“You kept it? After all these years?” Elodie gasped.

The messy, childish drawings were kept neatly in her friend’s dresser. The staples that kept them together in a picture book were still intact.

Penelope nodded. “It was the first handmade gift I’d ever received. I didn’t have the heart to get rid of something that was made with love, even if you weren’t the greatest artist back then.”

The scribbles of green for the grass, the yellow circle in the corner for the sun, the black stick figures for the people in the short story. The rainbow words narrated what happened in these pictures, telling the story of two friends having a play date.

Penelope grinned. “I’ve kept many more things than that.”

She pointed a finger upwards. The blue ceiling was adorned with origami hearts organized in rainbow order. Elodie stared in awe.

“I made those for Valentine’s Day in fifth grade,” Elodie said.

Penelope nodded.

“Why have you kept all these things? Especially after we…” Elodie paused, gathering herself, “after we fell out.”

Penelope sensed the sadness gathering in Elodie’s soul. The fallen bridge between them had only just begun its reconstruction. Recollections of past actions remained in their minds, like stubborn rubble. The heated arguments replayed every so often like a broken record.

“Because what we had was wonderful…” Penelope whispered, smiling wistfully, as if being whisked away back to the years of their undeniable bond.

“You truly believe that?” Eloise doubted. A lump forms in her throat.

“I have never lied to you, Ellie. And I am not lying to you now.”

Silence followed. The comfortable kind that settled inbetween the shelves of a library.

The kind that brought people closer.