By Design

The More-or-less Accurate Guide to Sustaining a Friendship

'Nadine?' I said again, pinching myself to confirm that I was in the present and not just a fragment of a memory.

'Yeah, Tess. It's me,' she whispered and blinked back the tears that were threatening to overflow.

'Nadine?' The name broke into two one-syllable pieces as I uttered them and I stepped closer and closer to her until we wound each other into a tight embrace, her burying her face into my shoulders and me tiptoeing to get a better reach of her.

'Oh Tess,' Nadine's voice wobbled dangerously, muffled against my shoulder, but she didn't cry and I blinked my eyes rapidly to usher my tears back in. 'Tess, I've missed you so much.'

'And I you,' I whispered happily, closing my eyes in bliss. It didn't last long though; Nadine pulled away from me briskly and her trembling expression hardened into a stern gaze.

'Damn you, Teresa Willows!' she cursed me as she shook my body. 'How dare you leave me just like that?! How dare you?!'

'Um, Nadine-' I tried to speak but she cut me off.

'You were my best friend for ten years and I thought there'd be many more years to come but nooo, you turn up on my doorstep two days before you're leaving with nothing but a "bye, I'll miss you." What do you have to say for yourself, huh?'

I opened my mouth and shut it. Nadine's dark eyes flashed fiercely at me and I found mself wincing under her razor-sharp glare.

'I'm sorry,' I apologised meekly, lowering my head. 'When I got the letter from Holson Towers, they informed me that I'd have to meet the headmaster three days from that day, which didn't give me a lot of room to say the proper goodbyes I wanted to say to everyone.'

'I know, Tess,' Nadine sighed as she ruffled my hair. 'It still pissed me off though. So much that I just had to come out all this way and tell you what an idiot you are.' I laughed at how she punctuated every word she said with absolute passion.

'Nadine, I still have twenty minutes of lunch left. I'll take you on a brief tour around school and you can update me of home,' I gestured for her to follow me after gaining approval from the teaching assistant to take her with me.

*****

She hadn't changed at all since last I saw her a few months ago. Her dark skin glowed in the light and her glimmering black hair had been the object of my envy whenever I compared my split ends to hers. Well, that was sort of my fault, but let's not dwell on the details.

'So why're you at my school of all places? And how did you get in?' I asked her, as we walked through the courtyard.

'I sent an email to your deputy headmaster a week ago, requesting if I could come see you here. He was actually pretty decent and after several security procedures, they confirmed that I could come and see you today,' Nadine explained.

'Yes, but you could've just gone to my apartment and skipped the hassle,' I pointed out to her.

'That was the problem, wasn't it, Tess? I didn't actually know where your apartment was because you never told me.' Her blunt words had a playful ring to it but I still groaned.

'You never chewed me out like this when we call each other,' I complained.

'I was waiting for this moment,' Nadine smirked at me.

'But why didn't you just get the address from my parents?' I pressed on to her.

'Because I wanted to ambush you here at your fancy new school,' she grinned at me.