Once You Were My Friend

November 2021

In the following weeks, Nami and Sebastian texted here and there. They kept everything casual. Even after that conversation, she felt at a distance from him. Unsure if it was of her own doing or he had lost interest in being her friend. She was aware how childish these thoughts were, however much it plagued her mind. Though she felt terrible, she had missed him quite a bit. She didn't know what it was.

    Em was behind her getting changed while Nami traced along the edge of her eyelid, trying not to shake too much. Putting on eyeliner was always a struggle. Em had given her countless tutorials - a winged liner, dramatic liner, thin liner, all of it. It never sat on the crease of her lid the way she liked. So, she opted for a brown pencil and feathered it out to give a shadow of a liner. After she was done with her mascara, she put on a shade of lipstick that matched the flesh of her lips. She had chosen to wear a vintage velvet jacket over a black cotton dress that rested above her knees.

    "I really wish you'd wear this instead," Em referred to a long and silken dress that was backless.

    Nami shook her head, eyes rolling as she chuckled. "It's just a listening party."

    "It's time you get back out there. You didn't go out on Halloween. It'll be Christmas and then New Years - the sexiest holidays of the year."

    "What about Thanksgiving?"

    Em gagged, "the least sexiest. We don't celebrate genocide."

    "But we celebrate consumerism, right?"

    "That's right." Em's smile was infectious. "Because money is sexy."

    Nami took one more look at herself, fiddling with the way her necklace sat on her covered decolletage before saying, "Okay, I'm ready."

    Em was fixing the way her dress fell on her figure. She was always beautiful, Nami thought. Her hair hung over her shoulders, thick and voluminous. She dressed like one of those runway models on their day off. Being a PA to one of the major modelling agencies, it was part of her job, though she had always been quite stylish. She'd once gotten scouted but had turned it down.

"If Tamo won't put a ring on it, I will," Nami said.

    Em rolled her eyes at that, scoffing with a smile on her lips. One of them received a message on their phone. Em checked if it was hers and said, "not me. We should leave now, anyway. I'll order the Uber."

    Nami took her phone out of her bag and saw Sebastian's name. Anxiously, her thumb went between her teeth as she bit down, reading his message.

    Sebastian: I hope I see you tonight.

    She stared at those words. The last time they had messaged was a week ago when she didn't reply to him. It ended with, "do you want to go for a drink?" She'd look at it after the day would end, type something and then delete it. Before she knew it, it had become a week since his message.

    "Who's that?" Em said with curiosity.

    "Sebastian."

    "I heard he's bringing his ex tonight. She's in town."

    Nami turned to look at her, something inside of her dropped and she was reminded of that wedding. "Right."

    "Do you think they're back together?"

    Em's voice began to fade out as Nami's eyes went back to her phone, the words would blur and focus every second. She didn't like how something trivial would make her feel. It made her want to do things she shouldn't.