They had finally arrived. After four years of not seeing my lovely friends in person, I decided to host a reunion party at my house. We’d been partners in crime since school and all through college, but university split us after that. So, after everyone’s graduation, we all planned a meetup. Understandably, things got emotional.

We gathered in my lawn under the cool, pleasant weather. The air charged with excitement and nostalgia, full of warm feelings. We were a bit nervous at first about seeing each other because it’s been years. It struck me how everyone had changed: Zubiya still had long, curly hair, but it was smoother now. Noha had grown taller and got her braces off. Aliya’s fashion sense had changed. She wore prints now.

Everyone cheered when I told them I’d ordered pizza. While waiting, we played charade. Zubiya kept suggesting horror films no one had heard of, while Noha talked about rom-coms everyone had seen. When I was on my third try of acting out an embarrassingly easy one, Noha tearing up with laughter, the pizza arrived. We grabbed our slices and caught up with what everyone had been up to all these years. Noha had shifted her focus to finance, Zubiya was still the arts’ girl and Aliya was going into filmmaking. Me, well, I was going to be a developer, I guess.

Aliya reminded us of the time she got detention because she forgot to do her assignment and lied how her dog had eaten it. Miss Rabia had not found that funny. Then Noha reminded her how Aliya also forgot that Noha had done her homework for her, and Aliya had still forgotten to hand it in. We all bawled with laughter remembering all the fun we did as kids and teens.

After we finished pizza, Zubiya decided we should have dessert.

“Say no more,” I told them and headed for the kitchen.

Mum arrived home. She greeted them all and showed me where the ingredients were and retired to her room. Zubiya joined me. We started baking red velvet cupcakes. While the cupcakes baked, we went headed upstairs to watch a movie. Aliya suggested a movie about friends’ reunion. We toasted to our friendship — to our brilliant experiences, the strength of the bond that still kept us together and the hope of more reunions to come.

As it struck nine on the clock, the mood turned gloomy. We still had not had enough fun. Zubiya pulled out her phone to book a cab. Noha called home. Then when Aliya and I went back downstairs to get the cupcakes out of the oven, we gave each other a sad and serious look at the thought of parting again.

Just then my dad entered the kitchen and he saw it, smiling on our innocence, he said, “Why don’t you let them stay?”

It hit me like a hammer. “Yes, why didn’t I think about it earlier? After all, we were grown-ups now, and it was easy for our parents to decide if we could stay or not?” I thought.

So we rushed up the stairs and announced, “It’s a sleepover!!”

The girls called their homes and took permission. We were so happy, that we now had ample time to visit our memory lane and share our dreams. We had our cupcakes. Zubiya playfully hit me with a pillow because I made her cancel her cab. Noha followed suit. And it turned into a pillow fight, then long discussions took over on our ambitions and aspirations that eventually made us so tired, and we went to sleep in no time.

The next morning, we parted ways after pancakes for breakfast. There was grief, but also gratitude in our hearts. The reunion had only strengthened our friendship further. And we knew there were more to come.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 9th, 2024