this friday just gone, i was reunited with my bff lauren after almost 2 years. lauren and i met when we both used to work for an australian fashion retailer in adelaide called jeanswest. from the moment we met, we were friends. we went everywhere and did everything together. when boyfriends were introduced, they were told they would always come second to our friendship. we could read each others minds, and would finish each others sentences. we had the same taste in movies, and would spend many a hungover sunday watching nothing but olsen-twins and disney movies while lauren's mum would keep us alive on balfours donuts and farmer's union iced coffee. our friendship was so intense, that when i decided to move to new zealand in 2006, she followed me not 3 months later... leaving her boyfriend in adelaide to cope on his own for a while without her.
when i moved home in 2008, we lived together in melbourne. nothing had changed, we would drink coffee and read rolling stone for hours over a starbucks in hawthorn, or tram to the city and shop for hours through the dfo's in swanston street and bridge road. we've never had the same dress sense (i very much enjoy a matching outfit, while she's always tried her hardest to look 'thrown together and blase'), but we've always been the best shopping partners; knowing exactly what looks best on each other. that, and we've always bonded over thrifting and charity shopping.
when i left melbourne in 2010 bound for london, i did so via one long car ride back to adelaide, to dump all my stuff at my mums. lauren flew to melbourne so she could keep me company on that drive. that's just what friends do! we had one last hoorah in melbourne, giving it the proper farewell it deserved, then made the long journey home. that journey, by the way, that normally takes between 8 and 9 hours, was made in just under 7 thanks to the high school musical and hairspray soundtracks.
well, it's hard to keep in contact when you're a whole world away. she was finishing the longest degree in her life, and i was building one of my own. we talked when we could, and tried extra hard at christmas and birthdays - but with a dodgy skype connection, it wasn't easy. so when she told me last christmas that she would come for a visit this christmas, i put it down to niceties. until october this year, when she sent me her flight itinerary... for the shortest overseas trip i've ever seen! but, she'd gone and done it to prove a point, that 'once a flake, not always a flake' when it comes to the bff code.
and so, this past friday, we were reunited once more! and over ice cream at jamie's union jacks (best restaurant ever!) in covent garden and a few drinks at all bar one at charing cross, we talked, and talked, and talked, and caught up on 2 years worth of news. just like old times, and like we had never been apart.
and it was good. and i miss her.
more stories to come....
