The Box



"Okay. I couldn't help it. I was really stressed out...and there was no choice left!! So, I ate the ice-cream.." I protested.

"Sarah! You were not supposed too! It was the last one and...." Sia yelled.

"Blah,blah,blah.." I taunted, " I'll buy a new one."

Sia sighed, "Why were you stressed?"    

I shrugged, I had known Sia as back as I could remember. We were besties. Our mothers were good friends so we grew together and became super close. She was a part of my family, a part of my life. At the moment I was in her home, we had an assignment to complete.

"Sarah." she shook me, " Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I mumbled.

"No! You are not! What's wrong?"

I bit my lip, then shrugged.

" Why don't we go to the attic?" she suggested.

I raised my eyebrow. "Really?"

Sia nodded.

"Fine." I said defeated. I always ended up agreeing to her.

We went to her attic. It was a storeroom of our memories. Whenever we did something wrong, we would land up hiding there. Our scrapbooks, projects, photos and everything was in the attic. Sia went to the corner of the attic and took out a box. I remembered that box, it was Sia's. She never let me see it. Whenever I would try, she would say, "Let the time come."

Why was she opening it now?

Had the time come? I thought 'the time' meant when we grew old or something or probably after we met after years. Not when we were only 15! Did she...

I shrugged at the thought.

"Sia.. I just had a feeling that something might be wrong..." I stopped at the sight of the contents of the box.

"Oh Sia!" was all I could say.

The box had our priceless possessions. Our best memories. Sia looked at me and smiled. I took the box from her hand as we sat down on the floor. I felt tears appearing on my face , Sia said,"Don't even think about crying."

I chuckled

 I picked up a shoe. It was a tiny shoe with red and white checks and a bow in front.

"That's your shoe..." Sia said, "You remember that fat bully Bob?"

"Yeah" Ii recalled,"He had took it from me and I had cried over it. Until you punched him!"

"Well it was fun. We were probably six at the time."

We laughed as we remembered him crying and take it out of a tree hole.

Then Sia took out a handkerchief.

"Aww..." I took it. 'Sarah and Sia are best-friends. Always.' was scribbled on it with a red sketch pen. "You kept it?"

Sia nodded. "How couldn't I? You wrote it in 3rd grade. we saw the two besties, Georgia and Lily having a fight and I assumed that it will happen to us one day."

"And started crying. Finally I wrote this and gave it to you."

Then I saw a peculiar thing in the box. "Seriously?"

"Well. yeah!" she took it from me and dusted it. 'It' was a smashed house made of ice-cream sticks. "It was smashed when you came running to me and fell!" she laughed.

"It was not funny!" I protested. "I saw the biggest lizard in the world!"

She grinned even more and took a picture out of it. "Now, this is adorable!"

I took the picture. 'The younger we' wore identical dress . The weird thing was that both of us were crying.
"Remember? When I got hurt and cried and you couldn't stop me."
"Yeah I started crying too." I mumbled, I stared at it.
" We should get this framed?" we said at the same time and laughed. The few hours we took out things, laughed,cried and remembered.

Sia took out an envelope from the box, I couldn't recognize it.
"That's for you." She handed it to me. I had a feeling that she was sad."I wrote it last year. I thought someday we might get parted... So I wrote it."
"Sia..." I reassured her "We have been together like what? Forever! We will never be parted"
She looked at me , her dark eyes should sadness. I shivered as I hugged her.

As I pulled away she started coughing.

"Are you okay? Let's take you down." I said helping her up. She felt weak from inside. I was worried. We went down and she went straight to the washroom. I went to fetch water; I could hear the coughing and then the sound of puking.

I must admit, I was feeling quite scared. But the real scare was when I went inside the washroom.

She was puking blood. I ran to her and rubbed her back as I gave her water. She could hardly drink it. I ran to the phone dialed her mother's number and told her to come as fast as she could. I also dialed the doctor.

The coughing and puking had stopped. I gave her fresh clothes but she was so weak. So I wrapped her I towel giving her another glass of water.

"Are you better now?" was all I could come up with. Sia nodded.

After the doctor went I was alone in the living room. Sia was in the bedroom with her parents. I thought it might be a better idea. It definitely wasn't.

I realized my best friend had cancer. We were going to be parted.