Like Old TImes

"Hey, wake up!" I hear before a loud knock yanks me out of my sleep. I look around my room trying to pull myself together.  The sun was shining brightly through my window, how long was I asleep? I go to look at my phone to check the time, but I'm met with a battery logo, I forgot to charge my phone again, great. My scattered thoughts were interrupted by another loud knock, enough to knock any out sleepiness I had left in me. "C'mon Anon! Wake up!", the familiar voiced cried out on the other side of the door. "Sayori? What is she doing here?" I think to myself before my thoughts finally organized themselves, "Shit, I was suppose to hang out with her today!" I fumble out of bed, nearly tripping over my blanket as I rush to the door, "I must of slept in!"

I quickly open the door to see Sayori, giggling slightly. "Good afternoon, sleepy head!" she says happily, "I was worried you went out somewhere, but I see you just slept in." She starts giggling even more. "What's so funny?" I ask her, frustrated and slightly embarrased. "Oh nothing, it's just that you always get mad at me for sleeping in but here you are sleeping in longer than I've ever slept in." She says in a teasing tone. "Huh? What do you mean? How late is it?" The amount of times Sayori slept well into the afternoon makes me pretty worried about how late it is. "Oh you really must of just woken up then." She says with a suprised look, "It's nearly five, Anon." I look at her with disbelief, "What? You're kidding! It can't be five!" Sayori pulls out her phone to show me the time, sure it enough she wasn't lying, "4:56 PM" her phone read. "You've been up all night reading manga again haven't you?" she crosses her arms, "How many times do I have to tell you you still need to go to bed early, otherwise you'll sleep in!". I can't even argue with that, she's right, my sleep schedual has been a mess lately because of it.

That's not even the worst part!" she exclaims to me as she starts unlocking her phone, showing me her message log. "You didn't answer any of my messages! I've been trying to get a hold of you all day, you big meanie!" She pouts. She actually looks a bit upset saying that, did that really hurt her feelings? Before I could ask if that bothered her she speaks up softly, with a hint of insecurity behind her voice. "You weren't trying to avoid me today, were you Anon?". Before I could process why she would think that, I had already started talking. "Of course not! You know I'd never avoid seeing you, Sayori." She always had a way of getting me to speak before I think, "Why would you even think that?" I add. She looks away dejectedly, her voice speaking weakly, "It's just after what happened last week, I felt like I'd be a huge burden on you, and that maybe you'd like to get a break away from me, I mean I wouldn't blame you if you did, hehe" She tried to forge a giggle through a faint smile. Suddenly, the memory of last week jolted through my sleep riddled mind.

Sayori had confessed to me about her depression and mental state, something she had been hiding throughout our whole friendship. Sayori had so much built up she became a huge mess before she could finish telling me, all she could do was plead for the feeling to stop and how bad she wanted it stop. I had no idea what to do, how could I have helped someone I care for so deeply with something I barely understand? All I could do was comfort her, and promised her I would help her get through it, no matter what it takes, she was completely hopless, and even worse now that I knew and would worry about her. She kept begging me to forget about it and her and to just be happy with the Literature Club, how could I do that even if I wanted to? We made a promise that I would spend more time with her this week as long as she didn't do anything serious, which after some conviencing she hesitently agreed. We even made a pinky promise, just like when we were kids, something I felt like would help.  That whole event sat in my mind all day, so much that I couldn't focus on anything I had to do that day, I ended up having to cut short the preperations for the festival. We managed to make due, so I guess it wasn't all bad, it's not like we would of gotten anyone new anyway. Sayori had told me her hardest days are the weekends, since she isn't around anyone to help her get out of her own head, which made me feel guilty; we had hung out every weekend when we were younger, but I started drifting away to watch anime and read manga. I told her we'd hang out all day on Saturday, no matter what. I feel horrible, how could I have broken that promise?

"Sayori.." I utter out, the I struggle to make out the words I want to say. "It's okay" Sayori tells me, tears forming around her eyes. "I know how hard it is to deal with me, so I understand if you just wanna get away from me." Before she could say anything else I wrap my arms around her, holding her tightly. "No, it's not that Sayori, you were right, I was up all night,  I forgot charge my phone so it's been dead all day. I've been looking foward to spending the day with you since I told you. I want to make it up to you for being late." I tell her softly. She speaks out through small sobs, "Well there is something you could do, Anon..". "What is it?" I ask, I'm ready to do anything to help her feel better.

