“1:32 am” the clock on Jayden Parks’ bed side table read. She sat up in bed and looked around her room. There were boxes piled up against one wall, each neatly packed and appropriately labeled. The only furniture that remained in her room was her bed, night table and a book shelf. Jayden carefully placed her feet on the floor and slowly stood up. Being ever so cautious as not to wake her father - who was asleep in the neighboring bedroom - she shuffled her feet making her way to the book shelf. For a moment, she just stood there staring at the empty piece of furniture, once stuffed full of novels by various authors and poets, like Robert Frost among others. Now the only thing remaining on the shelf was a single photograph. She picked up the picture and squinting to see it in the dark, studied it carefully. It had been taken about two years ago, when Jayden was fourteen. Her friend Lauren Smith stood behind her, brushing her hair. Both girls were smiling. Jayden seemed to be hypnotized by the photo and couldn’t take her eyes off it. tears streamed down her face as she remembered that day.
Lauren had come over after school to get ready for a dance. They had been best friends since forever, or at least as far back as they could remember. They had spent the afternoon doing each others hair and make-up getting ready for their first high school dance. Both girls had been overly excited.
Jayden snapped her mind back to the present. “Why can’t things be like that now?” she whispered as she wiped her eyes. She hugged the photo to her as she quietly made her way back to her bed. She lay down and tried ot make herself think of something other than Lauren. Why did she need to think about her? After all she was moving tomorrow and she wouldn’t have to worry about her again. Tossing and turning for another hour or so, Jayden finally fell asleep.
Jayden awoke the next morning to the sound of her five year old brother, Chance, calling her name. She took a glance at her alarm clock, “9:30”. How had she slept so late? They were supposed to be on the road by now! Jayden scrambled out of bed, changed into her jeans nd T-shirt she had left out the night before, grabbed a hair elastic and tied up her long, thin brown hair as she walked down the hall to the kitchen. Chance was sitting at the table eating a Pop Tart, he smiled at Jayden and told her that she was to bring all her boxes outside and put them in the trailer. Jayden just stared at her brother, his small, round, chubby face covered in strawberry jelly from his Pop Tart. His short, brown hair was messy and he was wearing his favorite white hockey shirt and a pair of blue shorts. She was going to miss him when she left. Just then Jayden started to wonder if she was making the right decision. She turned and left the kitchen so her brother couldn’t see her eyes fill with tears. Jayden walked down the hall to her room, the whole time telling herself she was doing the right thing.
As Jayden was in her room gathering up the last of her things and putting them in a box, there was a knock on her door. She got up and opened her door to find her father standing in the hall holding a small box wrapped in blue paper. “What’s this?” she asked him. He told her that it was a good-bye present from Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Lauren’s parents. they had given it to Mr. Parks the day they moved, and asked him to give it to Jayden the day she left. She took the gift from her dad, not wanting to open it in case it brought back too many painful memories that Jayden didn’t really want to think about at that particular moment. She put the gift in the box she was packing, closed it and taped it up. Her dad asked if she needed any help carrying her stuff to the car. Jayden didn’t say anything, she just handed him two boxes of clothes, then picked up two more and followed him down the hall. After about twenty minutes, they had Jayden’s stuff packed into the U-Haul trailer and were ready to go. Jayden went in the house nd took on last walk down the long hallway to her room. She studied the white walls and the faded blue carpet. She noticed the spot where she had dropped her cup of grape juice when she was nine. She walked past her brothers room, his blue nameplate on the door. Next she came to her father’s room and noticed the spot where she had spilled the cup of coffee when she had tried to bring her father breakfast in bed on father’s day when she was seven. She had so many memories in the house, since she had lived there from age two and it hurt to leave, but she knew she had to. She opened the door to her bedroom and took one last look around. She glanced at her bedside table and noticed the picture of her and Lauren. She debated on taking it, Lauren was gone now and so that picture was all she had left of Lauren. She walked over and picked up the photo, then walked over to her closet and took out her jacket. Shoving the picture in her jacket pocket, Jayden glanced around the empty closet. She was just about to shut the door when something caught her eye. She got down on her knees and looked at it. “Jayden and Lauren, best friends forever” was written on the wall in black permanent marker. She remembered the day she and Lauren had done that. February ninth, six months ago, the day after her sixteenth birthday and the day before Lauren’s. Tears filled Jayden’s eyes as she realized how much she missed her friend. It had been two months since she had received that phone call from Lauren’s mom, turning Jayden’s life into a living hell. Jayden touched the writing on the wall, “I miss you Lauren” she whispered as she stood up. She slowly closed the door to the closet and headed outside to the car, where her dad and Chance were waiting, ready to go. Jayden climbed into the from seat and her dad backed out of the driveway. Tears rolled down Jayden’s cheeks as they started the three hour drive to her mom’s house.
