E.M.M.A.

Lia

Dr Melinda looked a little wary for our session today. This can only mean one thing to me. Today is finally the day where we will talk about something other than my friends. This scares me a little. Talking about my friends has kind of been a safe haven for me. It allows me to take my mind off of things for a little while.

As soon as Dr Melinda saw me enter the room she replaced her worried face with a bubbly smiley front she always puts up for me. I don't know if she does this for all her patients or just for me. I also wonder if her other patients can see through her front like I can. 

"Lia, we have been talking about your friends for four weeks already. I feel like we should move forward a bit." Dr Melinda offers.

I grimace. I really don't want to stop talking about my friends. They keep the topic off of me. I hate being the center of attention and so talking about them makes it seem like I am not the one she is focused on.

"Don't worry," She quickly backtracked, "we still will be talking about them but in a different sense." 

Now I'm a little confused. How can you talk about them in any other sense? She must have seen my confusion because she was quick to respond.

"I just want to talk about your relationship to them." She assures me.

Well I guess that is a little different. But still not entirely about me so I'm fine with it. 

"Okay so how do you want to start?" I asked softly.

"I want to start with a treat."

"A treat?"

"Yes." She responds as she opens a drawer in her desk.

She pulled out two Reece's Peanut Butter Cups. She opened one and gave the other to me. I don't complain because I love Peanut Butter and Chocolate. I open mine and allow the perfect flavors to engulf my mouth. 

As we finish up the candy Dr Melinda starts talking to me again. 

"Now Lia, I understand that you have been friends with the girls for a while but how long is a while?" Dr Melinda wipes her hands on a paper towel.

"Well let's see," I answered louder because the chocolate put me in a better mood, "I met Aria in Kindergarten, you already know that. I met Miranda in first grade at soccer practice. I met Elie in second grade at Recess and Meredith was in my Eighth grade English class." 

"So you have known these girls pretty well throughout the years. Would you say, since you have known Aria the longest, that you are the closest to her?" Dr Melinda pondered.

"Although it is true that I have known Aria the longest I am kind of an outsider in high school. Aria is in with the "it" crowd. We are from two different worlds and I bet if we hadn't been friends since Kindergarten we wouldn't be friends today. Although Aria denies it and says that we would have always been friends."

"So you aren't closest to Aria? What about Miranda? You have known her the second longest and she doesn't really run with the it crowd."

"I do love Miranda to death but we aren't the closest. Not by a long shot. Miranda is with another crowd. She runs with the sporty crowd. Quite literally. I don't think we would have been friends if I hadn't known her the second longest out of all my best friends." 

"Okay so who is your closest friend. You made it clear it wasn't Aria or Miranda so, who would it be?"

"I can't really pick between Elie and Meredith. I'm really close to both of them. They are both amazing people and I love them so much so I really can't chose."

"Alright, when was it that you started not being so close to Aria and Miranda?"

"Probably when I was about eight years old. I was in a different third grade class than Aria and I had quit soccer because I couldn't keep up anymore. So I didn't hangout with those two as much as I hung out with Elie."

"Right and so why didn't you ever really reconnect with them very much?"

"I never had the chance to. We would still go to each other's birthday parties and eat dinner with each other every once and a while but we were never in any of the same classes anymore. So when we finally got to middle school they both had different friend groups. Although we were close we weren't as close as we were before." 

"Interesting. So you never had the desire to hangout with Aria because she was popular?"

"No I would never. I love Aria for Aria. I wouldn't use her like that to gain popularity. That's just not right."

"What about Meredith. When did you first start really getting close to her?"

"Well she was in my Eighth grade English class so that's where we met. At that time Elie wasn't in my English class but was in every other class I was in so I decided that I needed a friend for English. So I looked around the classroom and found a girl sitting alone in a corner of the room. I could tell we were going to be friends so I got up and sat next to her. The rest is history." 

"So you were fast friends with Meredith?" 

"Yes."

"Did you all ever hangout together?"

"Oh, sure. We all got together for my birthday. It's always interesting getting those four girls together in one room. They all have such different personalities. It can either go really well or we can all be sitting in silence around a table."

"So they did know of each other but they didn't know each other?"

"You are correct."

"Okay my last question is, have you hung out with any of them since you got back?"

I cringed a little. It sounds like I just took a vacation and that I wasn't taken from my home and my family. 

"No." I answered cooly.

"Have you heard from any of them?"

"I thought that was your last question."

"I apologize, this is my last question."

I haven't heard from any of them. Not a call or an email. Or even a pop by saying "hey Lia, glad you aren't dead!" 

"No." I responded softly.