Blood Sisters

Me and Saddie were not blood sisters, but we should have been. Our mother’s met in kindergarten and they were said to be inseparable.  Most people thought that they would be through with each other soon enough, but they never did. I just wish it was like that with me and Sadie. We were born on the same day, same hospital, rooms side by side. I’m sure we played together as babies, but the friendship didn’t sit well with us as we grew older, rather, it didn’t sit well with Saddie. I always looked up to our mother’s friendship. They were always there for eachother, and I wanted a best friend like that. It wasn't that Saddie hated me, but she would always rather play herself or with other kids then with me. Did she really just resent me?  I figured maybe she was just tired of seeing me all the time and wanted to have a small circle. I never caused any scenes but it did hurt. We still had to walk to and from school everyday, but as we grew up Saddie invited other people to walk so she didn’t have to talk to me. Sometimes it felt like she treated me like I was the only thing holding her back from becoming the poster popular girl, but I wasn’t. I tried not to take it to heart even though our mothers kept us together as much as possible. I think they thought we were as close as they were. 

Years passed and Saddie only got more distanced. At that point I stopped trying to be her friend and our parents noticed. Nothing was said, but I went down my own path, finally letting us go our separate ways. I assumed once we left for post secondary, we wouldn’t see much of each other and things wouldn’t be so weird, it would finally be easy to let go and act like I had never tried to become Saddie’s best friend. For some time, it was like that. I hardly gave her a second thought as I'm sure she didn’t for me.

 A few months after I graduated University, I got a text message from the person I least expected. Sadie, it was the first time I had heard from her in years, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to respond but I was curious of what she wanted, so I responded, “Hey” back. 

“How have you been?”

“Good, what about you?”

“Good, we should hang out sometime.”

It was an awkward conversation, and I wasn’t sure why but I agreed never less. 

“You still live around Main?” she asked. 

“Just around the corner of the general hospital.” I told her. 

“What about the Cafe around there, the cute french one our mothers use to hang out at?” I smiled at the thought of the place, I hardly ever went there, but I always loved it. “Sure,” 

A few days later I walked out of my town house and walked over to the cafe. It would be the first time I've seen Sadie in over six years. I walked in and looked around, to see Sadie’s big smile and she waved over to me. I walked over and saw a plate of chocolate corrosaunts, my absolute favorite food. She offered and so I took one, thanking her. We both took a bit, both a little more happy and less tense then we had been whenI first sat down. “I remembered how much you loved them. Anyways, I thought it was time for us to reconnect.” I don’t know when we connected in the first place but I withhold my thoughts. “We grew up together and it's time we start to get along.”  Something was wrong, I could tell. “Is everything ok?” Sadie looked down. “My mum is dying Vera.” I gasped in shock. “What happened?” I thought about the last time I saw aunt Kyia. “She has cancer. Apparently she had a dormant gene from her father's side that just woke up. I'm going to lose her Vera.” She reached over and held my hand. “I miss the days when we were kids, always around and everyone was happy. I wish we never grew apart.” she continued. “Me too,” I whispered. 

For the next few days, we hung out together around town, building the friendship I had craved when I was younger, at the end of the week we visited her mum. Aunt Kyia was so happy to see me but she looked so exhausted. She smiled when Saddie told her we were friends now. Her face had lit up and Saddie told me that was the brightest her smile has been since she was hospitalized. We continued to hang out every day, getting closer everyday, recalling all the stupid things we did on our own as kids, any pranks we had played and all those family gatherings were other people use to call us sisters. There were so many things we already knew about each other and there were so many more that we learnt. Saddie was a painter, she had her own section in an art gallery I had yet to go to. She also worked at the skate park our mother’s used to love to go to when they were in high school. We tried doing all the things we could have done when we were together. My mother eventually found out about the new found friendship and she was as excited as ever, and whenever we went to the hospital, we would find our mothers gossiping like young high school girls. While we had drifted apart, Mum and Aunt Kyia’s friendship never faltered. 

About a year later, I got the sad news that Aunt Kyia passed away. Saddie was over at my place, and she was broken. I let her stay over and she didn’t leave my house for days. Eventually my mother joined us and she said something that I always think about when it comes to me and Sadie.n”Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.”