I stood from my seat on the bench, my legs stiff from sitting in that one spot for hours on end as the flight delayed more and more. I glanced at my phone. The time read 12:41 a.m.; my flight was scheduled for 9 p.m., but I knew there was no use in getting angry and frustrated now, it wouldn't help me get home any faster. I stretched my arms out in front of me, watching as the other irritated passengers began to get up from their seats and line up in front of the gate. I grabbed my carry on and the joined the crowd, imagining the feeling of being home in only a short few hours now, yearning for the comfort of my room and my bed.

Don't get me wrong, I love vacations, but after spending more than a week in a crappy hotel and barely being able to sleep tonight, I honestly didn't think I could spend another night away from home. After having my ticket scanned by a staff member who looked more tired than any of us, I walked down the ramp and into the airplane, checking my ticket for my seat number. 13B. I looked up to see the numbers passing by, 10, 11, 12, until I got to 13. The row of seats was empty now, but as much as I hoped it would stay like that, I knew I would be sandwiched between two strangers with a good chance of them being noisy or smelly, or something worse. You could tell I haven't had the best flying experiences in the past.

I swiftly packed by carry on above me and ducked into my row, collapsing into my seat to let the other passengers get by. A few minutes went by, and as people kept streaming into the aircraft and through the row beside me, the itch of impatience that was preset earlier in the night when the flight was being delayed reappeared. I decided to busy myself by scrolling through Twitter, using my phone for the last few minutes before liftoff.

At some point, a teenage boy stood by my row, and when I didn't notice him right away, tapped on my shoulder and asked if I could let him through to his seat by the window. I got up, slightly embarrassed by how absorbed I was in my phone. He immediately pulled out a pillow and pulled on an eye mask, and I was relieved as it seemed he wouldn't be a bother for the next two hours.

Just as I thought the last passenger had gotten on, another burst of people sprinted down the aisle, one of them collapsing into the aisle seat beside me, jerking me awake as I must have been drifting off. I glanced up at her face, and as turned away, I paused and did a double take. She must've seen this out of the corner of her eye as she turned to meet my eyes, and the shock and surprise that was written all over my face immediately appeared on hers.

"Amara?" She gasped, the sound of my name from her mouth sounding all too familiar. I stayed quiet for a moment, not quite knowing what to say or what I did to deserve this. "Uh, yeah, it's me. Hey." I uttered a bit awkwardly, causing her to let out an airy laugh. "It's me, Arianna! You remember, right?" "Yeah, of course." How could I forget, I wanted to add, but decided against it. It seemed that she really didn't want to go any further than a greeting either, as she flashed a quick smile in my direction before turning back to her phone in her hand.

I leaned my head against the seat with my eyes closed as the plane lurched forwards and the flight attendants went through the safety precautions that I've heard dozens of times before. The plane shook as it gained speed, going fast enough to finally lift off the ground. I turned to gaze out the window, watching the glittering lights of New York City became smaller and dimmer as the plane climbed into the sky. I closed my eyes again, and instead seeing darkness this time, saw the scene from 4 years ago that led to Arianna and I being like this. I could still hear the screams and accusations from the sight clearly.

"Why did you do it?" My voice was trembling, my face red with anger, my hands clenched into fists.

"How do you even know I did it? It could've been anyone! Why are you accusing me-" I interrupted her shrill voice with my unexpectedly calm one.

"It couldn't have been anyone else, Arianna. And you know this. Why are you trying to hide the obvious? Just confess. It was you, wasn't it?" Arianna fuming expression never flinched, and not even a sliver of shame appeared on her face, even with the next few words she muttered.

"Fine. It was me." Despite knowing this, I could still feel my throat tighten after hearing her confession, the unapologetic tone of her voice. "But you have to understand that I did it for us. For you. Our friendship was falling apart because of him!" She continued, defending herself till the end. I scoffed.

"For us? For me? You did it for you. He wasn't ruining anything, you were! You were so busy being jealous, you took your anger out on him! If you just took a second to talk to me about it, to tell me how you felt, you don't think I would've taken your feelings into consideration?" I glared at her, waiting for her to respond, but she was left speechless.

In my junior year of high school, I got my first boyfriend. I was excited, I was nervous, I was in love for the first time in my life, and all I wanted was the support of my best friend. Arianna and I had been best friends since 3rd grade. We had been with each other through ups and downs, and we really believed we would never stop being friends. We usually spent all our time together, we had classes together, ate lunch together and hung out after school. But after I started dating, that started to change. I would walk with him in the hallways, sit with him at lunch and go on dates with him after school. At some point I realized that I shouldn't give all my time to him, so I did try to spend time with Arianna as well, but I guess it partially was my fault for not keeping up with our friendship as much as I should have.

