My Best Friend's Brother

Chapter 1

I couldn't hide my shock at all. Was this really Erica Wilson? The Erica Wilson?

"No way! Are you Erica Wilson?" I exclaimed with complete excitement.

She was clearly amused. "Do I know you?"

I practically yelled with excitement. "Erica! I'm Ashley! We knew each for like 5 years? And then you vanished!"

Erica was as excited as I was. "Oh my god! Ashley! How have you been?"

Before I could reply, she cut me off with a scowl on her face. "Excuse me woman! I did not vanish! You were the one who moved and then decided to forget me."

Now, I was annoyed. Erica and I had been best friends for years after my parents divorced. She was the most unique girl in our class. We became extremely good friends and then every single kid in Year 2 knew that we were best friends and no matter what anyone tried to do we couldn't be separated. I spent five years there; each year spent with her made our friendship deeper and stronger. When I was eleven, mom got a good job but we had to move. I definitely didn't want to but then I knew that the right thing to do was to move so that we could live a better life. So, we moved.

After settling down, I sent her mails but she never replied to any of them. None of us had cell phones back then, when I tried contacting her house phone, it said that the number was not in service. That's how I lost touch with the girl I was extremely close to.

"Back off there lady, I sent you like a billion mails! You didn't even bother replying to any of them!" I argued back.

She was thinking about something and then her mouth shaped into an 'o' and she said, "Oh right! I created a new e-mail ID because you know; I forget my passwords a lot."

Before I could continue arguing, a middle-aged man entered the room and started telling everyone to settle down. I assumed this was Mr. Harold. Throughout the class, he was literally torturing us with the famous topic - Global Warming. I definitely agreed with Erica, Mr. Harold was extremely boring. We were given an assignment to think of as many ways possible to reduce global warming. I sighed inwardly and wrote it down on my palm.

As soon as the bell rang everyone started rushing out of the class.

Erica smiled at me and said, "You still write your homework on your palm."

I grinned at her and replied, "Yes, I still do. And all the memories of the amount of times I got scolded by teachers because I didn't do work are still fresh. Well, it wasn't my fault that my palms got sweaty and I couldn't read anything."

She laughed loudly and responded, "You could have always called me and asked me for the homework."

"Well, I was too lazy to do my work either ways, so it doesn't matter," I stated, earning a smirk from her.

"So, how is life? Last time I checked you were busy making out with Matt," I mocked her with a genuine smile.

She gave me a look and said, "Last time you checked we were 11. I was young and stupid and that's why I made wrong choices. Matt was a jerk."

I raised my eyebrows and teased her, "Jerk? Whoa! Things have changed!"

She grinned at me and I grinned back. Moving here wasn't so bad after all.

When Erica turned 10, we were very happy that one of us was a double digit. We arranged a pool party and enjoyed a lot but then a clumsy boy who tried to jump in the pool for the millionth time ended up puking. What was worse? He vomited in the pool. All the girls were completely grossed out and immediately left the pool but Erica insisted her mom to let her stay in the pool. After a long argument with her mom, Erica was pulled out of the pool by her dad.