Memoirs of a Fallen Angel

Astronaut Boots and Walking Sticks

I spend the weekend making the arrangements with the company. And we don't talk with Mia. Not even once. This is the longest we haven't talked. I know it was wrong of me to want her to only have me close. But I couldn't help it. We've been friends since I moved in London ten years ago when I first got into Lower School. Even after I had to leave for the company and move to Birmingham, we never once stopped talking. We always found a way to see each other. And then a year later she got a job here in Birmingham, and we were together again. We've always had other friends of course but we were always each other's best friends. This never changed. Until three months ago. Mia met this girl Daphne at work. Daphne started modeling at the company Mia designs for. They got along well and started hanging out together. And suddenly I realized all Mia ever talked about became Daphne. And now I feel like I've lost my best friend.

I chase my thoughts away and get off the train. I climb the stairs and get rid of the suffocating aura of the underground. The grumbling of my stomach becomes unavoidable, so I decide to stop by Starbucks and buy granola and yoghurt.

I wait in the line for a couple of minutes and then I grab my order and start to walk out the door. But I am stopped by a tall, blonde person. Mia.

"Sorry," she says after an awkward moment of silence.

"Sorry," I mumble back.

We're quiet for a few more moments.

"This is awkward," she says, looking into my eyes.

"Yeah," I try to stop my lips from twisting. I realize that she's doing the same thing as well. And then I see her realize that I'm doing the same thing as her. And we burst into laughter at the same time. I hug her with my tiny body. She hugs back. "I missed you," she says.

"Me too," I snuggle. "I'm sorry."

"Same here," she smiles when we break the hug. "Where are you headed to?" she asks.

"Hospital. Getting my foot in a boot," I try to joke, hoping I can cover up my worry. "You?"

I realize I fail; I know she knows I'm worried. "Nowhere, just stopped by after a morning walk," she grins, hinting to the time when I told her she was too unhealthy.

"And you were going to buy something sweet," I say a matter-of-factly.

She shrugs. "I'll come with you," she says, and gets out of the shop without even giving me space to argue.

We start walking to the hospital, chatting about random stuff, just as we always do.

***

"What are you doing right now?" Mia asks to Doctor Kade, being her usual curious self.

"Curiosity killed the cat," I say with a grin.

"And satisfaction brought it back," Dr. Kade and Mia say at the same time.

My jaw drops open at the sight of them taking the same side. Against me. "I'm your patient, you realize that don't you?" I say through my teeth.

"Yes, but she's much more fun than you," he grins as he takes blood with a syringe. I wince at the pain as the needle enters my skin. He turns to Mia, "we're going to use PRP injections for her treatment. This requires of taking her blood and keeping it in the centrifuge for approximately fifteen minutes," he says.

"Why?" she asks again as I say "What? You only told me about the boot! Nothing about injections!"

He answers her as he pulls the syringe out of my skin, ignoring my complaint. "She's going to heal with her own blood."