Ⅰ日友

Lunch break. I was walking down the street from my office to my usual haunt, when this guy around my age approached me.

“Yo, long time no see, brother!” He waved and patted my shoulder.

“…Who are you?” I surveyed his appearance for a moment. Messy dyed blonde hair, a worn-out leather jacket, with a peace symbol emblem hanging around his neck. Nope, I never met anyone like this before.

“Dude, you don’t remember? I’m Jack! We were best friends back in high school, man!” He took a step backwards, and spread his arms wide. “Come on, we must do our secret handshake!”

I don’t remember having a high school friend, let alone a best friend, with a “secret handshake”. But then again, I forget a lot of things from my adolescent years. Heck, I don’t even remember who my homeroom teacher was back in high school.

Thinking that it must be my failing memory, I went ahead and did the secret handshake thing. First, we hugged each other, then we grabbed each other’s hands and did some complex thumb twidding thing. Seriously, I did this sort of things in high school?

“Man, you are really rusted,” Jack said, while wearing a wide grin, “I can’t believe you forgot our secret handshake, really.”

“Sorry,” I apologized hastily, “You do know it has been years since we graduated from Watershed High, right?”

At least I can remember the name of my high school. Heh.

Jack looked away and mused, “Yeah, come to think of it, it has been twelve, thirteen years already, no?”

“Seventeen.” I corrected him.

“Right, seventeen.”

Jack thought for a while, then looked at me and suggested, “Hey, since it’s destiny that brought us together again, we should keep in contact, right?”

I nodded, and he continued, “I think that we should totally trade phone numbers, eh? Wait a minute, I’ll give you my number..”

He stuck his hand in his jacket pocket and took out a small notebook and a pen. He scribbled a number on it, and tore the page off. Putting away the notebook and pen, he handed me the notepaper.

“Uh, I don’t really have paper with me right now…” I started, but Jack interrupted me.

“It’s alright! You can tell me straight away man,” he laughed, “I have a better memory than you, at least.”

And so I told him my phone number.

After confirming the number, Jack looked at his watch. “Alright, I gotta rush now, keep in touch!” He then dashed off in the opposite direction.

Continuing on my journey to the fast food restaurant, I was thinking about Jack, and what a great coincidence that brought us together.

After placing my order at the counter, I was about to pay when I found my wallet missing.