A Friend Worth Waiting For

It all started in the awkward year, the 3rd grade. The year when things are strange and fun at the same time. Girls wore gigantic colorful bows on top of their tiny heads, as well as clean fresh jeans. Boys as usual were filthy and gross with muddy stains on their soccer shoes. Girls were like the cute puppies with ribbons in a pet store while boys were the disgusting rats used to feed the snakes. Boys and girls were like dogs and cats, natural enemies who just a few of them got along. All girls had their best friend. While all boys had their “brother”. I was convinced that in this year everything would change for the better. But I didn’t expect things to happen the way they actually did.
From the moment I learned how to read, I have had the same best friend until now. Abril had crazy long legs; she was as thin as a pencil. Abril was so tall she was the height of her own mother at the age of nine. She had all the model characteristics. She was a trusting person that would always keep your secret safe. She was an outgoing person that would make you get on the scariest and highest roller coaster with her. She was an optimistic girl that would always make you laugh about things that weren’t funny at all. She viewed things in a totally different perspective, it seemed like she wore glasses that allowed her to see life in a different way.  She was my right arm, without her it was impossible to accomplish things. Abril was part of my life. But sadly in the awkward year, part of my life was taken away from me.
It was a usual Friday night. Abril and I, were sitting on the giant comfy brown leather couch in her house. It was the kind of couch that would always end up having your bottom marked on it when you sat down. I always imagined the couch as quick sand, it would always try to pull and make your body sink. Her house was like a maze, infinite number of doors leading to infinite rooms. As always we would go in the kitchen first and then we would go to the TV. Room. Every Friday we watch a movie on the good old 70-inch plasma screen in her gigantic house. The TV. Room had huge windows, which allowed the sunlight walk itself into our faces as we sat down. The sunlight was like the villain that always tried to make you blind. It was a typical burning hot day in Monterrey, but I had a feeling today, this burning hot day would soon turn into a cold winter night.  Every Friday, we would vote for the movie we each wanted to see, but since we always wanted to watch the same movie, voting was unnecessary. The usual routine was simple. We would go and prepare our usual popcorn with lemon and all types of chili in the gigantic kitchen. Our mouths would always water when we heard the noise of the screaming popcorn. We would then take a journey in the maze to get to the TV. Room. We would each sit on our marked seats in the monstrous couch and place all the food between us. As usual something smelled nasty but that didn't stop us from chomping mouthfuls of popcorn in to our mouths. After all, we were just nine year olds and anything that had sugar or a spicy salsa tasted like heaven to us.
We usually talked during the movie but I could tell this Friday was different.
”Are you okay?” I asked. She nodded.
“I am so hungry. I suppose you are too?” I asked once more.
“Mmm hmm,” she replied. I tried to talk to her and she would just smile or answer a simple nod or the two simple letters n and o. This was strange she would always laugh so hard and fall to the ground or continue the conversation in a silly way when I asked or talked about something.
“Do you have any homework for the weekend?” I said. This time she didn’t answer, her face looked plain, her eyes started to get watery, and I just looked at her with a puzzled look.
“What was going on? Did a family member die? Did I do something wrong?” I kept asking myself.
She noticed me staring at her, and grabbed the remote and clicked pause. I waited for her to start the conversation and talk to me. She took about five seconds to start talking; she took a deep breath and spit out the big news.
“I'm moving!” she yelled.
“That’s so cool! You’re going to have a new house! A new bedroom!” I jumped up and down with excitement.
“You... don’t.... un... understand…” she continued nervously. She kept stuttering and stopping at every word she pronounced.
“Of course I understand. Your house is too old, and your parents have decided to move to a nicer one with elegant furniture, new TV’s, even a new yard! You might have a pool!” I said.
“I am moving to Houston!” she exclaimed.
I waited for the joke, or for the exception. I waited and waited but I could see her eyes starting to puff and get watery.
“Was this a joke? Was this real?” I thought. My mind kept swirling with all these questions I couldn’t answer. I looked at her dark brown eyes the size of a pebble, and looked some more waiting for the usual ,“GOTCHA!” but I noticed that phrase wasn’t coming anytime soon.
