The last week of my life has been one shocking revelation and I am still hoping I can wake up and it was all a dream because the alternative is pure reality shattering.
Let me tell you the story and perhaps you can tell me what in the crystallized fuck happened here.
Sahara and I have been friends for 5 years now. We became close just as she graduated high-school, started her gap year and I became the CEO of my first company. We spent a lot of time chatting over the phone, so I know her quite well, I know her expressions and the kind of text slang she uses. We have had drama, fights, been mad at each other, we have had laughs, fun times, got crazy drunk together and overcome some of the darkest times. I would say in the 5 years we knew each other we exhibited the greatest amount of growth. Everytime I’d see her, we’d talk for hours about everything. This usually happens on the weekends when she travels back from university. Her campus is 2 hours away from where I stay, so the commute can be rather tricky at times. Most of our interactions this far have been via text and calls.
She spent her 4 years in university studying her accounting course and graduated with her bachelor’s.
This year for some reason, she decides to take a break from her studies and returned aburpty without any explanation.
“WONDERFUL”, I thought to myself never giving it a second thought, Although strange for a bookworm, I get some quality time with my bestie and see her in person for a while.
So from January she was at home. This was approximately the same time her phone got stolen and she couldn’t move the old number to the new Sim due to “security issues”
That was really sad for her because she lost all her contacts and couldn’t get most of them back, was locked out of her Facebook and most other social media accounts.
That was the end of it. We saw her everyday and when we needed to get hold of her, we contacted the new number. I still text her everyday using that number.
A few months into the year she started acting strange. First it started off with a few different phrases and terms, which is quite normal for a person who grows and interacts with people the way she does, I mean she’s an extrovert, they pick up habits from others easily.
Anyway, another month went by and she started acting different in person. First long awkward silences, then the change in makeup and not too long after reluctance to discuss any personal issues. No worries, that happens sometimes when people are transitioning into a new life. Whatever made her stop university obviously must have impacted her and that’s okay, she will talk when she is ready.
Another month went past and she’d spend long periods of time being “missing” . I found her one evening late, walking on the opposite side of town, by her self looking disoriented. She said she was just severely hungover and asked me to drop it.
I know people who go through rough patches do things we might not always understand so I let it go.
She got a stable job and we decided to carpool, it was close to where I was going everyday and I got to see her everyday so that was a big bonus. It really helped to ease my conscience thinking that I let my friend down and she obviously really needed me right now.
I even let it go when she drove me to town one day and I found her speeding through town doing double the speed limit which to most is kind of fun, but to her was always irresponsible. Although concerned, I let it go when she stayed over one night and she had eggs for breakfast…. she’s allergic to eggs. Well, you outgrow your allergies.. I Don’t know what to say.
As time passed, I got used to her and we went through our ups and downs but she was more down than up and I was worried about her but she was still her, you know? Where it counts she was her regular, loving self. Nothing to freak out over, anyway.
October finally came around and I had completely forgotten about the character changes and adapted. After all, we are still besties and she’s never done anything to prove otherwise and she’s still her.
The only new thing in October was that she put some highlights in her hair. Blonde. It looked really nice. I took lots of pictures. Then at the end of October we used some of my savings to go out of town to a festival which was fun. We’ve always done these kind of things, at least we tried but now we finally had some time to do more of these things….. She was always too busy with school work.
Finally, last week Monday: I woke up the usual time to get ready for work, which I usually do at 6. I pick her up at 7 and we travel together. When I woke up I saw 20 missed calls. I didn’t bother to look who it was. I needed to get ready so I thought, as usual I’d take the time to do that when I get in my office and return whatever calls I missed. It was probably another annoying client who tried to call at ungodly hours of the night.
I stopped outside her workplace in the parking lot, greeted her and watched her walk. As she’s almost out of sight I hear my phone ringing.
I pull the phone out of my pocket Then I see the number… it’s my best friends old number… Sahara with a little heart. I look towards the door where she just dissapeared… Couldn’t be She didn’t have her phone in her hand. The ringing stopped, while still looking at my phone trying to figure it out, her silhouette gadinf behind the corridor and to the right. Checking the screen I see “21 missed calls from Sahara 🤍”
This was weird, that number along with the phone was stolen. She has a new number now.
I decided to drive to work and forget about it for the moment.
I arrived at the office and worked throughout the day and around lunchtime at 2:30 I receieved a call
When I checked it was from that number again.
I never answered
There was an intriguing voice-mail in a voice I haven’t recognized in long
“Hey buddy, you are a tough one to get hold of, I know ive been quiet for a while so I just wanted to check in on you.. sorry I’ve been so quiet. It’s been a rough year, a lot of work. I just wanted to find out the plans for December, I’m coming back to town for the break and thought we needed to catch up…. also do you know why all my siblings phones are going to voice-mail? I can’t get hold of anyone. Will you please tell my sister to call me? Anyway, I’m coming back this weekend. Love you” beeeeeeeeeeeep