New Years Encounter

Pushing through the crowd, you try to keep her in your sights. You haven't seen Jasmine in more years than you can remember. Last you heard was that she was married with a baby on the way. But that was, what, four years ago? She'd have a toddler by now.

But wasn't she standing alone?

Lost in your thoughts you realize you've lost sight of her. Silently, you curse you lack of attention span and try to find her again in the shuffling crowd. Unfortunately, your 5'4" frame doesn't do much to help you see over or around the lumbering trees shaped like humans.

You giggle at your lame pun before cursing your short attention once more.

Climbing up orto one of the guardrails, you finally see her walking away from you. You try calling her name but with the hundreds of people milling about, their low drone of conversation quickly drowns out your voice.

Normally, you would have given up and gone home by now. But you couldn't let this chance pass you by. What are the odds that after all these years and all these miles you've put between yourself and your past, that you would meetup with someone you knew from so long ago.

Hopping down from the guardrail, you quickly make your way in the direction you saw her heading. At least you try to move quickly but with so many bodies packed together with their poofy winter garb, you feel like you aren't moving at all.

Finally, you see her, standing under a streetlight looking up and down the road.

"Jasmine!" You call out.

She starts and looks in your direction, squinting to see better. Her face brighters up as she sees your face.
"Lexi? Is that you?"

You finally manage to push through the crowd only to trip on the curb and land on your hands and knees.

"Graceful as always," she says, laughing as she reaches down to help you to your feet.

"At least I wasn't downed by a flying ball," I said as I dusted my hands off.

Back in high school, you were never lucky in gym class and somehow always managed to get hit by a random ball flying through the air. After one too many bloody noses, the gym teacher just had you sit out in the hall. Thankfully, not alone.

Jasmine laughed as she remembered the many dangerous flying balls. "You would think you'd be immune to them after all these years."

"Nope, still a magnet. In fact, I have also upgraded to Nerf darts."

"Okay, you have to tell me how you discovered that out."

You grin, happy to have slipped so easily back into conversation with your friend as if no time has passed.

" What are you doing now?" I ask. "There's a pizza place around the corner that's open all night if you're hungry."

"Sounds like a plan," she says, glancing at her phone. "Did you come alone?"

"No, but my boyfriend had to leave early because my brother had too much to drink and needed a ride home." I rolled my eyes.

We started making our way through the dwindling crowd, holding hands to stay together.

"Joey still an absolute lightweight?" She asks as we dodge a couple trying to makeout while drunkenly stumble down the street.
" Funny how such a big guy can pass out after one drink!"

You both keep chatting away just like when you were in school. It's like no time has passed at all and you're still two teenagers making fun of the boys who were trying to hand to impress the girls in gym. You finally manage to make it to the pizza place where you are able to grab the last table. You both sit and try to untangle yourselves from the layers of winter clothes.

When you are finally able to move freely again, you ask her the first thing that pops into your head. "Did Antonio stay home with Niko?" You remember the name of her son because when she was still pregnant, she created a post on Facebook asking for help to choose between Nicholas and Michael. While a lot of her friends replied to the post, you know yours stood out because she named her son Nikolas.

Whatever response you were expecting, what you got was not one of them. Jasmine's face fell and tears began to well up in her eyes. You watched her as she tried to compose herself.

"Jazz?" you ask, wondering what happened in the years you've been apart. "Are you ok- "

You words are cut off as she quickly rises from her seat with enough force to send it clattering to the floor. She snatches up her things, shoving her jacket back on.

"This was a dumb idea," she said as she made her way toward the exit.

"Wait!" you call out as you gather your things and follow after her.

You were just a minute too late as you push through the door. You look up and down the now almost deserted street but she is nowhere to be found.

What happened to your best friend you wonder? You pull your phone from your pocket to order an Uber when you see a calendar notification at the top. You swipe down or your screen and read the notification.

"Niko's birthday," it reads. "January 2nd."

You've had the reminder or your phone since you saw the Facebook post announcing his birth. You never thought too much of it. Not until today.

What the hell happened?

You needed to find her again to apologize for upsetting her but also get some answers.