Best friends could only do so much.
Usually, Nickel could rely on Colby for just about everything, but
sometimes Colby wasn't around, like now when Colby's parents had
decided that this week would be perfect for a vacation to the
Capitol. Nickel had plenty of other friends. He'd always been on
the quiet side, but his friendly nature allowed him to make friends
easily in spite of that. (As opposed to Dani who was outgoing, yet
had only a small group of close friends because she didn't interact
with other people that well. She just wasn't good at first
impressions.)
Yet Nickel had recently discovered that
none of his other friends were quite the same as Colby. He couldn't
tell his other friends everything that Colby knew, and none of his
friends seemed interested in playing the game Nickel and Colby had
made up years ago and played constantly. Instead, Nickel had been
forced to play whatever game his other friends decided to play, which
was never quite as fun. Nickel had decided that he was never taking
Colby's friendship for granted again. His other friends just weren't
the same.
"I can't believe there's still a
week until you come back," Nickel whined into the phone. The
two friends had been calling each other every night. Nickel kept
Colby up to date on what was happening at home (which was nothing),
and Colby told Nickel all about his vacation so far (which basically
consisted of an annoying older brother and little sister ruining the
whole thing).
"Neither can I," sympathized
Colby. "Ailen started crying earlier today because she lost her
doll somewhere on the streets. My parents spent ages trying to
explain that it's much harder to find lost things here in the Capitol
than it is back home in District 12. She's never going to see that
doll again, and she's not going to shut up about it for the rest of
the trip."
"Can't your parents calm her down
by offering her a brand new doll from the Capitol?"
"They tried. She claims it's not
the same, since she had the other one since she was born. It makes
sense, but I wish she'd mourned in silence."
Nickel silently thanked whoever was
responsible for him getting an older sister instead of a younger one.
"I'm sure she'll calm down
eventually," Nickel tried to sound optimistic.
Colby sighed into the phone. "I
doubt it. You know Ailen. It takes her days to let go of things."
The conversation continued for over an
hour. Half an hour in, their talk began deteriorating into idle
pratter about the most random of things. Their words almost seemed
to lose any meaning, but neither one seemed eager to hang up the
phone, knowing there was nothing but boredom or annoyance waiting for
them. It wasn't until Dani made a comment about only girls carrying
on such long, pointless conversations that Nickel decided it was
probably time to hang up.
It wasn't more than twenty seconds
after he set the phone down that he began wondering what to do. How
had he ocuppied his alone time before? It wasn't like he spent every
waking moment with Colby when he was here. Nickel had ways to keep
himself busy, but in his loneliness he could think of none of them.
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