An almond for Caroline...

I'll tell you a little story of a very good friend of mine...

First of all, introductions. This girl's name is Caroline *surname confidential* but we preferred to call her Carol. Unusual name I have to say.
Carol was my friend since... well since preschool. Pretty long eh?
Out of all the people I've met, she was the only one who was so into Almonds.
She was so into Almonds that she didn't even care what her gifts would be as long as its Almonds. Maybe that's exaggerating too much but I can say that she's addicted to that stuff.

Back at preschool, she was my seatmate so it was clear that I was going to befriend her.
At first, I always wondered on why did she have almonds on her lunch box.
I forgot to mention, she was so greedy with those freaking almonds.
And because of that, I started to dislike her but after a while I befriended her again with the use of almonds. Almonds @_@

Ever since preschool, we we're always together.
We always sat together.
We ate lunch together.
Did our schoolwork together.
Heck, the only thing separated us was the bathroom.
It was pretty clear that she was my best friend.
We were practically together always until we graduated Elementary.

After graduating elementary, we started to lose our close bonding.
Our means of communication started to disappear.
As if that wasn't worse enough, her family decided to move because of unknown reasons.
The week before the first day of high school started, we bade our goodbyes and hugged for the last time.
And because of the sad atmosphere, I forgot to ask where she was going to move and how will I contact her. And of course, she forgot to tell those details too.
To add to the irony, no one freaking knew where her family was going to move. Looking back at that time, it was hilarious.

And so, life moved on.
As High school life moved on, I started to forget my sweet friend.
During the 1st year of high school, I always missed her.
Wishing I could call her but I can't because I don't even know what the number is
Sometimes, I started to pick up the phone and stare at the numbers wishing that I would know what to press and that the person who would pick up the other line would be Carol.
Alas, it ended with a lot of wrong numbers and prank calls. XD

From Sophomore to Senior year, I completely forgotten about her.
Who she was, when her birthday was, it was all a blank now.
And so, high school life ended.
And at the graduation, I started to wonder.
While looking at the spot where my mom, sis, and bro-in-law were sitting.
There was someone beside them and by the looks of it, that person was known by my mom and sis.
And after the graduation ceremony, I asked my sis who that person was.
My sister said only one word. Caroline.

When I said hi to Carol while she was looking back, she quickly turned to me and gave me a hug.
Suddenly I remembered. The last hug I got from her was 4 years ago.
I gave her a hug also.
I missed that warm hug of hers.

To celebrate graduation, we went on some restaurant at MoA (Mall of Asia).
While talking to my best friend I started to stare at her. *No evil thoughts here*
While looking at her I said to myself, She has changed. Changed a lot.
Her face was different.
Her voice was more soothing now.
Her body, well I'm not going to describe this anymore. XD
But out of all the changes she went through, there was still one thing same about her.
Her craving for freaking Almonds.
I can't even believe she pulled out a pack of almonds from her bag and when I looked inside her bag, it was filled with those freaking almonds. Addicted too much?

After eating, we went for a walk to catch up while the rest of the family went sightseeing.
At first, she was really talkative. Not like before wherein she was just silent.
She really talked so much that I just pretended to listen.
After a while, I realized she was holding my hand the whole time we we're talking.
Maybe I'm just not used to holding hands anymore.
Then she told me that she was staying at an apartment with her parents because she was going to attend college in manila.
She also apologized for not saying where she was going to move 4 years ago.
I just laughed at the irony. She laughed with me.
BTW, if anyone was wondering, she moved somewhere in laguna.

This is clearly not a little story anymore.
Anyways, let's move on with the story.


We spent the summer together.
I got to met her parents a lot more also.
But when I always look at her, I always had the feeling that we'll just be friends and nothing more.

So College life started.
I enrolled at University of Sto. Tomas while she enrolled at *Confidential sorry*.
We really never got to communicate much during my first semester.
But we always had our bonding times from time to time.
And so my 1st semester ended and 2nd semester started.
All was well until Christmas vacation.
This was when tragedy happened.

---To be Continued--