Dani remembered vividly the day she left home.  It was something her mind had replayed on a regular basis in the almost five years since she had decided to move to Florida for college.  She remembered the way Brian had pleaded with her to stay; so angry that she was going and even angrier that she hadn't told him until two days before she left.  But mostly she remembered  the way he had turned genuine anger into carefree nothingness, like it hadn't mattered to him that his friend of almost nine years was leaving.

    "Bri can we talk for a sec?"  She said, holding the basketball under her arm.

    "So talk." Brian replied snatching the ball from her grasp and dribbling it around her.

    "Can you stop for one second so I can say this."

    "Why?" He shrugged. "I can still hear you."  Dani sighed loudly.  This wasn't going to be easy and the fact he was being difficult didn't help.

    "Brian just stop for one minute.  I have to tell you something."

    "Fine."  He said, setting the ball down on the pavement of her driveway and sitting on it.  Dani paced back and forth in front of her garage, as Brian rolled on the ball.

    "Your minute's almost up." he said impatiently, but he smiled widely at her when she shot him a dirty look.

    "Brian I leave Sunday for Florida." She blurted out.

    "So?  Bring me back an orange." He looked at her with an 'this is the important thing you had to tell me?' look.

    "No, Bri, I'm moving to Florida."

    "What?" He said, looking up at her, finally catching him by surprise.

    "I got into UCF, I'm gonna go to school in Orlando."

    "What are you talking about?" Dani had been dreading this since she had opened the acceptance letter last spring.  She hadn't immediately decided if she were going to go, but things happened in the final months of school that just made her realize she needed to leave.

    "I'm going into the physical therapy program."  She told him as she sat on the pavement next to him, her legs curled beneath her.  "Ya know, sports injuries, and rehabilitation and stuff.   Who knows I could end up being Reggie Miller's physical therapist or something."

    "Still wouldn't make the Pacers better." He smiled, forever dogging Dani's favorite team, and always making fun of her over zealous affection for Reggie Miller.

    "Oh please, you know they're gonna be one of the best teams in the NBA."  He ignored her.

    "You aren't gonna become a Magics fan are you?" He smirked after a prolonged silence. "I'd never talk to you again if you did that.  The Pacers are bad enough."

    "Doubtful." She said.  She was glad he was cracking jokes, but she was still not relaxed, she could see his dissaproval on his face.

    "Dan, please change your mind.  Who am I gonna practice with at four in the morning, when I really need to?" He begged, in one of the rare moments he was emotionally vulnerable to her.  "We always planned on going to the same college, both playing basketball, why all of a sudden have you decided to go to school in Florida? What's wrong with you?" His voice was growing louder and more bitter, his defenses building.

    "Brian I'm sorry I never told you, but it's just something I have to do."

    "You have to go all the way down there to go to school?  Why?  What's the difference schools are schools.  You can do physical therapy here."

    "I just need to get away from this town, and live life on my own for awhile.  I've seen the same people and things everyday for my whole life, I need a change."

    "Bullshit." He yelled. "What's the real reason."

    "There isn't one.  I'm just going." She said.  She couldn't tell him the real reason.

    "Fine." He stood up and pushed the ball hard towards her.  "Have fun."  Brian stalked away, leaving Dani standing in her driveway alone.  How dare he! her mind yelled.  He has no right to get mad about this. She tucked the ball under her arm and trudged her way into the house, packing the ball away with all her other belongings.

        "Who were you kidding Dani." She thought silently to herself on the plane. "He had every right to be mad.  I told him I was moving hundreds of miles away two days before I was supposed to leave."  Dani shook her head, wishing she would have told him when she first decided to go, then maybe she'd still have his friendship.  "He's the one that chose not to talk to me for five years."  The devils advocate inside her head screamed.  "He didn't return the phone messages and emails I sent him, and he didn't even say hi when I saw him that one time at Christmas during my first year.  It's his fault we're not friends, not mine." She assured herself.  "He let this ruin our friendship, not me."

    After the first year of trying to keep in contact with him, Dani gave up.  She'd only been home a handful of times since she moved, but she never talked to him or saw him when she came home, but god did she miss him.   Ever since they had been nine years old and she had beaten Brian at a game of basketball they had been friends.  Although to this day he still vehemently denies that she won, but she had, fair and square.  (Well there was that one totally illegal shove, but he wasn't going to argue with a girl, at least on that day he didn't.)   She had always been closer to Brian than any of the girls in her class, and chose to be playing sports with the guys rather than barbies with the girls.  She was a stereotypical tomboy, right down to the name, and right up until almost high school, but even after she became 'a girl' they stayed friends.  All through late middle school and high school  Dani was the one Brian asked about girls, about what he should say and do, and about how to fix some giant mistake he made with one of them.  Dani was also the one that heard all about the girls who's hearts she was sure he had broken, and about how he didn't care about most of them, they were simply another notch on his "I'm a stud" belt.
She saw both sides of Brian, the sweet perfect angel all the girls fell in love with, the one who loved his mom, and who charmed everyone with one flash of his smile whether he was singing in the choir or playing on the court, and then she saw the "real" Brian.  The one that cracked disgustingly dirty jokes with his brother, the one who probably popped an erection whenever some bleach blond, giant boobed girl walked by, and the one who could be THE biggest asshole in regards to peoples feelings, like the majority of guys his age.  But she loved him never-the-less, she loved that she knew him better than anyone, and that he knew her almost the same way.

