1 1. World's apart

3J restaurant...

"Hello, you're welcome to 3J restaurant. May I have your orders, please?" The waitress beamed and welcomed the two ladies as they made themselves comfortable at one corner of the restaurant, their usual spot, near the floor-to-ceiling glass wall that gave a view of the bright, busy midday world.

"Okay, I'll have chicken sandwich and orange juice, please", Janet said, her eyes still glued to the menu in her hand.

"Mushroom risotto for me, please", Miriam ordered. "And cranberry juice" She added and the waitress left immediately.

"Don't you get tired of that?" Janet said, finally lifting her head from the menu. She was trying to check on the other dishes to know which one to try the next time they visited the restaurant. "You order that almost every time. Don't you want to try something else?" She asked Miriam, who was reading a novel at hand. 'Bookworm', she sighed inwardly.

"Then how would you know that's my favourite? That's why we choose a favourite. I don't get tired of eating it. I can have it for breakfast, lunch, supper, snack, whatever" Miriam shrugged without lifting her head. "Plus this is the only restaurant here that makes it better apart from myself, so..."

"Tsk, tsk, so conceited. And must you read everywhere?" Janet asked with a frown when she realised she wouldn't even look up.

Miriam sighed and rolled those big, attractive eyes of hers and looked up.

"I have to finish reading and return it to the library on our way back. You know I couldn't finish it because of the project I had to do." Janet opened her mouth to say something but Miriam beat her to it."Don't worry, just a few pages to go. I'm on the last chapter." she said with smile, gesturing with one hand for Janet to calm down.

Janet sighed defeatedly. She knew nothing she said right now would change anything. How did she even choose a bookworm as a friend in the first place?

"Here's your order, please. Enjoy your meal." the waitress came with a trolley containing their food and arranged it on the table. She bowed slightly and left. The two best friends enjoyed their meal, talking about random stuff and laughing along their jokes.

----

Miriam Hammond and Janet Hamilton were inseparable. They were worlds apart in terms of social class, but they vibed in so many ways. Janet was from a rich family, a lone child who didn't know the use of money and spent anyhow just because she had the money to spend. Well, in Miriam's case, she was from a middle class family, who had a strict budget to follow everyday.

Unlike Janet, whose parents were making it big in the business world, Miriam's mom was a cook in one of the mansions in the estates. Her father also worked at the packaging unit in a beverage company. Both their jobs weren't very high-fetching, but they were able to cater for the whole family's needs, making sure both Miriam and her kid brother never lacked basic necessities in life, especially when it came to their education.

Miriam was two years older than Lordy, but he had outgrown her, was about 5.9 inches taller than Miriam, who was about 5.6 inches, and his smartness and eagerness to make his family proud had made him seem older than Miriam. He had the notion that he was the man of the house, and he was supposed to take care of them. He was very protective of his family, especially his elder sister.

Miriam and Lordy were two years apart in education as well. During Lordy's final year at high school, he decided to compromise and wait till her sister completed university since the financial strength of the family to cater for the both of them was very weak. Miriam was getting to her second year by then. Lordy decided to wait after completion of high school till her sister was done with university, and promised to do part-time jobs to earn money on that regard.

However, after high school, Lordy blew up with tremendous results which earned him a full-time scholarship to study in the university. He had no hard time gaining admission to study Art Education and minor in photography, as he was fond of art and painting.

Miriam was studying Food and Hospitality, as she was planning to open a restaurant or hotel and manage it with her mum, and probably put her father in charge of something. She really loved cooking, just like her mom, and didn't like eating out, but that changed when she met Janet at the university. She was the outing type and had convinced Miriam on so many occasions to eat out with her.

Miriam's life was quite boring. It was just reading, cooking, listening to music, and nothing else. She didn't even like watching movies. Tsk! Such a bore, Janet would usually say whenever she refused to go out or watch a movie with her.

"This is just the same as watching a movie. The story is amazing," Miriam would usually say to refute Janet's taunts. To her, movie directors base on stories like what she read to shoot movies. But they had come to understand each other.

