In between the meal

There was Sharon, Gift, Hezekiah, Miriam, Tony, and then me, Anna, so here is the deal, we said something to ourselves years back that brought us to this awkward situation, yes I’m talking real awkward, so we used to be close friends, back then in the first year of our university, we even used to have a name for ourselves, “the churches” yes I know quite awkward, and stale but, I just couldn’t think of anything better that year.

So we wait for the waiter too come around our eyes each glued to our menu, but I can’t say the same for Sharon, her menu is on the table, but her eyes keeps looking at each and every one of us, her smile looking ever more creepy, we all bend our necks in such a way that even I feel like my bones are going to get cut if I keep going on, so instead of breaking my bones I raise my head up. We all hear the clack of heels against the floor.

Finally we all have our heads raised; in my mind I keep asking myself, how can such close friends become strangers I pondered upon this for a long while as I contemplated on asking for a bottle of water, or just going home.

Then Sharon speaks up, “well we’ll all have water for now” she looks at every one of us and then looks back at the waitress. “just get us that and we will decide if we will be out of your hair or just wait a bit” we all nod unconsciously asking for the same thing Sharon says and apparently only Sharon sees the need to keep looking at our faces seconds after seconds. 

We weren’t always like this, that’s one thing for sure, and the reason we are here right now, is such a flimsy reason I know, but we promised ourselves four years back that we will come meet up at where we first met at students, and to help us hon. our promise, we each have important properties belonging to either one of us, like I for one have Tony’s spare house key.

We started off as close friends, we always had similarities, we picked on each other, made sure to stay around each other, we even made sure to have multiple sleepovers at Tony’s house, and we were actually pretty intelligent, it was beautiful, the experiences we shared, the memories I had, I looked up and my eyes met with Hezekiah, my ex and just then instantly a tear dropped, because I am taken back to those times. 

“Well I wouldn’t blame her if she thinks you’re as ugly as a gutter color” says a voice from behind me; I look from the floor to and face and God she was so tall, even her legs alone went on for miles and I felt so immature when she came in, then she smiled. I looked back at my bullies and walked as fast as my legs carried me, the next day, when the bullies came back I stared them in the eyes and let them know it wasn’t just okay to bully anyone at all despite the color, and then when I told them to stay away, I looked back at my locker and I was about to move when her hound shot out, right in my face. “I am Sharon” That was how we met, I and Sharon, and amongst us all in the crew, I was closest to her, I really loved her blunt nature, and how much she pushed me to being confident, we walked round the school for longer times, until we met Hezekiah, then we got to know Tony then Gift, Miriam came along with Gift. Only God knows how hard it is right now, staying with people who you were really close to and now having to act like strangers. 

“Here is your water” came the waitresses voice, we all look up, following the direction of her voice trying as much as possible to avoid eye contact, and I don’t know about any other person but it actually works for me . “thank you” we all murmured at the same time, Gift and Miriam both look at themselves and raising their menu to their face, hey signal for a waiter, one rushes toward them, and they rattle a Spanish name, almost at the same time. Sharon decides not to be left out and orders herself sushi, then she orders pasta for me, immediately she does that my head shoots up, and she smiles at me, I mouth a thank you to her.

Finally we all are seated and yet, its still like we never knew each other, there’s been like a couple of shuffles from under the table, it’s a sign we used to unconsciously give when we are so tired of uncomfortable, I look at my food and notice I keep pushing my sauce to a side not mixing the pasta properly. My mind right now is in frenzy like how did things get so wrong. Its not like they were my only friends back then, it’s just that we were so close.

Tony is done with eating and he pushes the table, making sure to get everyone’s attention, when he eventually gets our attention we all look up, then he drops his bill under his glass cup, after he does that, his eyes travels to everyone and finally when his eyes meet with mine, and stay for a long time, it only takes me a few more seconds to understand that he is actually waiting for the release of his key. I nod at him and dig into my purse to bring his spare out, and once I do I hand it to him, he nods his head and walks away, I think our eyes keep following him till the sliding doors of the restaurant opens and closes. 

It’s like Tony gives everyone a kind of motivation because few minutes later, I’m the only one sitting on our table, tears cloud my eyes as my fork still remains within my grasp.

“Such a shame” I mutter, how friends can actually stay at a table and act like strangers, it’s all unbelievable. I clean my tears, once my mind speaks to me.

“sometimes friendships are meant to end, but when it doesn’t end it doesn’t mean it want meant to be” with that in mind I get out a lot of cash from my purse and drop it on top the table, I put a smile on my face and walk out of the restaurant.