Hello, my name is Chloe, and this is a story about me and my best friend Lily a couple years ago.
It was a rainy day in autumn as I was sitting on the love seat by my window that looked out into the city. I was content and cozy drinking my hot cup of Earl Grey tea, watching the orange, yellow, and red leaves fall from the trees. My cat Izzy was happily purring in my lap. I was waiting for my best friend and roommate to come home.
I turned on the tv and flipped through the channels. I stopped at one where "Friends" was on. I loved "Friends" because it was so funny and heartwarming. It also was a relatable show- the characters were around the same age as I was.
I heard keys jingling, and then the apartment door opened. It was Lily.
"Hey girl! How was your day?" she asked breathlessly, carrying in grocery bags.
"It was great, can I help you with those?"
"No thanks hun, you just keep on watching tv and relaxing, I'm going to make you a special dinner tonight!" I thought this was sort of strange. It wasn't my birthday, I wasn't sick, and I didn't have a bad day.
"Wow, thanks Lil', but why?"
"I just feel like it! Can't a girl make her best friend her favorite meal for no reason at all except out of love?"
"I mean I guess." I replied.
The hour went by as the smell of garlic, onion, tomato, cream, chicken, and spices filled the air. We sat to dinner and I savored my favorite meal.
We snuggled up and watched Friends for the rest of the night, while drinking hot apple cider. When we could no longer keep our eyes open, we said goodnight and stumbled sleepily to our bedrooms.
I woke up in the morning, expecting to see Lily up and making coffee and tea as usual. But when I stepped out into the kitchen, I didn't see Lily making coffee and making breakfast. In fact, I don't think she was here at all.
I checked. her bedroom but she wasn't there. Strange, it was 7:30 in the morning and she didn't work until nine. Usually she was up with me currently and didn't leave the apartment until 8:30.
Wait a minute, what did I just see in her bedroom? Or what was it that I didn't see? Some of her weird, eccentric paintings were no longer on her walls. The chair in thefar-right corner wasn't there anymore either.
"This is weird", I thought.
I shrugged it off, got over it, and went to work. Maybe she was selling them for some extra money.
Lily and I were best friends and had been best friends for years now. Lily had always been a very quirky person. She grew up poor, and at the age of 13 her mother killed herself and her father had abandoned Lily and her sister. After that, Lily basically fended for herself, living on the streets until her grandmother had heard that her daughter died and her granddaughters were wondering the streets of New York City.
Lily was tough, street-smart, and a very loyal friend. She was sweet but had a temper that could flicker to the other side faster than a blink.She was a hippie, a vegetarian, and a masseuse. She played guitar and sang odd songs.
When I got home from work, more plants were missing and so was one of our tea pots and a lamp. She also wasn't home yet, which was odd.
Maybe I was overthinking it. She was probably at the farmers' market, talking to some homeless people, or had met some cute guy at the coffee shop downstairs and was getting lucky.
I should do some things to distract myself from thinking maybe Lily got murdered and raped, I thought. So, I started a pot of tea, my cat annoyed that I woke him up from such a peaceful slumber and made a cup of tea.
I waited and waited. Lily still hadn't come home.
I decided I would go for a walk. I sighed heavily.
She was a hippie, a vegetarian, and a masseuse. She played guitar and sang odd songs.
When I got home from work, more plants were missing and so was one of our tea pots and a lamp. She also wasn't home yet, which was odd.
Maybe I was overthinking it. She was probably at the farmers' market, talking to some homeless people, or had met some cute guy at the coffee shop downstairs and was getting lucky.
I should do some things to distract myself from thinking maybe Lily got murdered and raped, I thought. So, I started a pot of tea, my cat annoyed that I woke him up from such a peaceful slumber and made a cup of tea.
I waited and waited. Lily still hadn't come home.
I decided I would go for a walk. I sighed heavily.
I went to my room, put on my coat and scarf, and left the apartment to take a walk around the city and maybe do some errands.
The autumn air was cool and crisp. Autumn was my favorite time of year. It's cool, but not freezing, and everything is so beautiful. The sky is the brightest blue I have ever seen it all year. I love smelling the smell of firewood, cinnamon, and the smell of hot pumpkin coffee pouring out from the local coffee shops.
