Chapter2

Fixing a friendship

What if I lost her forever? Christa rolled onto her side as she pulled the blanket up over her shoulders. For the eighth night in a row, she cried herself to sleep, only to dream of losing her best friend all over again.

It was barely daybreak when the sound of birds squabbling outside her window woke her up. Christa jumped out of bed, ran to the open window and growled at the tiny things. “I was trying to sleep!” She forced the window to close harder than she should, causing the glass pane to crack right up the middle.

“No, no, no.” She mumbled as she lowered herself to her knees. “Why do I have such a horrible temper sometimes?” She looked up at the long crack as she shook her head. The landlord would expect her to pay for the repair, and that was nothing short of what she deserved.

Nattie was always the one to calm her when her temper got out of control. On any other day, a quick call to her would be all it took to reset her mood and save the day. But today, she couldn’t do that. “My temper has cost me so much.”

Christa let her head fall back and squeezed her eyes closed.

That’s when a light seemed to flip on in her head. Maybe I am wrong this time? And my temper is blinding me from the truth. Was it possible that she had overreacted about Nattie’s decision to use her Gram’s house as collateral?

No. She shook her head; it wasn’t that at
all. That wasn’t what set her off. It was the idea that Nattie tried to hide
it. The two girls could have talked about the house idea and made a decision
together. What had pushed her over the edge was not being a part of this
decision. After all, they were supposed to be equal partners in this business
venture.

For the first time, Christa forced
herself to see things from Nattie’s point of view. Nattie thought she brought
less to the table. She knew I would not go along with the idea because she knew
me so well. She did what she did, because she felt it was her only option to
make our dream come true. The lawyer had told us weeks ago how unlikely it
would be for us to secure the loan without collateral.

Christa’s head fell forward, “Oh Nattie, what have I done?”

The corner boutique the two friends were going to rent was only about two blocks away from Christa’s apartment. Knowing Nattie, she would already be there despite the early hour. That was definitely one area where the two friends were complete opposites. Where Nattie was an early riser, Christa was a night owl and despised waking up in the morning, regardless of how much sleep she’d gotten the night before.

It was too late for Christa to be a part
of this dream. Nattie had said she would do it with or without her. But she
could at least apologize and hopefully get her friend back, so she took off
running down the sidewalk and didn’t stop until the shop came into view.

A moving truck was parked out front, and
two men were taking turns bringing boxes inside. Christa sprinted over to them.
“Excuse me? Do you know if Nattie is here?”

One of the men stopped and looked at her
in confusion.

“Who?”

“Oh, um.” Christa felt stupid. Of course they wouldn’t know her by that name. “Miss Natalie Harmon. She’s the new owner.”

The moving man frowned. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know who that is. We were hired by Mr. James Morrow. He signed the lease three days ago.”

“Oh!” Christa took a step back. She had never even heard this name before. That’s when she connected the dots in her head. “She didn’t sign the lease.”

“I’m sorry, what?” The man looked confused.

“Nattie, she didn’t sign the lease without me! She said she would, but she didn’t.”

“Oh, um…”

“Thank you so much sir.” Christa took off in the opposite direction wearing a relieved smile. If Nattie didn’t sign the lease, maybe their dream of owning a shop together could still work out. “All I have to do is save our friendship, then maybe we can try again. I was so wrong, I hope I can fix this.”

As she ran, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and tapped the phone number on Nattie’s contact page. The phone began to ring several times, but Nattie didn’t pick up. To make it worse, a recording came on to announce that the voicemail was full before disconnecting the call.

The mall was set back quite a way, and you couldn’t see it from the main road. The sign was still there, but it had seen better days. Christa remembered the day she’d learned that the mall had closed. Both her and Nattie had gone there and sat in the parking lot talking about all the good times they had there and how much they would miss it. It almost felt like losing a friend, and they cried together when it was announced that a casino would take its place.