After a few weeks, my boyfriend started to avoid me, and I had no idea why. After days of him leaving class early or driving home without me, I confronted him, asking what I did. He said some things that I didn't quite understand at the time, saying it was me that wanted to break up and that I should think before I texted, and although I apologized and persistently told him I had no idea what he was talking about, he left. I thought he would never talk to me again, but I guess he really wanted to show me what I did wrong, hating that I wouldn't admit to sending any of the messages he had received. He sent me messages of the chat between me and him, and I was shocked.

There were messages and messages of "me" pointing out his flaws, insisting that I was better than him, sometimes directly saying that he didn't deserve to date me. I was baffled, of course, but after reading the time stamps for when these messages were sent, I realized who it was that really sent the messages, because they were sent during the times I was hanging out with Arianna. I never questioned why she took my phone while we spent time together, figuring it was just to look through my instagram or take pictures of us together, but I never imagined her doing something like this.

"How could you forget about your best friend just because of some boy? How would you like him more than me? I didn't want to make you guys break up, but if it took that to save our friendship, I'd do it gladly!" She suddenly blurted, her voice getting increasingly louder until she was shouting.

"You didn't save our friendship, Arianna. I don't care that he dumped me. He was never more important to me than you were. But the fact that you got rid of someone that made me so happy just to make yourself happy is what makes me so disappointed with you. The fact that you decided to take my life into your hands and get rid of him without even telling me what you did after is what makes me so disappointed with you. You haven't even apologized yet. And honestly, I don't know if I could be friends with someone so selfish that they would go to lengths of causing two other people to fight and be miserable just to be happy." Without listening to whatever she had to say after that, I walked out of the room, slamming the door behind me as I wiped the tears rolling down my face.

I was never the type of person to hold grudges, but for weeks after our fight, Arianna and I never as much as looked at each other. There were times that I missed her so much that I almost called her, almost apologized for overreacting, but I would think about it again, and my huge ego wouldn't let me. Why would I apologize and ask to be friends again when she was wrong and never even apologized? So we drifted.

I missed having a best friend, I missed having someone with me through everything and I got jealous when I started seeing her with other friends. But I eventually made other friends, and the void she left was almost completely filled. Almost. I still felt the pain from how betrayed I felt when she confessed when I thought about it, but I promised myself that if we really were meant to be best friends, she would come back to me some time.

I was jerked out of my thoughts as turbulence shook the plane, bad enough that I felt a dropping feeling in my stomach and heard screams from around the plane. On instinct, my hand shot out and grabbed Arianna's, and she instantly wrapped her hand around mine. It wasn't until the plane had steadied itself that I let out the breath I was holding and released the grip I had on the armrest that turned my knuckles white. It wasn't until then that Arianna and I realised what we were doing, and as we stared at our hands gripping each other's, we burst out laughing.

Despite the resentment I felt towards her, there was something familiar with being around her, and I guess her presence still brought me comfort if she was the first thing I grabbed in a time of fear. I let go of her hand, still slightly chuckling.

"I'm sorry." she said, but I dismissed it, saying that I grabbed her hand first. "No, not that. I'm sorry about what happened in high school. What happened to us."

I took a deep breath. So she was thinking about it too. I opened my mouth to respond, but couldn't find the words. So she took the opportunity to continue.

"I wanted to say it since the day we fought, but I couldn't find it in myself to. I realized you were right, as much as my stupid arrogant self didn't want to acknowledge it. So I just didn't say it. I endured it because I was stupid. And then when I could say it, I decided not to. I thought you hated me, that I was a terrible friend and that you wouldn't take me back. You got back together with your boyfriend and made other friends. I told myself you didn't need me. But I regretted letting you leave. I missed you so much, I just wanted my best friend. It may be too late now, but I still want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for betraying you and for not being the friend I should've been." She finished, leaving silence between us as I tried to process everything she said.

"You held all that in for the last 4 years?" I asked, a smile on my face. She nodded, letting out a breath of laughter. I sighed, somehow relieved that after all this time, she finally apologized. "I missed you too. So much. All I wanted from you was an apology. Honestly, we were both in the wrong. I should've paid you more attention, and also should have gotten over my arrogant self to mend our relationship after we fought." Arianna gave me a smile upon hearing this, a genuine one.

"So, do you think we could still be friends after this? Is there any way to go back to how it was, to treat the last 4 years like a bump in our friendship?" She offered, her eyes hopeful. "I'm willing to give it a try if you are. Sure, we could treat it like a bump. Like a little turbulence in our flight." I laughed, thinking about it was the shaking airplane that led to us talking again. "A little turbulence never killed anyone."