Pickled Onions

40 | a trip down memory lane

Jonah | Pickles

Jonah was currently sat on a doorstep contemplating life. To a passerby, he might've looked like an existential teenager that was just trying not to question life's meaning but if you looked closely enough, you could see the way his lips were twitched up into a tiny smile. Then again, what was the purpose of life?

He was going over the fun memories of him as a child. Those carefree days when he was innocent and baby faced. He remembered going for walks with his family, especially with his older sister who he didn't see very much of ever since she had married her long-term boyfriend who she had met under extremely odd circumstances but that was a story for another day. He also thought about meeting Elena. An accidental phone call and voila! A friendship that was forged in steel but unfortunately over the years, due to wear and tear, it eroded. The reason for this was because he had to move away from his previous house and had to start all over again in another part of the country. Fortunately, for Jonah, it wasn't much of a problem as he was an extremely sweet soul that everyone ended up loving. Life was mainly easy for him and along with his innocent air came popularity. As he was quite popular and wrapped in his new life, he started to forget about his old friend back in Soho.

Exchanged phone numbers were lost and the talking ceased. For the first few months, they pined over each other's absence but slowly, they adjusted to their dismay.

•••

As soon as his train of thought went down the wrong path, his small smile turned itself upside down into a frown which looked out of place on his handsome face. His calm expression was now stressed. He regretted losing all contact with her but it was too late now.  He sorely regretted it. Even though they were young, it was the kind of friendship that felt like home and anyone could see that they were compatible with each other.

All this thinking started to make Jonah's head ache. He originally had wanted to feel better and so he had decided to think about his childhood but today it made feel guilty and just worsened his mood. 

"Stop over thinking Jonah." he muttered to himself out loud as he got up to go inside.

"Oi Jonah!" a voice called.

Jonah turned to see Zak standing by his house.

"Oh hi. Didn't see you there."

"Are you ok? I saw you sitting on your doorstep looking stressed, man. Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, yeah." he said not wanting to give anything away. The last thing he wanted was a fuss about how he never really did much apart from staring at his phone all day.

"Cool! There's a party at uh, Max's-"

Zak was cut off by Jonah's phone which had decided to ring at this exact moment. Jonah's attention was now on the phone.

Pickles.

"Do you mind if we talk later? It's important. Can't really miss this call."

"Yeah, totally. See you later." and with that, Zak walked off.

"Hey Pickles!"

"Hey JJ!" her warm voice greeted.

"How's your job going?"