I kept it quiet simple and asked her to meet up. Then I quickly set my phone aside and tried not to think about it too much, but it wasn't that easy.

To distract myself, I unpacked my belongings that were still neatly folded in my luggage and stored them into my closet. Suddenly, the sound of my phone rang into my ears, and I wasted no time grabbing it.

My hands trembled wildly as I tried to unlock it, but I immediately calmed down when I read the eagerly awaited response from Sarah, who could hardly believe that I was back in town.

Without hesitation, I grabbed my keys and ran through the house impatiently, almost forgetting to say goodbye to my parents. I'd just eat dinner later.

"Have fun, my dear." my mom yelled after me as I stormed out of the front door, nearly tripping over the last step of the porch.

I didn't even have time to change, as I just wanted to see Sarah as quickly as possible. So, I was still wearing the light blue denim shorts and the white flowy tank top which I wore during my drive home. I didn't care, though; all I wanted was to finally hug my best friend.

As I neared our favorite spot, the old pier, my stomach began to feel weird. Even though I knew that Sarah wasn't one to hold grudges, I couldn't help but to feel anxious. After all, I had simply left without any explanation. Of course, she found out through my parents a day after my departure, but at this point I owed her more than just an apology.

I was the first one at the pier because when I arrived, there was no sign of Sarah, which made me even more nervous. Did she maybe play a prank on me and in reality she just never wanted to see me again?

The moment I heard Sarah's voice behind me, however, these negative thoughts were banished from my mind, and I immediately turned to face her.

Tears immediately welled up in my eyes as I saw her, and Sarah was no different. She had hardly changed looking at her appearance, only her hair was a bit messy, and worn-out Converse were stuck to her feet. But as I looked at her more closely, I realized she wasn't the same old Sarah anymore.

She had changed, just like I did, and I could tell from the look in her tired eyes that a lot went down since I left. Back then, her eyes used to sparkle more, constantly beaming with delight and joy, but now they appeared almost empty.

"Sarah, I-" only a few words escaped my mouth, but I didn't need to say anythings else in that moment because we immediately embraced eachother, holding onto her so tightly that I was afraid of crushing her.

"You bitch, I missed you so much." she sobbed into the crook of my neck, and I laughed despite my teary eyes.

We remained in that position for several minutes before slowly letting go of each other, and now I could finally look at her up close. Wiping away her tears, I gave her an apologetic smile, to which she chuckled briefly.

"I'm so sorry for leaving you alone, but I had no other choice. I just had to get away from everything." I tried to explain my situation back then, hoping she could understand, because she was always the only one who did.

"I'm not mad anymore, Jen, actually the opposite. I'm glad you made that decision because you're doing better now. You weren't yourself anymore." she wrapped her arm around my shoulders and I leaned my head against hers as we both gazed into the distance from the pier, letting our feet dangle over the turquoise water.

"And to be honest, after everything that went down with my family it was probably the best decision you could've made. Now it's all just a mess." she continued, not going into too much detail, just that it was much deeper than it seemed and that she would try to explain everything but just not yet.

"Thank you, Sarah." I mumbled, and for some time, just the soft sound of the waves crashing against the pier filled the silence. "So you're not with topper anymore. But with someone else?"

"Yup! Come on, let me introduce you two!" she got up before extending her hand out to me, a wide grin on her lips, which I had missed so much. I sighed briefly before reaching for her hand, and pulling me onto my feet.

She eagerly sprinted ahead, and as we turned around the corner, I saw her old green bike, which she then took and sat on. With a quick motion, she pointed to the rear rack, on which I quickly positioned myself and held onto the loops of her shorts.

"Where are we going?" I asked the blonde after some time as we were getting closer and closer to the cut. Since Sarah never had any ties to this part of the island prior to this day, she left me wondering what could lead us here and to be honest I rather just wanted to keep it that way. My past ties to this side should stay hidden for good this time. However, it seemed like Sarah had other plans.

"We're almost there, just a few more minutes." she began to pedal harder now, taking a few more turns before we came to a stop.

"Where the hell are we, Sarah?" I complained as I got off the bike, my butt feeling numb.

"Come on, Jen." she ignored my question and motioned for me to follow her. Rolling my eyes, I followed my best friend, sprinting for a brief moment to catch up to her.

After a short while, I could see that we were approaching some kind of beach house, which looked quite run-down, and the lawn could have used a trim. Looking around some more I could clearly see that we were in Pogue territory.

Trudging through the tall grass wasn't easy, especially not in these shoes. But soon enough, I was interrupted from my concentration not to trip over my own feet when I heard someone calling out Sarah's name.

"Sarah, who's that gorgeous lady, and why am I only meeting her now?"