"Maybe our girlfriends are our soul mates and guys are just people to have fun with."
I woke up to a loud crashing noise followed by some shouting. Looking out my window I saw a big white truck a buzz with people moving boxes and carrying furniture. I watched as they unloaded box after box of who-knows-what and two mattresses.
I remember seeing a small beat up old Buick pull into the driveway, I saw a tall blonde woman step gracefully out of the car. She was a Barbie personified. Another girl stepped out as well, also blonde. She looked to be about my age, I was elated at the thought of another girl in the neighborhood.
“Why don’t you go say hi?” I my mother asking from the doorway.
“Okay!” I smiled jumping down from the windowsill hurriedly pulling on my pink overalls and fidgeting as my mother tamed my red curls, our common feature, into braids.
I ran down the stairs, tripping over my six-year-old feet. “Bye dad!” I called passing my father who was sitting at the table reading his newspaper.
I rushed out the door slowing down as I hit the sidewalk. I looked back up at our blue house where my mother was smiling out the window. I waved quickly before darting across the street to the new girls house. I saw her sitting on the front steps, watching me over her pink sunglasses.
Shyness kicked in then and I walked up to her slowly, eyes down.
“Hi,” I said so softly she probably didn’t hear me.
“Hi! I’m Vanessa.” She said jumping down form her perch on the steps. “Call me Nez.”
“I’m Penelope Jane.” I said happy she wasn’t as shy as me.
“Can I call you PJ?” She asked
“I guess.” I mumbled.
“Good. Well, PJ don’t just stand there like a bump on a log-that’s what Marybeth calls it- come sit!” The pink clad six year old enthused, pulling me by the hand to sit with her on the front porch.
And that’s how we stayed for the rest of the morning; Nez talking, me listening-as would soon become tradition- watching cars go by and movers come and go. We only moved when Marybeth, who I found out was her mother, came to tell us lunch was ready.
From that moment on we became inseparable, there was no Nez without PJ far behind and there certainly wasn’t a PJ unless Nez was there too.
We were the best of friends; the sister we never had.
That’s why when Nez called me in the middle of the night while I was visiting my grandmother a couple hours away, I knew immediately something was wrong.
“PJ?” Nez’s shaky voice filtered into my sleep deprived mind.
“Yeah, hun, what's wrong?” I whispered back, rubbing sleep from my eyes.
“I need you.”
Those three words were always a prelude to something big.
I first uttered them when my parents announced their divorce; she repeated them a year later when her mom passed out on the walk up the driveway, drunk. Over the years we have only spoken those three words a handful of times and now was another to add to the bunch.
“I’m leaving now, I’ll be there in under two hours.” I said, already slipping on shoes and stuffing things into my suitcase.
“Hurry.” She whispered, her voice breaking on the short word.
“I will.” I whispered back, zipping the suitcase shut.
I closed my phone, slipping it into the sports bra I slept in, stuffing the charger into a side pocket on my bag and hurrying out of the guest room to the couch in the living room where my dad snored away.
“Dad?” I whispered, shaking him slightly.
“Wha-“ He muttered, opening his eyes, taking in the suitcase in my bag and worried look on my face.
“Nez?” He asked, understanding immediately.
“Yeah.”
“Keys are in the car, I’ll have your uncle drive me back tomorrow morning.” He said, rubbing his eyes. “There's money in the glove box, get yourself some caffeine before you leave the county.”
I nodded curtly, knowing there was no way I’d be stopping until I was in her driveway.
“Go.” He said, smiling sadly, “I’ll explain to your grandma.”
“Thank you, daddy.” I replied, kissing his forehead quickly before practically running out the front door, ignoring the alarm that beeped warningly. Dad would get it.
I tossed my suitcase into the back seat and leapt into the front, turning the keys in the ignition and backing out of the driveway before my seat belt even clicked into place.
Glancing at the clock on the dash I noted that it was three in the morning. I pressed onto the accelerator impatiently, willing the distance between here and the house to be shorter.
My best friend needed me.
