Best Friend Forgotten... Not?

Two Saturdays ago, I went to an open shop at my friend’s restaurant in Balakong. It isn’t exactly her shop, but it was her aunt’s. But since she also cooks there and entertains customers, she also has some interest in the shop. I reached there just after Maghrib. It wasn’t really that difficult to look for the shop as it was the only one there. I went with another friend of mine who came with her husband and 3 months old cute baby. E was there to greet us. She was happy to see us and was grateful that we came. The traffic to get to Balakong was atrocious. And it took me an hour to reach Balakong, so the food better be good. And thankfully, the selection of food was good. There were nasi beriani with chicken rempah, soto, mihun sup, nasi himpit with kuah lodeh, satay, etc… etc. So, I ate a lot, as usual. E told me that Nasha Aziz was also around. I later saw her sitting with her future-mother-in-law. She is currently dating E’s cousin, a photographer. And she is one very pretty lady. I like her and I think she is one of the most beautiful celebrities in Malaysia. I wanted to take a photo with her, but I was too shy to ask her. She wasn’t bugged or anything and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. So I had to repress my desire to take a photo with her. But no worries. I was enjoying my chat with E.

I have known E for a long time. Suffice to say, she was my best friend in school. We went on the same school bus when we were in form 3 and because we were so close, we knew each other’s respective families very well. I always went to her house after school and we would hang out in her room singing to songs which she played on the guitar. One of the songs that we used to scream out loud (until the next door neighbour heard us) was “Country Road”. We enjoyed it tremendously. Her uncle would be very happy to see me and would pinch my cheeks and inform all his friends there that if only I was as old as him, he would definitely ask me to marry him. I always laughed at that as I knew that, that would never happen. E’s family called me Awning, because my house at that time had a very long awning. I was very close to her late grandmother and would hug her and kiss her whenever I dropped by at E’s house. My parents and my aunts were also very warm to E. When Acik got married, E came to the wedding and stayed over night at the kampong. Even my cousins were taken with her and till this day continued to ask how E is. You see, E is a very loveable person. She has really good personalities and can easily make friends with anyone that she wants. My schooldays had always revolved around E and of course some other friends. When I had boy trouble, E would be the person that I sought. When her grandfather passed away, I was there by her side. There were just so many things that we did together. We both like to pose for photographs and, believe me, you just wouldn’t want to see some of the photos that we took. Whenever we talked about it, we would laugh like mad. E and me, inseparable. But all that changed over the years.

E changed when approaching SPM. She rarely went to school and was always doing other things. She made friends with people that I know my parents wouldn’t approve of. But I stuck by her anyway. My mother began to call her a problem child but I argued stating that E was my best friend and no one knew her more than I do.

I guess things began to take a different turn when I introduced her to a guy friend of mine whom later she went steady with. That was where the real problem began. It was sad really. We had huge fights over a boy. She was very jealous. She hated it that her boyfriend still contacted me even though he was going steady with her. And this did not apply to just one boyfriend, but TWO of her boyfriends, both happened to be my friends. She decided to take vengeance by flirting with a guy I used to terribly adore (who else but Labu… hehehe). It hurt me but I decided to forego it because E was my best friend. But when the same thing happened to her second boyfriend, I felt tired and decided that I needed to take a stand. Of course we had heated arguments. Even the littlest things upset her. And even the stupidest things that she did bothered me. There were a lot of bad-mouthing and because we couldn’t take it anymore, we decided to take on our separate lives after form 6. I was happy with my other friends and she was making friends with some other people. We lost contact with each other. I knew stories about her from my other friends or from her boyfriend, but never from her.

Come April 2002, I received a phone call from E. She was getting engaged and she would appreciate if I could attend the engagement reception. I was surprised. It was ages since I received a call from her. She said she was getting engaged to the boyfriend that I introduced to way back when we were in form 4. I was happy for her so I attended her engagement and met her. It was like flashes of memory playing a short movie in my head. Her aunts and uncles greeted me happily. Her late grandmother was very happy to see me that she had tears in her eyes. It was just so overwhelming. And from thereon, we remained in contact and have become close. She was the one who put the henna on my hands when I got married and she was the one who was happy to see my bulging stomach when I was pregnant. We may not be as close as when we were in school, but I am content at our friendship now. We never talk about the incidents which made our friendship sour. We just look forward at the possibilities of what the future holds for us.

When I left the restaurant that night, I kissed both her cheeks and hugged her tightly. Gosh I missed her and she returned the affection that I gave her and that made my eyes teary. Some say that if you had a huge a fight with a best friend, you can never resume the friendship. Well, they’re wrong. Look at me and E. Though we don’t laugh out loud and sing noisily to songs that she plays on the guitar, deep inside, we’re both happy that our friendship can resume where we left off.