The Friend Who Came Back

Yusuf had been Esme's best friend from the age of four to the age of nine. Then his father had got a job in Toronto, and the whole family had moved. For two years, Esme and Yusuf had video-called every Saturday. The calls had been wonderful at first. They had told each other everything. Then the calls had got harder to plan because of the time difference. Then they had got shorter. Then sometimes they had been cancelled because one of them had a thing on. Now, the call was still on the calendar, but it happened once every three or four weeks. In the meantime, Esme had grown. She was eleven now. She had made new friends — Hanna and Liv, mostly. The three of them did most things together. Esme thought of them as her best friends now, although she had never quite said that out loud. Yusuf, in his Saturday calls, was still her old best friend. Esme had a slot in her heart that was Yusuf's, and that slot was full of him, even though it had got a little dusty. Then, in March, Yusuf's mother phoned Esme's mother. Yusuf's family was moving back. The job in Toronto had ended. They were coming home in July. Esme cried when her mother told her. Not exactly happy crying. More — overwhelmed crying. Two years of missing him was about to end. Two years of a friendship lived only in pixels was about to land in the actual world. Esme realised, as she lay in bed that night, that she was