Page 7 of Summertime Friends

She doesn’t respond verbally. She rolls onto her side, away from me.

The disappointment in myself outweighs the tiredness I feel at the moment. I lay there in the dark, listening to the sounds of Natalie already fast asleep. Question after question consumes my thoughts. One after another, keeping me up.

How can I make this up to her?

Why do I always disappoint people?

How can I make sure this doesn’t happen again?

We have four weeks left in our eight-week Europe trip. Besides the extremely minor, easily fixable one-bed situations, there haven’t been any other hiccups.

It’s probably been the best four weeks of my life. Hers too.

I was initially hesitant when Natalie approached me with the idea of spending the summer in Europe after we graduate from college—two months, no one else. It confused me why I was hesitant. Europe with your best friend is practically every girl’s wildest Pinterest board dream.

Natalie proclaimed it as our last hurrah before we officially had to become adults.

As she laid out her idea, a.k.a. the Pinterest board dream, it all sounded ridiculously irresponsible. We needed to accomplish too much before we high-tailed ourselves out of our small Midwestern town in Indiana to Chicago. But to Natalie, all of this was ridiculously fun.

And here we are.

But that’s how our friendship has always been. Natalie, the cool, confident, carefree spirit—no worries, no problems. And me? The opposite.

Growing up, we were always sunshine and a storm cloud.

Natalie Thomas and I met fifteen years ago when we were seven. Her family moved in four houses down from ours in the cul-de-sac. I had lived on Wellington Court my entire life. Growing up, our section of the neighborhood didn’t have any other girls. I either had to play with the boys, which they hated, or keep to my books and Barbies. I wasn’t thrilled when my parents told me someone moved into the old Peterson’s house. It was fairly easy to assume it would be another family of boys.

Imagine the expression on my face when my parents dragged me to introduce myself. The teal blue front door opened to a blonde little girl smiling directly at me. Squeezed against her chest was aBarbie—the same one I had been playing with before we walked over.

My eyes were big, but my toothless smile was bigger.

“Hi! I’m Natalie! This is Lilly, my Barbie.” Those were Natalie’s first words to me ever.

She unclasped one of her hands on the Barbie and waved. Her parents were walking toward the front door to greet us.

“I’m Emerson,” I shyly replied with an encouraging nudge from my mom. I kept flicking my eyes from her to the ground to my parents. I didn’t want my excitement to come off too strong and scare her away. I came to learn that nothing could scare Natalie. She was—is fearless.

“Can I call you Emme? I like Emme better.” Natalie replied with a big toothless grin. She was missing both of her front teeth. Informing us that she had lost them last week, and that’s how she got her Barbie. Her tooth fairy was awesome.

We’ve been inseparable since.

She’s the best friend turned sister that I never had.

When I was thirteen, I asked my parents why I had no siblings. They told me they knew my life needed a place for Natalie. They were right about that, but even then, my intuition didn’t believe that was their real reason. That same month, my dad left my mom and me. . . but that’s another story for another day.

It didn’t take Natalie long to convince me to go on this trip, and it never takes her long to convince me of her ideas. I need to see her happy.

I just needed to confirm the logistics.Ironic.

I let out a soft huff in the bed, reflecting on the memory.

That was March. Three months later, here we are. College graduates and already halfway through our trip.

***

My alarm goes off at seven.

Waking up this morning, I was reminded why I booked two beds at all of our hotels. Natalie is the worst sleeper. She tosses and turns all night, losing complete control of her body movements, and doesn’t know how to stay on her side of the bed.

---