One

“I still don’t like this, it feels like I’m using you,” Mila mumbled with a frown on her face as she put some of the groceries in the fridge.

“Can you please stop fussing about it?” Emma rolled her eyes at her best friend, gathering her long dark brown hair in her hands and wrapping a hair tie around it. “Just because you don't pay rent it doesn’t mean you’re using me. My parents got me this apartment, so I won’t charge you for rent. It’s not like I’m paying less than you. They bought it, not me, so if you want to think about it this way, then we are both using them. You pay half of everything, you seriously need to chill.”

Emma and Mila had been best friends since elementary school, and despite how different they were from each other, their differences were never the cause of a fight between them. In fact, they barely fought. A lot of people envied them for the kind of friendship they had. It was the friendship you’d kill for, the friendship that completes you.

Everything about the two girls was different, even the way they looked like. While Mila had light brown hair with brown eyes and her skin was tanned a bit, Emma was pale with blue eyes and dark brown hair. Just by looking at their faces, anybody could tell that Mila had a strong character. Her eyes screamed with determination to achieve her goal in life which was to be a successful journalist. She was the extroverted one in the friendship, the one who would usually do the talking if her best friend was reluctant.

Unlike Mila, Emma was a little shy, which made people usually mistake her at first as an introvert. She had always felt more confident and comfortable when she was around Mila because she knew quite well that her best friend would have her back if anything happened. After all, the beginning of their friendship was Mila defending Emma when she saw a guy trying to forcefully take her Twinkies.

Ever since they were seven years old they had become inseparable. They did everything together and what made everything better was the fact that they were neighbours. They lived across the street from each other, which was enough to strengthen their friendship as there was basically no distance to separate them.

Emma’s family was wealthy that people usually mistook Emma as the spoilt brat; however, she was never arrogant and she had never shown off the privileges she had in her life. Mila’s family was not poor and was not rich; they were average but that did not make her jealous of her best friend. Mila was quite content and satisfied with her life.

“Fine, Em,” Mila said in defeat. “I need to leave now, my shift starts in forty minutes.”

Mila was able to get a job at a huge library in Seattle, so it paid her well and she already had a good amount of savings in her bank account which made her not worried about money. She knew that if she needed anything she could contact her parents, but she wanted to be independent, she wanted to build her success by herself.

“I don’t know if I should get a job or not, I want to feel like I’m doing something for myself, but at the same time, I’m scared that it might affect my studies,” Emma mumbled, letting out a heavy sigh.

“You can give it a try, Em. Work for one month and see if it will affect your studies or not,” Mila suggested.

“I will think about it, see you later,” Emma said smiling and waved goodbye to her friend.

When Mila left, Emma started to think about getting a job, but what Mila did not know was that Emma’s parents did not want her to work. She did not want to tell her best friend something like that as she was scared that Mila might think low of her. Although part of her knew Mila would never do that, a voice inside of her kept telling her that a strong person like her best friend would definitely think lowly of a dependent one like her.

Emma did not know that she was totally wrong and Mila would never judge her for something like that. Mila was quite aware of how Emma’s parents were very concerned with her studies and made her study business, so she would take over the company later. They did not care that their daughter had always dreamt of being an interior designer and when she thought about confronting them about what she wanted for her future, they crushed her dreams before her eyes. They wanted her to bear the consequences of her brother’s mistakes, not thinking about what the girl wanted to do with her life.