Chapter 3: Emma

"Sebastian is even worse than when he was a kid," I said to Sophia as we both sat down and grabbed some dinner at the Holiday Cocktail Lounge. I'd been in town for a couple of weeks, and we'd planned to meet up to-night in East Village. It was as if we were reliving our college days. One thing I loved about this place was the cocktails; no place beat them. This place was the reason why I went up a couple of dress sizes. The damn cock-tails and food were to die for.

"Don't be like that; it's been how many years?"

I looked up and saw that the same Christmas lights were hung above the bar. It was as if this place was stuck in time: we'd changed, but the place hadn't one little bit.

"Can you believe that they still have that?"

I pointed to the lights, thinking about the past.

She nodded, "Sure, it's the bar's trademark. They're not going to get rid of that. It would be like if they stopped serving cocktails."

She had a point there.

"The atmosphere of the crowd, the music and eve-rything, brings back memories."

I felt remorseful, even with everyone having a good time. I couldn't remember the last time I'd let my hair down. "What happened to us?"

She held out her hand as I remembered her doing back in college. We were roommates, and we had a don't-mess-with-us attitude. But that was when we were teenagers and medicine got tougher every year. The next thing I knew time had just swept on by and I was a resi-dent with no friends, apart from the other residents. The course took over my whole life, and I kind of forgot who my friends were, and by the time I did remember it was too late, and they had all moved on.

"Medicine," I sighed as I smiled back at her.

She stroked my hand for a minute with sadness in her eyes, "I know, but you never called or wrote back. I thought that maybe I did something wrong."

Sophia hadn't aged since we left college ten years ago. She looked the same, with her dyed blonde hair, which was totally unnecessary because she had natural beauty. Her high cheekbones and dark eyes made every-one think that she was going to be a model one day. She just needed to be snapped up by an agent or scout, but she was hell-bent on being a journalist. I could never get my head around this, but then again she used to say the same thing about me and medicine.

"Nah, I just got caught up, obsessed with being a doctor. The whole thing was nuts. Before I knew it, you had left college and hooked up with- what's his name again?"

She rolled her eyes, not wanting to say, let alone think about the guy that broke her heart and had slept with nearly every cheer on the squad. I thought she had moved on, but by the way, she said his name I could tell that she hadn't. "Anthony!"

I quickly changed the subject, "Anyway, you were in love with that jerk. I had to be a doctor otherwise life was not worth living, and that was it. But I'll like to think that now that I'm in town we can pick up where we left off."

She grabbed my hand and said, "You try and keep me away."

I kissed her hand as I had done so many times, like the time she thought that she wouldn't make it through college. I had reassured her and promised to be a shoul-der for her to cry on and the person she could lean on if she had any problems. Now I felt like a stranger. I never even thought that was possible.

Even my parents used to ask me from time to time if I had heard from Sophia and I always said no. My mom always encouraged me to give her a call. But sud-denly it had been one month, then two, then three. By the time it got to a year. I just didn't know what to say.

'Hey Sophia, it's your best friend from college. Do you remember me?'