"Could you maybe...get some food?" she says as she looks away shyly. I let out a small releived laugh,"I thought it was something serious!". "It is! Food helps me feel better and I'm hungry." She says, wiping the tears from her eyes.  "Sayori, you did eat before you came over, right? " I let her go so she could breath, I was practically squeezing the life out of her.  " Well yeah! I had a nice breakfast, brunch, and...lunch." I look at her with a deadpan expression, "Brunch is both breakfast and lunch, Sayori." . " I know that!" she replies as her face turns a light shade of red," I just thought that maybe we could, eat something together" She says softly as she plays with her fingers. I give her a stern look before giving her a soft smile, I could never say no to her, not when she acts cute like that. "Fine, what would you like  to eat? I don't think we have much here" We never have time to cook at my house, so we just buy stuff to eat on the way home. "Maybe some pizza? " Sayori asks me with an optimistic tone in her voice. "Good idea, some pizza would hit the spot, I am pretty hungry myelf." my stomach growls to remind me of the fact that I slept in. "You need to eat too, Anon! You can't just take care of me, I worry about you too." She exlcaims with a worried expression,  she was always making sure I was taking care of myself growing up, while I did the same, albiet more sternly, we really did take great care of each other, and I see now it hasn't gone away a bit.

"Don't worry I'm gonna eat right now with you." I tell her with a reasuring smile, I can see her mood improving from the hastey wake up call she gave me. I ask to use Sayori's phone since mine was still dead, and after I made the order, I go to give the phone back to her. I see her sitting on my bed, looking around my room. "Yeah, I know it's a mess, I didn't have a chance to clean up." I tell her defensively. "Hehe, it's not that, Anon" she laughs, "It's just that it's been so long since I've been in your room and yet it hasn't changed at all." Now that I think about she's right, how long has it been since she's been in my room? I haven't done any changes to my room at all except put some stuff I don't use anymore in my closet. "It's actually kind of nice." She says with a happy tone, "It's like you haven't changed either." Sayori gets up to walk to my dresser, and picks up a small cow keychain I've honestly almost forgotten about. "You still have that keychain I gave you!" Her voice lights up and she has the brightest look on her face.  "Well I didn't want to throw it away, and I didn't know anywhere else to put it so I thought the dresser would be the best place." I can see that really touched her, because she kept staring at it for a small while longer.

 Eventually she turns to me and asks me "Do you remember when I gave it to you? It was such a long time ago." She laughs. "Of course I do, I haven't forgotten at all." I reply back. "It was around 6 years ago at the arcade. You wanted the stuffed animal, but you couldn't get enough tickets for it, I remember you were so sad, you almost started crying right then and there." Sayori looks at me a bit embarrased, "I really wanted it! It was so cute! But I was so bad at the games I couldn't get enough tickets before we could leave." I add on to the story "I couldn't stand to see how sad you looked, so I went and used the rest of my quarters on as many games as I could, and I used them with the tickets I was saving up to get you the animal, I barely had enough to get it." I laugh. "I still remember how your face lit up when I gave it to you, you almost squeezed me to death with how excited you were." "I didn't think you'd get it for me!" she says witha  serious face I was ready to accept that I wouldn't get it and you went and suprised me with it, I didn't know what else to do!" She calms down a bit and finishes the story up for me. "I asked if you had to use your tickets but you told me not to worry about, but you had done something so nice for me that I wanted make sure you got something nice too. I wasn't as good as you, but I tried my hardest and used the rest my quarters on the easier machines and managed to save up just enough for this. "She holds the key chain up infront of her. " You never smiled as big as I did, but I could tell the smile you had would of been bigger than me if you did!" She says walking towards me. "Well yeah, of course it would of been." I laugh with a smile forming on my face. "It was a gift from you, Sayori." I tell her without realizing what that sounded like, I can see she thought the same thing as both of our faces turn a a shade of red. "Do you..do you really mean that?" Sayori asks me softly, her eyes looking away before meeting with mine. "I do, why do you think the keychain has been there for so long?" I was embarrased saying that but I was already speaking without thinking so I might as well go the full mile. " That keychain meant a lot for me, I would stare at it every morning when I would get ready for school, and whenever I would have a bad day it would be there to remind me you care about me, it really helped me." Sayori tried to say something, but she was taken back by what I said, tears started forming before she had a huge smile on her face. "Anon.." was all she could utter out before wrapping her arms around me. "I slept with the stuffed animal for years. Even now it still sits on my bed when I go to sleep. I hold on to it when ever I'm having a really bad day and it always makes me feel better." I wrap my arms around her and rub the back of her head, "I'm glad it does, Sayori." We stand there for a moment embracing each other before Sayori looks up at me. "Hey Anon, can we do something we use to do back then? All these talks of memories make me wanna act like kids again. " She says with a small hint of embarrassment on her face. I give her a reassuring smile and tell her it's okay, "Yeah sure, that would be really nice." Our eyes lock and we give each other soft smiles. "What would you like to do?" I ask her. She thinks for a bit, giving me a cute puzzled face before it lights up. "Oh I know! How about we play a game? Do you still have any games we'd play together?" I reply back, "A game? Uh, I should still have it, let me look to see if I put it away."