Slowly (yes this story is VERY g a y)

C2: Memories

After finishing our first set of classes, both Jack and I decide to meet up at her new apartment. It's close by the campus and within a few short minutes of driving I'm pulling into the parking lot right next to her. We both get out and I follow her upstairs to her door.

"How did you get this place again?" I ask, looking around the complex. It looks like a ghost town. No one is in sight and it feels like it's just me and her left in the world for a moment. "It's so quiet here."

She unlocks the door and steps in. "Yeah and I got it because of Youth services. It's this crazy program where they basically give you free housing if you're homeless while you figure out what to do with your life. Wild, right?"

I walk in and shut the door behind me. "Yeah, definitely wild. I mean it's a pretty decent apartment, especially considering you don't have to pay anything."

"Well technically I have to go to these group meetings once every two weeks, but that's about it. It's pretty chill. Most of the people in the group kind of get me. It's almost scary how much we can relate, actually."

"What makes it so scary?" I frown at her. Jack wasn't really the getting scared type. She goes into situations with her guard, head, and middle fingers raised high. It felt somewhat like a confession hearing her admit she was scared of something. Even if she said that part jokingly, it was just so unlike her usual rough exterior. She kicks a few scattered boxes to the side as she looks around the somewhat empty living room and throws her backpack to the floor. I lean back on the nearest wall and stick my hands in my pockets, slightly unsure of what to do with myself.

She turns away from me, looking down at the boxes and replies. "I don't know, G. I'm just saying shit cause I'm tired. You know how I get when I'm tired."

I nod, agreeing with her. She probably was just tired, but something was telling me this was different. She seemed like she was a changed person now. She changes a lot faster than most people I know. Or maybe I just notice her change the most because she's the person I'm closest to.

As kids, she was always the cheery and lighthearted one. I could always count on her to see the positivity on the darkest of days with a smile on her face and a fist raised. She was like sunlight that peaked through the clouds after a long rainy day, and growing up there seemed to be a lot of rainy days in my life. Without her, I don't know where my mind would've taken me during those times. But once we hit middle school, she started to get tougher. I watched her morph from this tiny little ball of laughter and energy into something much darker. By high school she had been in more fights than I could count. She had new bruises surface so many times that I eventually just got used to seeing them randomly placed along her body as she changed clothes in front of me during sleepovers.

At that point in our lives, she still joked like when she was younger, but it wasn't the same really. Sometimes I'd see a bit of her old self shine through, but it never lasted more than a few moments. Her humor got a lot darker too, and her voice a lot more bitter. We honestly never called each other names so much until that point. It hurt at first, because I wasn't used to it. But after awhile, referring to each other as "fat ass" and "bitch" became our main form of communication, which is normal now for most girls our age but still—it never really was natural for us.

It's weird watching someone grow and change so much. Now here she is again, changing some more and it had only been a few months since I'd last seen her. I knew it was one of those times in her life where she was turning into someone new again, but this time her physical appearance was changing along with her. She looked amazing and oozed confidence on the outside, but I just hoped she felt that way on the inside too.