My Best Friend

Anna and I had been best friends from the first day we met in Kindergarten. Both our parents were divorced, we lived with our moms, were only children, and we lived in the same apartment building down the street from the school. We had been through nearly everything together, from breakups, dad's missing their weekends, one of our mutual friends passing away, pets dying or getting lost, breakups, and fights. Now, in our senior year, we had yet another test of our friendship when our college rejections and acceptances began to come back.

Although Anna and I had applied to all of the same college's, we were never on the same level in school, and we had different career interests. We had agreed to open all of our college letters together so we could pick our schools together, even if it meant we would be going our separate ways, which is why I'm in my bedroom with all of my letter's in a pile, a stash of chocolate on my desk, and my mom's letter opener in my hand, waiting for Anna to run up the stairs.

I don't have to wait long, as I soon hear the sound of her coming up the stairs, quickly followed by her laughter as she bursts through my door with my mom behind her, holding another letter in her hand. She tosses it at me and shuts the door as Anna dumps her pile of letters on the bed next to mine, adds some of her own candy to my pile of chocolate and then jumps onto my bed, sending the letters flying all over my bed and the two of us into a fit of laughter that doesn't last long. The mood turns somber as we pick up our first letters and open them.

"Duke," I mutter, ripping it open and watching out of the corner of my eye as she finds her own Duke letter.

"I got in!"

I smile for her as I read their polite rejection, "I didn't."

She nudges me, "hey, Duke doesn't know what they're missing."

I chuckle out a laugh and find the next letter. Harvard.

"Rejected!" She shouts, laughing as we toss both the letters to the floor, watching as they cover my Duke rejection.

Juliard letter's are opened and I can't hide my excitement, "I got in!"

"That's a no go here captain," Anna states, tossing hers to the floor.

Fifteen letters later, a pile of rejections on the floor and a small pile of acceptance letters on the bed, we've busted into the candy and are sitting silently, staring at the letters.

"We didn't get into any of the same schools," Anna whispers.

"I think we knew that was going to happen," I reply, my voice also a whisper.

"But the ones we really want to go to aren't even in the same state."

"Anna, North Carolina and New York aren't that far apart. We'll both come home for holidays and we'll still talk all the time," I tell her, sniffling back tears.

"Don't cry, we said we wouldn't cry," she mumbles, but I can hear the waver in her voice.

~~~~~~

"Are you guys all packed up?" My mom asks as we stuff the last of the bags into our trunks.

"Yeah, and if we forgot anything, you guys can just send us care packages," Anna states, laughing.

Our moms roll their eyes and pulls us both into hugs before heading back into the apartment together, leaving the pair of us alone at our cars. Anna pulls me into a hug and then steps back, tears filling her eyes as quickly as she can wipe them away; I sniffle and wipe my own face clear of tears and then start to laugh, which makes Anna start to laugh.

"We're gonna keep in touch right?" Anna asks when the laughter dies down.

"Of course we are. Everything is gonna change, but we'll get through it together."

The last thing I see in my rearview mirror is Anna's car pulling away.