Mid December
I'm not sure what was louder, the 'click clack' of our boots along the British road or the excited giggles and squeals escaping our mouths as the reality slowly sank in. We held tightly on to our thick cardigans, protecting ourselves from the cool winter air, as we navigated through London, in search of a particular cafe.
"I'm so excited for you to meet her Hailey", Sabrina said as we spotted the cafe and let our linked arms fall loose. Standing outside the entrance was a girl really close to our age, hands in her jeans' back pockets and slightly rocking on her feet, swinging back and forth from heels to toes.
As we neared, Sabrina left my side and ran towards the girl, embracing her in the classic Sabrina hug - warm and comforting. Shyly, I followed. I waited patiently behind my best friend, allowing her to catch up with her friend that she hadn't seen in years.
"Freya, this is Hailey, Hailey this is Freya", Sabrina introduced us. I put on a polite smile and stepped forward to give the girl a hug. "Hi Hailey, its so nice to meet you. Let's go inside, you guys must be freezing."
We followed Freya in to the cafe and found a table against the window, which allowed us to observe all the busy Londoners passing by while we waited for our hot drinks.
"Freya, its been so long since I've seen you. What has it been? Like 9 years?", Sabrina asked, turning her body towards the new girl I had just been introduced to. She nodded her head and smiled, "yeah its been so so long. What's happened with you since then?", she asked.
"Well. I finished school in Sydney, travelled a little, went to uni and met Hailey. Its holidays now which is why I'm here but I graduate next year", Sabrina started. Usually, once she starts talking, if no one stops her, she won't ever stop. "What about you Frey? How's life been since I left?"
"After you left, our group basically remained the same but since we graduated I've barely seen them. I met Josh, who you'll probably meet while you're here, and started working for his clothing line that he runs with his friends."
"What's the clothing line?", I join the conversation. "There's two of them actually, but I'll let him bore you with it all later", she replies and laughs to herself.
A couple hours later I was feeling really comfortable around Freya, and the three of us were having such a good time, laughing as we sipped away on our hot chocolates and coffees.
We walked out of the cafe and followed Freya till we reached an apartment building, where she led us up to her apartment. I glanced around her home and fell in love with the view from her window, which overlooked London.
"So this is where you'll be staying", she directed her arm towards a room. "And here's the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, pretty simple", she shrugged.
"Its beautiful Freya. Thank you so much for having me", I hugged her tightly.
*
As I walked into the kitchen half awake, I spotted Freya lying on the couch against the window. "Good morning", she said happily.
"How are you this perky in the morning?", I asked. "I just got off the phone with Josh and he said we can come around later because I'm so desperate for him to meet Sab before she leaves", she explained as she got up from the couch.
After Freya and I had cooked breakfast, cleaned up and gotten dressed, Sabrina emerged from the room we were sharing. "We were wondering when you were gonna get up, Freya's taking us around London!", I said. She groaned and turned back towards our room to change. Finally, around mid day we were ready to leave.
Freya took us to the typical tourist sites all afternoon, the three of us taking photos every chance we had, until it started getting dark, when she decided to head to Josh's.
As she drove into the driveway of the house, Sabrina and I looked at each other and looked back to the house in shock.
We stepped out of Freya's car and walked towards the huge house that stood before us. Before we had even made it to the door, a guy was already standing there, holding it open for us.
"Hey babe", said Freya as she walked through and placed a light kiss on his lips. The pair of us followed her in, and slowly took in the interior of the house. It looked stories high, and full of light and modern decor.
We followed them into the kitchen and stood around as they took seats at the counter. "Josh this is Sabrina, my best friend when we were younger, and this is Hailey, her best friend."
"Nice to meet you guys", he said smiling. He was the same height as Freya, with flat brown hair and a well grown beard of the same colour.
"What was the reason you moved?", he inquired.
"My dad got some 'amazing' job opportunity when I was like 14 and we moved to Sydney. It was pretty hard I guess, leaving Freya and our friends", Sabrina explained looking down at her hands. She turned her head towards me and I saw a smile break out on her face as she said, "but then a couple years later Hailey here was in one of my uni classes and I guess we've just been best friends since then."
"So are you two here just travelling around Europe or something?", Josh asked.
"Actually, Hailey's living here for the next year or so as part of her degree and I tagged along just to help her settle in", Sab answered, smiling proudly at me.
"Yeah, she's staying with me and I can't wait. I've been looking for a roommate for months", Freya added.
"Oh finally. She's been nagging me to help her look for someone since she moved in. I'm sure you guys will have a great time", Josh said.
"So do you live here by yourself?", I asked, still in shock with the house we were in.
"No there's 3 other guys that live here, they're just out at the moment. We all work together and have a brand and clothing line." Freya and I made eye contact and smiled, as she has mentioned before that Josh could chat about his work for hours.
"What's the brand?"
"It's called the 'Sidemen', I don't know, you've probably never heard of it", he shrugged.
"No, sorry I can't say I have", I sighed.
*
"Anyways", Freya dragged out, "I just wanted you to meet Sab now before she leaves, you can bore Hailey anytime over the next year."
Josh sighed, looking deflated while I tried to reassure him he wasn't uninteresting. He looks up as we leave, "Hey, since you're here, you should come to the new years party we're all going to. You can meet pretty much all our friends."
I nodded, feeling like I would kind of intrude on Freya's life too much, but told Josh I would think about it.
We left the beautiful, empty house after saying goodbye to Josh, and drove back to Freya's apartment.
Even though Sab's flight was early the morning, we stayed up on the couch against the window, chatting - me listening to them reminisce on their days together, Freya hearing about our fun times and us learning about Freya's life.
*
Early the following morning, Freya and I waved off Sabrina as she boarded her flight back to Sydney. I made sure to reassure her that our friendship wouldn't be replaced by anyone else.
"Find some cute guys while you're here, forget him", she giggled as she hugged me tightly.
"Its been great seeing you Frey. I'll definitely come back next year to catch up with you both", she promised as she walked away from us.
