Vinyl Records:

I received her note. I saw it. The minute I did, I broke down crying. Which was a bit odd, considering how many people were around me at that time. I looked around: a lot of people. People who were smiling, laughing and drinking all their problems away. They never knew this side of me. I never opened myself up that much. In a hurry, I grabbed my cell phone and called my dad.

In the smoke filled room, I could barely see the keypads.

"Dad?" I asked, holding the phone to my ear, "can you pick me up? Right now?" I asked again, not caring if people saw or heard me. It was a moment when my heart was beating frantically and it all felt surreal. I knew something was up. And I was dying to know what.

"Of course. I'll be there in twenty minutes." His tired voice said and I nodded my head, ending the call. I looked around again. Nope, nothing mattered. I got up and hastily made an excuse. As soon as I went outside, the crisp winter air proved to be my only consolation. I loved it.

♥ ♥ ♥

"Don't you want to eat?" My dad said, noticing my erratic behavior. I shook my head and threw back a quick "No.". I opened the computer and stayed in my room. I stayed in my room for a while.. A long, long while.

When I finally gathered up the courage, I sent her a message. I didn't bother to read it again. I sent it and it was too late to do anything about it. Now I just had to wait.

♥ ♥ ♥

An hour passed and all of the objects in my room seemed to glare at me. The room looked bigger than ever, but I felt like it was choking me. It either looked really big, like some kind of maze, or it looked tiny - like I had nowhere to run to, nowhere to go.

There was no light in my room. It was pitch black and I did nothing to change it. It was Christmas Eve, and if we could change, this would be the right time. The right time for a small miracle, for a small recognition of some sort. It was the right time to make everything right.

I didn't expect forgiveness. I didn't even know how to look into her eyes and tell her what I've done. How I've changed. How was I supposed to tell her who Sally was now, when I didn't even know it myself? How could I look into her secretive dark eyes and let myself be vulnerable to her?

How?

♥ ♥ ♥

7:25 PM. I was five minutes early. I felt a little bit nauseous, standing in the same place I used to stand all those months ago. It literally felt like a lifetime passed since I stood there. Like everything changed, blew us over like a big, tidal wave crashed into us and we had no control over where it was taking us. I looked down at my leopard printed gloves, at my long, black coat, jeans and my skater shoes. Something I scrunched my nose at, but the snow made it hard to walk in anything else. My fiery red hair flew in the wind. I looked at the entrance door. There she was, coming down. I felt my stomach clench.

"Hi." Abigail said to me, smiling. I ran up to her, not a single word said, and hugged her as tight as I could. She felt a little confused, but hugged me back nonetheless.

"Fall down." I said.

"What? Are you insane?" She asked laughing. I hugged her tighter.

"Fall or I'll make us fall, damn it." I said and did exactly as I said. We laughed and still hugged on the ground. Everything felt almost right.

"You know, people will say we're having sex, over here." Abigail said, chuckling. I let her go. She gave me a vanilla-filled croissant glazed with sugar, her favorite dessert. I gave her a vanilla caramel flavored tea. Her favorite kind. Her eyes twinkled and we were on our way.

I won't tell you what we talked. For we talked a lot, and important and unimportant things. We avoided topics, then scratched them a little bit until letting them fall again, we laughed, we almost cried, we judged and we forgave. What we said will forever be only between us. It remained like some kind of a sacred promise. None of us could or would have had it any other way.

At the end of the day, we agreed on one thing: none of us would ever say or give out what we couldn't say today. There still were subjects we couldn't touch and if we didn't touch them, they would never be. We didn't say it all. I think we were scared of judging each other and being vulnerable. But, I think, we didn't say it all for the sake of sticking with some good memories and having subjects to talk about.

"I'll give you another chance if you want it and are willing to take it." Abigail's words were carried by the wind.

I didn't want that chance - I would've screwed things up again. I didn't want to hurt her, or myself, again. I explained that to her and she agreed. We both knew we could either be best friends, or no friends at all. We promised each other, in the dead of the night, that we would remain in contact and talk more often. All of the memories could safely be replaced, taken out from the place we so cautiously hid them in.

"Promise me. Just promise me, that you'll remember me. When you feel good, or not good at all, when you're married or when you have kids, or when you get an A in maths (which is impossible, I know),that you'll remember me and us. What losers we used to be, how we stayed in the rain to watch Beyonce perform, how we would munch a lot of fast food from Spring Time, and to remember me, in general. Good or bad, I don't care. Just don't you dare forget the period that really defined you as a person. Because I won't forget about you, no matter how many times you hurt me. My kids, my nephews and if I'm still alive, my newphews' kids will hear about you. They will have what to learn from this and I hope you'll learn to look at this like it was nothing short of a wonderful experience. And I'm sorry for the times I've hurt you. I was a scared, confused, lonely and angry kid."

Ah, Abigail, if you only knew that his was nothing but the beginning...