Bulletproof Hearts

I slipped on my jeans and a loose fitting t-shirt before walking out of my room and into the living room of the apartment I shared with my best friend Eloise. We'd certainly blossomed into polar opposites of one another, but underneath outward appearances we were still the same two girls we had been growing up together. As I sat down on the couch I thought about the event that brought us back together.

Eloise and I had been friends since childhood, we were neighbors, we rode bikes on the sidewalk until our parents called us in for the night. We talked to each other out of our windows, and one of us was always at the others house. That is until my dad got a promotion at work and we had to move across the state almost for it. We both cried and promised to write each other everyday we were apart. Our parents promised us that come that summer we would be able to see one another, but we never got that chance.

Months turned into years and soon enough I was about to graduate high school, I hadn't seen Eloise since I was eleven. I still thought of her often and even though I had friends and close friends, none of the friendships could ever come close to the bond I had with Eloise. The summer after high school I went to explore with some of my friends, but the trip was cut short for myself when my dad had called with bad news about my mom. I'd broke down in tears and called a cab to the nearest airport and flew back home the same night. Once the initial shock wore off I tried to deny that my mom was dying of cancer. The doctors had given her six months to live, even with Chemo it wasn't promising that she would live much longer than six months so after talking it over with my dad and myself it was decided that she wouldn't take treatment that would make her miserable and sicker than she was. I didn't want to lose my mom, but if I had to lose her I didn't want her to suffer.

Everything in the house had seemed gloomy and dark, like death was waiting around the corner for my mom, I cried a lot at night wishing for Eloise to be my neighbor again. I wanted my best friend to help me with the burden, because without her I was certain I would crack under the pressure, or drown in my own sorrow, I hadn't decided yet. I tried to appear my usual self around my friends, and as usual if it didn't concern their lives it was non exisitant to them.

Half way through summer my parents decided that we'd finally make the trip back to visit Eloise and her family. I called her the night before we left, and caught up about graduation. We had stopped writing each other long ago when we'd both got our first cell phones. I hadn't been able to tell Eloise about my mom yet. I didn't want her to get the news the same way I had, it may have been years since we'd seen one another, but it was too callused.

We made the trip and arrived on my old street just before dinner. Our houses still looked just the same for the most part, Eloise stood on her front porch as we pulled up. For that moment I forgot about my mom's sickness and jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped.

After dinner we went up to Eloise's room to catch up on everything that had happened over the summer. When I finally told her about my mom's cancer we both cried and if felt good to have someone who understood the pain. We stayed a week and I promised to call her as soon as there were any changes in my mom's condition.

Two months later before any of us were ready my mom took a turn for the worse and as promised I called Eloise. She made it in time to spend the last two days with myself and my mom. She stayed through the funeral and for a few weeks after. My other friends had come to the funeral, but it wasn't as comforting as it was to have Eloise there.

That was three years ago, since then we'd both moved out of our parent's houses and had moved into an apartment together in New York to attend college. I still had moments of depression where it was too much to face the world, but Eloise was always there to help me along the way. I pulled myself out of my thoughts and started on breakfast. When Eloise finally emerged from her room breakfast was done.

"Hey." Eloise mumbled as she plopped down at the table.

"Good morning. I have to go get ready." I said as I walked down the hall to the bathroom. I pulled my hair back into a french braid and and found my flip flops and bag. I tossed my bag down on the couch and sat back at the table with Eloise for breakfast.