Let's hope for the best

Chapter 24: Yesterday was the time of our life

And as it was soon apparent, hanging our parchments on the wall was not enough to fix that house.

Nothing was working: but we didn't have money for anything, at first.

We were just starting to work, still waiting to get into an "internship"- that's what you do in my country, after med school.

So, for now, the house had to wait.

I remember I woke up some days, to a mess with no comparisons.

I walked the three long steps that separated the bedroom from the kitchen/dining room- it wasn't a big apartment- and sat at the table, disheartened.

I might have wanted to bake something, but the oven was not working.

And then Theo would make coffee for me, that he'd pour into my Good morning, Princess cup, that he had bought for me.

And that was all, for me.  I knew it then, but I know it even more now.

Back then, yes, I was happy. But I had all of those plans running through my head.

Me! The one who had been awaiting death so eagerly for almost 18 years of my life, and had recurrently gone back to that.

Now, instead, I couldn't stop planning my future: all the things we'd do, and our job, and how we'd fix our house....

But really, I know it now: back then, we were really having the time of our life.

Just me, Theo, a shitty table, and my Princess cup. Our graduation parchments freshly hanged on the wall.

That was all: we didn't need anything else.

...

After a few months, luckily, we started our internships.

Jasmine and I were taking the same one, while Theo had chosen another field.

Eventually, he ended up choosing a high-paying field, with a lot of possibilities for private practice in the future.

I guess he had always been haunted by the idea of not having enough money, and eventually, I think that played a role as well.

...

In the meanwhile, our friends were settling down as well.

Jasmine and Alex had also moved in, and so had George and his girlfriend.

Max had moved out of town, and we were seeing him less often.

Truth to be told, we were not seeing each other just as much as we were at Uni.

We met at least a couple of times a month, or more, but definitely not every day.

But life was going on: we had to work a lot, and we couldn't do it together, like when we were studying together.

We had our partners, and our new homes to think about. Our new colleagues.

Our new lives.

But I can fairly say that despite it all, we managed to keep being good friends, throughout the following years.

Things just... changed.

We were not together any waking second now.

Our partners were getting more and more important in our lives: not that they were not, before.

But now, they were not just our crushes. Our boyfriends/girlfriends.

Now they were our life partners.

Now we shared houses, bills, and chores.

We had to talk about our finances, and make choices for our futures.

And our friends, yes, they were still there: but not as much as they had been before.

Now our partners were the real reference for us.

The people that we saw every morning waking up, every night going to bed.

The people that we had to share the grocery list with.

And yeah... I guess we were just, eventually, growing up.