    "He didn't know everything." She sighed to herself, breaking her train of thought. "and I used to know him." She corrected.  She didn't know him anymore, all she knew was the small tidbits of information her mother had told her, via Brian's mom, and of course how he was playing on the UK basketball team.  But Brian had finished playing college ball, just like she had, but during the four years he did play she spent hours on the internet looking up his stats, and percentages for each game.  She had watched as many of his games as she could, mostly on tv, wishing she had  the courage to call him up and congratulate him on a game, or even tell him to work on his free throws.  But it had been too long since she had talked to him, and besides, he's probably still mad at me, she thought.  Maybe I'm still mad at him.

    Dani stared out the window, past the middle aged woman that sat in the window seat next to her and thought about Brian.   About the fourteen years she'd known him,  five of them not even speaking to him.  How am I going to fix this? She wondered, thinking of all the things she wanted to tell him, everything that had happened while she was in Florida, and wanting to hear everything about his life now.  I just want to see him laugh again, she thought as she smiled knowing Brian's laugh usually just entailed  a scrunched up face and a silent wheeze of air, followed by a clap of his hands.   Her memories were interrupted by a blaring overhead announcement stating they were nearing the Lexington airport.    Dani began packing up her things,  getting more and more nervous, knowing she'd have to face Brian sooner or later, and still not knowing what she'd do when she saw him.
 

        Dani struggled to roll her suitcase up the two small steps that led up to the wrap around porch on the front of her house.

    "Hello?" She yelled.  Praying for some help, to no avail, no one was home.  As she tugged and pulled to get the mammoth bag up the stairs the small shrill ring of her cell phone could be heard in the backpack the had tossed onto the porch.

    "What do you want?" She yelled to no one.  "I just got home."  Dani sighed and let go of the bag, letting it tumble back down to the ground.  She pulled the zipper of the backpack open as she slumped down in one of the rocking chairs sitting in front of her, digging for the phone that continued to ring.

    "Hello?" she finally said.

    "Happy Birthday!" She heard the familiar voice say, a voice that immediatly  relaxed her.

    "I am so glad to hear from you!"  She smiled.

    "Why?  Bad flight?"

    "No, just too much thinking."

    'What have I told you about thinking?  Nothing good can come of it." He laughed.

    "Why don't I ever  listen to you?"

    "I don't know Dan.   You were thinking about Byron right?"

    "Brian, and yeah I was."

    "Awww you're breaking my heart.  I thought you'd spend the whole flight missing lonely ol' me back in Florida."

    "Oh please, YOU lonely.   Who's it gonna be this week?"  She laughed, knowing his track record with women.

    "Well there is a hot waitress coming towards me, she's a red-head, nice ass, but alas I'm saving myself for you."

    "Go for the red-head, I'm too old for you." She sighed to her friend.

    "Oh that's right, the reason I called." He said with mischief in his voice.  "Do you realize you are a quarter of a century old today."

    "Don't remind me."

    "Your package of ben gay and depends is on the way."

    "Funny." She spat.

    "I know, but that's why you love me."

    "Maybe." she said coyly.  "Look Jay, I gotta go.  I have a lot of stuff to unpack, but I'll call you later, promise."

    "Okay.  Happy Birthday girl! Take care and I'll talk to you soon!”

    "Bye." She said as she hung up the phone.

    She sighed as she stood back up, dreading the heavy suitcase.  Until he had mentioned it, she had completely forgotten it was her birthday, although all that meant now was that she was getting older, nothing cool to look forward to anymore  like driving or legalization, just age.  And his crack about being half a century old didn't help, just because he was three years younger than she was, but she was glad he had called.  They weren't anything more to each other than great friends, and she liked it that way.    They'd met back in the fall when they took a class together, and he had her laughing so much and so hard she almost got kicked out of the lecture hall.  Sexual Behavior 2772, he was sitting next to her and after twenty minutes of near-coma inducing chatter from the proffessor, he'd begun to entertain her by drawing lewd pictures in his textbook.  They'd been friends ever since.

Dani grunted as she fell backwards on the porch, the heavy bag  still stuck on the first step.  "Forget it!" She yelled, letting the suitcase tumble again,  "I'll let Dad get it when he gets home.  God what did I pack in that thing, an elephant?"  She grabbed her book bag and fished inside for her key, unlocking the door and going directly to the kitchen to appease her growling stomach.    Glad to be home, at least for now.