Jayden awoke with the warm August sun beating down on her head. Her dad told her they were almost there, only about twenty-five minutes to go. A funny feeling formed in the pit of her stomach. She hadn’t seen her mom since she was 14, and now she was going to live with her, three hours away from her dad and little brother and everything else was familiar to her. After losing Lauren, Jayden could no longer stand living in the house across the street from her. The day Lauren’s parents put their house up for sale, Jayden called her mom and asked if she could come live with her. Her parents had split up when she was seven and her mom had moved away. Jayden used to go visit her every summer until she started high school and got too involved in other things. She had often felt bad for not visiting after that, but it was something she could have really controlled and there was no use having regrets. Her dad had remarried when she was eleven and Michelle - her step mother - and her dad had Chance.
Her dad snapped her mind back to the present by asking her if she was sure she wanted to do this. She nodded uncertainly. She knew she couldn’t live across the street from her friend’s old house, when it wasn’t her friend living there. She turned to look out her window at the street. She recognized some of the houses as she rounded the corner onto her mom’s street.
“This is it!” Jayden thought as the car pulled into the driveway. As she was getting out of the car, the blue door of the two story white house opened and her mom stood in the doorway. Jayden’s mother walked down the front steps and up to greet her daughter. She hugged Jayden and asked if she had a nice trip down and told her she had missed her. After about five minutes of Ms. Matthew marveling over how much Jayden had grown since she had last seen her, Mr. Parks, Jayden and her mother began to unload the trailer as Chance played with his action figures in the back seat of the car. They finished in thirty minutes and Jayden gave her father and brother a hug goodbye, promising to call and asked them to say goodbye to Michelle for her. Jayden stood in the driveway and watched the small, blue car drive down the street. This was the official start of her new life.
As Jayden went inside, her mother called to her from the kitchen asking if she wanted something to eat. Jayden mumbled something about wanting to unpack and get settled, then headed upstairs. She walked down the long hallway with its light pink paint and white carpet. At the end of the hall she opened a white door and stepped into the familiar bedroom that she had spend many summer nights in. The carpet was still the pale pink it had always been and the white walls were bare, except for a bulletin board on the left wall covered in pictures of her and Amy - the girl that lived next door to her mother - and another friend of theirs, Joanne. Jayden looked around the room. Everything was exactly the same as she had left it on her last day there two summers ago. White furniture - a dresser, a desk, a night stand and a bed lined the walls. Her bed was covered with a yellow blanket and sitting at one of the pillows was Mr. Wiggles - her teddy bear. She walked over and picked up the worn out bear who’s brown curly fur was matted and was missing an eye. She had wondered where he had gone. She had just figured she had left him on the train on her way home the last time.
Jayden spent a few hours unpacking boxes and placing stuff around her room. The last box was full of books, a pen that Lauren had given her, her journal and a small flashlight. She looked at the books and realized she didn’t have a bookshelf. She took out her journal, pen and flashlight and set them on her bed, then closed the box and put it in her closet, she would ask her mom to buy her a bookshelf later. She walked over to her bed and picked up the journal, pen and flashlight and opened the drawer of her night table to put them in it. In the drawer, there was a folded piece of paper, she picked it up and unfolded it.
Dear Lauren,
Summer has been fun so far. I went on a long bike ride with Amy and Joanne yesterday, we rode to the beach and stayed there the whole day. It was a blast! How is your summer going? Have you called Joey yet? (haha) It’s only July 30th, I don’t think I can last one more whole month, but I have no choice! I’ll call you soon. Well I have to go.
Miss you lots,
Jayden
By the time she was done the letter, Jayden was in tears. It was a letter she had written Lauren, but never got around to sending. She slipped the note in her journal and put it in the drawer. She turned on the bed to face the window. Outside in Amy’s backyard, Amy and Joanne were swimming in her pool. Jayden watched them for a minute when Amy looked up and saw her. Amy smiled and motioned for Jayden to open her window. As she did, Amy told her to get her suit on and come outside.