The cool air felt amazing on my face as I walked briskly past bookstores and restaurants. Geese were flying through the air in a V-formation, migrating for the winter. Squirrels were running about Central Park, gathering bundles of acorns for their upcoming hibernation. Leaves were falling everywhere and being blown in all directions. The wet smell of the leaves was intoxicating.
I went to the farmers' market and bought some apples to make apple pie, two pumpkins to carve with Lily, and the tomato sauce I always purchased for making spaghetti. I went to the bookstore down the street, bought two books that caught my eye, and walked home.
When I got into the apartment, I noticed that the fall-scented candles on the kitchen counter and living room table had been lit, and that the dishwasher was running.
"Lily?" I called out, hoping this wasn't another chapter of Chloe Goes Crazy.
"I'm here, love!" Lily replied. "I'll be out there in a second. Just straightening up my room a bit."
I breathed out a sigh, relieved my mental state was intact and that my best friend and roommate was home safe. Lily came out of her bedroom, smiling nervously.
"Hi hun," she said. "How was your day?"
"Good, typical day at work," I answered. I decided to not bring up the disappearing items I didn't want to upset her or embarrass her if she was having money problems.
As I was watching "Friends" on the sofa, I began to smell chocolate from the kitchen.
"Are you baking something Lily?"
"Yeah, just your favorite brownies!" she said excitedly.
"Really? Okay!" Hmmm. More of my favorite food.
Another usual night of snuggling, Friends, and tea.
The next morning Lily was nowhere to be found again. I investigated her room and her bed was gone.
NOW, this was getting weird and a little worrisome. There's no way she was selling her bed, right?
So, I got ready for work and left the apartment. All day at work, I couldn't concentrate.
When I came home after work, Lily was there. She was cooking my favorite meal again.
"Hi hun!" she hugged me.
I thought this would be an opportune time to bring up the subject of Lily's vanishing items. I was either going to risk appearing insane or get some helpful, reassuring answers.
"So, Lily, I was wondering, where did all your plants go? And where is the curtain of beads that hung from your bedroom doorway? Where's the toaster, and half of the refrigerator magnets? Are you giving things away to charity?"
"Look, Chloe," she replied. "I bought an apartment a couple weeks ago and I've been moving my things out bit by bit over the last few weeks, hoping you wouldn't notice and hoping to wait until the last minute to bring the difficult subject of me moving out. I'm really, really sorry Chloe. I'm really bad with confrontation. I didn't know how to tell you, especially because Lily's vanishing items. I was either going to risk appearing insane or get some helpful, reassuring answers.
"So, Lily, I was wondering, where did all your plants go? And where is the curtain of beads that hung from your bedroom doorway? Where's the toaster, and half of the refrigerator magnets? Are you giving things away to charity?"
"Look, Chloe," she replied. "I bought an apartment a couple weeks ago and I've been moving my things out bit by bit over the last few weeks, hoping you wouldn't notice and hoping to wait until the last minute to bring the difficult subject of me moving out. I'm really, really sorry Chloe. I'm really bad with confrontation. I didn't know how to tell you, especially because the chair and not put it back in the closet for a while."
"I can be loose! Look!"
I took a water glass that was sitting on a coaster on the living room table and placed it on the table where there wasn't a coaster.
"Oh, Chloe, you know that's not you, and you know you don't like that. I mean, I covered up that one pillow right there on the couch for weeks because I got a coffee stain on it."
"You did?" I asked. "Why didn't you just turn it over?"
"Because there was a spaghetti sauce stain on the other side," she said, looking scared.
"What?!" I said, kind of angrily. My pretty pillow.
"See, see! This is why we can't live together."
"I guess you're right," I said.
"I want us to stay friends, best friends, and I can't see that lasting with us being roommates. I love you."
"You're right.I love you too, Lil'."
We hugged tightly for a long time. I began to feel relieved.
We have the best friendship two women could ever have, and we always will. No relationship is perfect. But the best way to keep a healthy relationship is to communicate and to be open and honest with each other.
Chloe and I are two very different people, but we worked it out.
