Mending Fences
The lecture hall steps, just after Maya's college talk
The quiet student's note had nothing to do with her studies. It was from Lena's younger sister: "My sister misses you. Please call her." Maya's heart sank. For weeks Lena had wrongly believed Maya had made up an excuse to avoid her, and that misunderstanding had put Maya off calling at all.
Months of silence had set their friendship back badly. Yet so much of who Maya had become — her honesty most of all — she had picked up from Lena over the years. She couldn't let it end here.
Outside Lena's flat, that same evening
That evening she stood outside Lena's flat, knowing she just had to get through the next few minutes. She knocked.
Lena's shoulders dropped, and she stepped aside. They talked for hours, and by midnight had made up, closer somehow than before. Maya could put up with almost anything, she realised, except losing her oldest friend.