High Tides

Friends

The cab door had opened to a tall brick building next to a whole street of tall buildings, varying in different shades. The busy bustling streets of Manhattan were just as I expected. Busy. And bustling.

Aunt Charlotte, or whom she now told me to call her, Cher, led me to the tallest brick apartment, of the street with the tall apartments, and said hello to the doorman. I followed her through what seemed to be an infinite amount of steps until we reached a dark red door labeled '503'.

Cher unlocked the door, which opened up to an apartment that strangely looked a lot similar to Rachel and Monica's apartment in Friends. Cher noticed the strange look on my face and explained that she had bought similar couches from the show off eBay, and purposely tried to buy similar house décor as to the show.

I didn't mind living in Rachel and Monica's apartment 2.0, in fact, I half expected to see Chandler and Joey walking straight through the door with some situation that you would only hear about in 90's sitcoms about friends in New York. Alas, they didn't.

Cher, led me to my room which was very plain. White walls, wood floors, medium sized window. An Ikea bed, drawer, and desk greeted me at the door. I unpacked my clothes and belongings, and freshened up, unsure as to what Cher had planned this afternoon.

Turns out, Cher being the busy single lawyer she is, had an important impromptu meeting call, and left me alone with a reservation at a casual restaurant, a subway card, and a map of Central Park.

I was fine with Cher being busy with work, that just means I get to be all by myself, in New York. Isn't that how the movie always start? The lonely main character by themselves in the city, until some spectacular event happens, or they meet a new person that will change their life, or at least something like that.

I grabbed my backpack, and an apartment key, waved goodbye to Cher, and left Rachel and Monica's apartment 2.0.

The restaurant was a small independent one, next to a coffee shop, and a vintage clothing shop.

It was a Thursday night, which seemingly was a popular date time for all of the couples who sat around me in the restaurant. I'm wasn't going to lie, I felt pretty shy.

I ordered some sort of small rice dish that seemed interesting, and ate it as fast as I could. Seeing all these people with people, and me alone, was not the most comfortable of feelings.

I took my new Subway card, a used it to go to the park. The subway was filled with many people and many faces. And for some reason that comforted me. As if seeing these people go about their lives with their own problems, motivated me to do so as well.

When I reached Central Park, I found myself sitting on a bench, forcing myself to have deep thoughts that only occur when you are, well, sitting alone on a bench. There was a movie screening happening outside at the park, playing some 80s romance with Molly Ringwald in it. I was tired, but I didn't want to go home yet.

I walked around, until I saw something you'll never guess. The fountain in which the Friends opening song was filmed. A group of people were laughing and smiling as they were walking back from it, exchanging showing each other photos on their phones of them with the fountain. One girl started to sing off key to the opening song from the show, and the rest of the group joined in, as they laughed and walked away.

I sat on the edge of the fountain, stared at it for a while, and started hysterically laughing, Laughing and laughing because that what's you do when there's a coincidence. I stopped laughing abruptly as I heard a voice come my way.

"You know that's not really the fountain from friends, right?", said a voice from the other side of the fountain.