I demanded an explanation. Tears began to roll down her dry cheeks. She grabbed a furry gray pillow beside her and stuffed it in her face. I would usually laugh at this but I realized this was serious. Soon my eyes got watery like hers. I touched her shoulder and she looked up at me with all the sunlight covering her face. I thought the sunlight was a sign. Somehow God telling me that everything was all right, but I knew that when it comes to her father, a decision never changes.
From tears my face changed into a serious angry look, “Who is making you do this? Why are you leaving? No one can force you to do something like that! You will stay here in Monterrey with me, and the rest of our friends. It will all be okay.”
“I don’t have a choice! My father thinks Monterrey is unsafe for me and my brother and I don’t know what to do and I’m scared and I... “ She kept spitting out all of these words like she was shooting bullets in a shooting rage. I could not understand her at all, so I stopped her before she would die on the floor.
I looked at the window and rain began to pour. The clouds had now won the battle with the sun, and now governed the sky. The amount of rain was the amount of tears I had inside of me. Somehow I couldn’t get them out, but I knew my body was saving each drop for each day I wouldn’t be with Abril.
I soon remembered the time when we went to that amusement park and she forced me to get on all the rides. I was about to throw up. I remember that I ended up spinning and seeing everything around me so blurry. I remember Abril’s blurry face laughing and smiling. I was scared, but I had the best time of my life because of her. I was afraid that when she is gone I wouldn’t have any of those moments anymore.
I came back to the conversation and asked, “What about your life here in Monterrey? What about your family? What about me?” I asked while more tears came out of my eyes.
“I don’t know what will happen, I am very confused,” we both sat there in silence and watched the TV screen but it was still in pause. The room was so quiet I could barely hear the sound of a fly buzzing by. I only heard the vibrations of the fan above us rotating and rotating without stopping. I wanted for everything around me to freeze. I wanted for everything around me to stop just for a few minutes. I wanted for my life to continue the way it was, having Abril beside me. Sadly you can’t always get what you want. Life needs to go on.
My teachers would always tell me that in life you are going to find mountains in your way and you will have to climb over them and overcome the obstacles. I knew that this was my Mount Everest and I had to overcome it, although it would take a lot of time to do so. 
Suddenly my mind wasn’t there I was thinking about the time I broke my arm. Abril and I were jumping up and down on the trampoline and suddenly I was too close to the edge and I fell on the dirty ground, but of course my whole body was on top of my arm. Abril yelled for help and I just laid there and soon I started to yell in pain. Abril stayed with me by my side and never left. My arm felt better after a few weeks and my heart felt better as well because Abril was with me during the whole process.
I look back at her and see that her eyes turned into a thundercloud. It seemed that my eyes were now pouring hail rather than drops of water. All sorts of weather were occurring in the room. I was so confused the only thing I did was hug her.
“It will all be fine,” I whispered. I wasn’t saying the truth; I knew that nothing was going to turn out fine. I knew that she was probably going to forget about me. I knew that I would have to open up to find new friends. While I thought this I was getting Abril’s shirt wet. I sniffed and closed my eyes…
I imagined the time I went with her to Target, we were waiting on her mom to buy groceries for her house. While we were there I jumped on the shopping cart and Abril pushed it. Until she pushed it too hard and the cart crushed into a tower of board games. We burst of with laughter so hard we both peed our pants. We had to make the tower again. Her mother was so embarrassed she acted as if we were alone and that made us laugh even harder than before.
I opened my eyes and realized that my best friend was really moving. I wasn’t going to see her everyday like I always did. I knew that all the moments we had together were going to last forever in our hearts and maybe someday we would meet again. I continued hugging her as if she was a great big check and realized that for a long time we weren't going to share a hug. All our memories lasted years but it feels as if all those years crushed down into a second. It all happened so fast that I couldn’t catch my breath. Abril had actually left my life.
Years have passed and now I am in Middle School, and Abril hasn’t returned yet. I have now new friends, and I suppose she has her new friends. I don’t see her anymore, which makes me wonder how she is doing. I know she might wonder about me too. Does she miss me? Does she remember me? Does she still remember our memories? I know that one day we'll meet again and until that day comes I will wait for her until she comes back in to my life because Abril is a friend worth waiting for.