However, that never happened. The company that purchased the facility was denied the zoning because the residents of the
town voted against it. There were legal battles for a while after that. No one really knows all the details, but the project was scrapped and the mall forgotten as no one else saw enough value in the building to do anything with it.

Christa pulled into the overgrown parking lot in front of where the anchor store had been. The building was in rough
shape having been abandoned for six years. Many of the windows were broken, it was covered in graffiti, the roof had collapsed in several places. And that was just the problems you could see from the outside. The inside must have looked
like a war zone.

It was painful seeing the building in this state, but Christa pushed the thoughts out of her mind to focus on the reason she came. Hopefully, Nattie was here somewhere. She decided to drive around the perimeter to search for Nattie’s car and to her relief, she found it exactly where she thought she might, next to the east entrance. The two girls used to hang out here as there was outside seating that was an extension of the food court.

Christa came to a screeching halt as she looked at her phone. Full mailbox meant only one thing; Nattie was in a dark place in her mind and needed help immediately.

Christa sprang into action, calling Nattie’s mom, then her aunt, and a few other friends that may have known where she was, but each time she was told that they hadn’t heard from her or didn’t know where she was. By this time a panic started to squeeze her chest.

“Nattie, where are you?” Christa told herself to calm down, but terrible thoughts bounced around in her head. Nattie only let her voicemails pile up when she was in one of her deep depression episodes. Unfortunately, it made perfect sense that she would be feeling this way now. That was how she reacted to stuff like this. Christa cursed herself. Why didn’t I realize this sooner?

She sat down on the nearby bench to give her time to catch her breath and think rationally. “If I were her, where would I be?”

Nattie was the purest kind of friend you could ask for, more emotional than Christa could ever be and the most sentimental person she had ever met. “She would go someplace that was important to us.” Several locations popped into her thoughts. School, the library where they had the sleepover, the park where they had met Lucas the frog…and…”Of course. The mall where they had first met and hung out all the time as teenagers. Both girls had even gotten their first jobs there. “That has to be it.”

Christa wasted no time returning to her apartment, grabbing her car keys and going for a drive to their old hangout.

Christa lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. It had been eight days since that meeting with the lawyer, and she hadn’t spoken to Nattie at all during that time. The two friends had never gone this long without speaking before. Sure, there had been a few little disagreements here and there where they would ghost each other for a day or two, but nothing like this. Christa wondered if this was the end of their friendship. She clenched her fists as the desire to grab her phone to call Nattie ate away at her resolve.

No, I’m not the one being crazy. I’m right! If she wants to apologize, she needs to make the first move.

A lump formed in her throat. But, what if she doesn’t?

She’d let the anger take over immediately, without even thinking about the situation or why Nattie may have done it. And if she was truly honest with herself, had their positions been reversed, she may have done the same thing. With all the paperwork they would go through and sign, it might have slipped through during the excitement had the lawyer not mentioned it.

Christa pushed herself up to her feet and wiped her eyes. “I have to fix this.” She quickly dressed in a pair of leggings and oversized t-shirt and sprinted for the door.

Within moments of spotting the car, Christa located Nattie sitting on the patio where their favorite table used to be. Christa parked her car and slowly walked toward her best friend, not wanting to startle her. She was about to speak up once she was close enough, but Nattie spoke first.

“It’s sad how really great things just seem to fall apart in time.”

Christa didn’t know how Nattie knew she was there, but she did. “Yeah, it is. But it doesn’t happen to everything.” Christa swallowed hard. “You’re still my best friend and I’m going to work really hard to make sure we never fall apart.”

Nattie turned her head to look at Christa and smiled. “Yeah, me too.” Nattie stood and faced Christa. They had so much to talk about but neither spoke up. They just walked to each other and embraced. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have gone behind your back.” As soon as she started to speak tears streamed down her cheeks.”

“And I shouldn't have made you think that was your only option.” Christa felt the weight lift off her shoulders as she hugged her best friend.