Fifteen minutes later, Jayden, Amy and Joanne were having a splash fight. Jayden was happy that her friends had accepted her back into their lives. After about a half an hour of swimming, the girls decided to get out of the pool. Jayden headed back home and Amy told her to come back after she was changed. Jayden went home, threw on a pair of shorts, a T-shirt, slipped on her sneakers, grabbed her jacket and ran downstairs. Her mom yelled to her to ask her where she was going. She told her next door to Amy’s and not to hold supper. Jayden was definitely not in the mood to sit down and eat with her mother. It would be too weird, and awkward. At that, she walked outside and next door. Amy and Joanne were waiting for her on the front step. She walked up and the three of them went inside.
An hour later, Jayden had heard everything exciting that had happened to Amy and Joanne over the past two years. She couldn’t believe how much they had done since she had seen them last. There were so many funny stories. Secretly, she was jealous about all they had done, in the past two months especially. All she had done was sat in her room, cried and slept. She hadn’t wanted to do anything else. When Amy and Joanne asked her what she had been up to, she told them little bits and pieces, not wanting to say anything that would trigger a memory. After she finished telling them about some of her academic awards and sports, nothing that had to do with Lauren, Amy asked the question Jayden had been dreading. She asked how Lauren was. Both girls had met Lauren one summer three or four years ago when she had come down to stay with Jayden and her mom for a week. Jayden just sat there as tears filled her eyes. “She died,” Jayden whispered, choking down the lump in her throat. Both girls looked at Jayden in surprise, neither knowing what to say. Amy moved over next to Jayden and gave her a hug. She asked Jayden to tell her about it. Jayden shook her head and told them she didn’t want to talk about it. As soon as she said that, Jayden realized she did want to talk about it, she needed to talk about it to someone she trusted. Amy and Joanne were the only ones she trusted besides Lauren, and Lauren was gone. She took a deep breath and began to tell them about it.
She told them that Lauren had had heart problems since she was six and both girls knew that the time would come when Lauren would die. Then she told them about the day it happened. In the morning, Lauren had called Jayden and asked her if she wanted to come over to do something. Jayden had already had plans to go to the movies with a few girls from school and said she couldn’t. After lunch, before she left for the movies, Jayden called Lauren to make sure she wasn’t mad. Lauren told her that it was probably a good thing she hadn’t come over because she wasn’t feeling well. So Jayden hung up the phone with Lauren and left for the movies. Around six o’clock, when Jayden arrived home, the phone was ringing, it was Lauren’s mom. She told Jayden that Lauren had collapsed on the floor in the hallway. She called an ambulance and Lauren was taken to the hospital. Then she told her what had happened was Lauren’s heart had given out and she died. Lauren’s only possibility of living would have been if she had been treated within a half an hour of collapsing. Then Jayden told Amy and Joanne about how she blamed herself. If she had gone to Lauren’s house instead of to the movies, Lauren may still be alive. Both Amy and Joanne talked to Jayden and convinced her not to blame herself. She had no way of knowing that Lauren was going to die that day. By the time Jayden left to go home, she was beginning to accept her friend’s death as something that was not her fault. Joanne and Amy both said a lot of things that made sense, things Jayden hadn’t thought about before.
When she arrived home, she went upstairs to her room and took the bulletin board off her wall. She took all the pictures off, then went ot her closet and began digging through boxes that were half full of stuff she hadn’t bothered to unpack. She found a sticker that said “friends forever” and put it in the center. Surrounding it by pictures. She then went and got the picture of her and Lauren out of her jacket and put it on with the rest of the pictures. She hung the bulletin board back on the wall and went to put the boxes she had dug out back in the closet. Sitting on top of everything was the present from Lauren’s parents. She picked up the gift and sat on the floor. For a minute she just sat there holding the blue box. Taking a deep breath, she opened it. Inside the box was a black string with a small glass vile with a cork lid attached to it. Inside the bottle was sand that they got from their trip to Lauren’s cottage in grade seven, a small yellow sequin star that they had pulled off their matching pencil cases in grade four and finally a small piece of paper rolled up. Jayden remembered exactly what it said. It was a friendship contract that they had made, promising to always be friends. Both had signed it. Jayden go up off the floor and went over to her dresser and opened up her jewelry box. Right on top was her glass vile on a black string. She still remembered the day she and Lauren had made those bottles. It was back in grade eight one night when Lauren had slept over. It had been made to represent their friendship and sealed with glue and a cork to last forever. Jayden set Lauren's necklace beside hers and closed the lid to the jewelry box. Satisfied, she left her room and went to the kitchen where her mom was drinking coffee. She gave her mom a hug and sat down at the table with her. It was then she knew she had made the right decision.