I was trying to mix up a shade of light ivory for my elephant painting  when my phone rang.

"Hello?" I sandwiched the device between my neck and my shoulder as I dabbed only a small bit of white into the paint and sighed when I realised the combination had turned bright cloud white instead of what I was going for.  

"Oh! Clara? Can you come over? I gotta talk to you about something." Zoe's voice was trembly on the other line and I immediately untied my painting smock, crossing the room to where my messenger bag hung from a peg in the room.

"Is everything okay? Are you okay?" I threw the bag onto the couch and started up the stairs.

"Nothing...but just come over okay?" Zoe's voice was clipped and tight and I mentally prepared myself for dealing with her.

"Okay. I'll come over in 30. Bye." I tapped the end button and put my phone back down on the table. Rushing upstairs I glanced in the mirror. My hair hung loose around my shoulders, turning more and more tangled and frizzy the closer it got to the top of my head while my Pooh bear pajamas were crumpled and hung loosely off me. Gosh, I looked a mess. A nerdy, geeky mess. And Davie saw that. I shuddered and hopped into the shower, taking the quickest wash of my life before I pulled on a white knitted sweater and some jean shorts.

My parents were out on some business trip and they had been gone since early morning already which left me in full ownership of our small red Porsche. I tossed the keys in my hand, locked the front door and made my way to my father's baby, sliding myself into the driver's seat. With a mighty purr, the car was off.

I pulled the car to a stop outside Zoe's apartment building, a clean concrete building with shiny windows and a dapper doorman that gestured me in. I rode the elevator up to the 12th floor which was where Zoe lived and knocked on her door: 1202. The door opened wide and Zoe was there, pulling on her Darth Vader sweatshirt.

"Come on in." She did a sweeping gesture and I stepped into the apartment. Unlike the clean, simple and basic architecture of the building her apartment was cluttered and messy. Her parents didn't really care about the mess much but you could see that she had put an effort into cleaning, rubbing cloths over tabletops and gathering piles of stuff in big cardboard boxes to bring to the store room.

"So? What's the problem?" I asked, heading for her room and stepping inside. Her bedspread was in a floral pattern, her collection of makeup arranged neatly on the dresser and her books stacked in tidy piles around the room.  Not a speck of dust was to be seen and I smiled a bit at that.  Forever the perfectionist.

"I've got something to tell you." I noticed that she'd stopped in the middle of the room and was fidgeting with her hands. I nodded encouragingly and braced myself for the problem.  

"I'm moving." She blurted out, sinking down onto her bed and covering her face in her hands

"WHAT? When?" I was panicking, my body paralysed in shock. My only friend. The best friend that I had was moving? Why was my life such a dump? Who would I make memories with now? Who would be there to see all of my problems through with me?  The questions made their way around my mind, only stopping occasionally to allow my eyes to well up.

"In like a few more months. Probably by the end of this school year or something?" She chewed her lip as tears gathered in her eyes.

"Okay, so there's time...where...where are you moving to?" I was disturbingly calm for some reason. Too calm. I was probably going to burst into tears any moment now, the tears threatening to spill from my eyes.

"I dunno...Canada? I just started to push away the fact that I still had to move so I really didn't listen. I can ask my parents. I did try to convince them to stay but they wanted to go so..."

"You can't stop them." I finished and she shook her head sadly. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "It'll be okay. We will still be able to talk and maybe I'll go visit or something. We still have time, Zoe."

She'd been with me ever since middle school, when I was some girl still trying to cope with the fact that my parents didn't and wouldn't care for me and my brother, and that the responsibility would all fall down onto my shoulders. She was there for me when I cried and lamented to her about how hard it was to keep my life from spiralling out of control. At the mere age of 12 I was already managing the money in the house, the food and teaching my brother the most I could on my limited knowledge. Without her my life would be hell, and it still is, no matter how old I grew up. She was my lifeline and even though I was upset, I'm sure she was too.  We had stuck together for a long time.  When she had gotten into drunken bar fights I had been the one to pick her up. And when I was crying alone on the bathroom floor she had been the one who put me to bed.

Who would be there for me now? Who would be there for her?

I was pulled out of my thoughts as Zoe brightened up, pacing towards the direction of her desk with her attitude already changing as quickly as she usually tends to do.  The more upset she was, the faster her mood changed.  "I have a list of dares for you to do before I go. It'll be awesome!"

"Sure. What are they?" I stood up, humouring her. I'm pretty sure she meant a bucket list but who's to judge her choice of words?

"Here." Zoe handed me a piece of paper stiff with colour. I unfolded it and scanned down the list. Oh god. Oh jumping cookies. SAVE ME!

"NO WAY ZOE. ARE YOU CRAZY?" This was evil maniac stuff. No way was I doing it. I'm not one for over the top dares.

"C'mon Clara! I mean it's a win win situation! I get to see my best friend move on and you get....well...pure awesomeness!" Zoe whined bouncing on the bed.

"Move on? Move on from what?"

"From me. Once I'm gone, you'll have friends and a bunch of adventures to tell them...It's going to be very cool!"

"Stop saying it's cool or awesome. It's not. I'm not doing it!" Zoe was obviously fed up by my ranting because she was applying a silver glittery polish to her nails, glancing up occasionally to give me a pleading stare. I could see she was still unsettled by telling me the news and that by putting on a brave face she was actually shying away from her problems.

"You are." She said quite matter of factly, blowing on the laquer.

"But-"

"No buts. I'm leaving. So you might as well help yourself and make me happy." She replied back, raising her eyebrows. At least she wasn't crying.

"I'll do all the other dares except the first one, which I'm not going to try." I scanned the list. They were daring for me but it was okay. I'll try my best, after all, my partner in crime was leaving.

I gave an unsteady smile, reaching over to hug Zoe and with her, all of my good memories.