Miriam would always try her hands on a new recipe she comes up with, and Janet would try it out and tell her what she thinks about it. Miriam was putting together some recipes which she planned on using in her restaurant once it came to reality. When she got a thumbs up from Janet, she would then invite some course mates, neighbours or friends to try it too, just to be sure Janet wasn't just exaggerating. She would always go overboard with her praises, at least that was what she thought. She used to do same to her mother and she was being given the same treatment. She now understood why her mother would always tell her to stop exaggerating when she actually meant what she said. Janet would then convinced her into watching some movies after that. They both enjoyed each other's company.

----

They left the restaurant soon enough and headed back to their apartment. It was a small two-bedroom house, each having its own washroom, with a single kitchen and a living room. They both agreed on renting it since they got to know they would be in the same university. They had attended the same basic school, different high schools, and now they got the same university. Even in different high schools, they got in touch with each other regularly. They had been friends for that long.

Miriam's simple lifestyle had had an impact on Janet, as she wasn't living her life as a spoilt rich heiress anymore. She had minimized the way she spent money and was now somewhat responsible as compared to how she used to be. If not for the fact that Miriam did not want to be a burden to her and not let Janet buy all her stuffs like she always wanted to, she would have been living a smooth life too. But Miriam did not want to be treated as a charity case. She didn't want to become dependent on anyone, for anyone to look down on her because they helped her one way or the other. Which is why she applied for a job at one of the restaurants nearby as an assistant to a line cook. She was the prep cook for her immediate boss, the line cook. And so she took it upon herself to provide groceries for both of them.

Janet had no option than to comply, although she thought it wasn't necessary. With the money she got from the job, Miriam managed to buy kitchen equipment and utensils which helped her in her trials at home.

...

"I have to return the book. Let's go together. I promise I won't take long." Miriam beckoned Janet as they sauntered across the street.

Janet mock-glared at her and rolled her eyes. "Like it's the truth." she murmured.

"Seriously. I'll just return it." Miriam said with her gaze fix on Janet. "I won't borrow any book today. You will have me all by yourself today." she said the last part with a broad smile as she bumped her shoulder on hers lightly and winked at her.

"It better be the truth or I'll just drag you out and..." She was interrupted by her phone ringing. She scrummed through her bag and fetched it.

"Hello...Irene? Yes...Oh, too bad... um, don't worry, I'll be on my way now... yes... bye." she ended the called and turned to look at Miriam. Before she could even speak...

"Irene? Is she Okay? What wrong? What happened?" Miriam started bombarding her with unending questions with a worried countenance. Irene was their neighbour, and she wondered what was wrong with her.

"Hey, easy." Janet said and chuckled. She didn't know why Miriam had to be worried when she didn't even know what they had talked about. "She just lost her key. And she gave me a spare one some time ago to keep it safe for her. Looks like she knew she would misplace one someday." Janet explained and smiled.

"I won't be able to go with you to the library. I'm so sorry I have to..."

"It's okay go ahead." Miriam interjected her. "Poor Irene, she must have been waiting for a long time. Don't worry I'll be fine. I'll just return it and I'll be back before you know it."

She patted her shoulder lightly and saw her run off to her car.

Well yes, Janet had a car. But they were in faculties which took directly different routes. So Miriam always took a taxi for lectures while Janet drove in her car for hers. Janet wasn't really comfortable at first, but after much coaxing from Miriam, she gave up the idea of dropping her everyday before going back for her own lectures. Not before making a condition that she would pick her up whenever she closed before her, or when she wanted them to eat or watch movies outside. Miriam had to agree when it looked like Janet wasn't ready to take no for an answer.

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Hello, lovely readers. Thank you so much for stopping by and welcome to my first work. Please add this to your library and don't forget to vote, comment and leave a review. Please pardon me for unnecessary mistakes and grammatical errors, as this is my first time writing, but don't hesitate to point out any mistakes and errors. I would love to know how well or how bad I'm doing. So please, try as much as possible to leave a comment or a review. Thanks a lot and happy reading! Lots of love!!

Juu