I knew from my best friend’s right eyebrow that something was wrong. You know how that is? How you can know a person’s face so well that a brow scrunch is a bullhorn to your soul? We need to talk, Alison’s was saying, and I slid into high alert, ready to slay childhood demons or smack-talk her enemies or grapple with the generational trauma of low-rise jeans making a comeback.
“You okay?” I asked. It was a dumb question. When was the last time anyone on planet Earth had really been okay? Fifteen months of the pandemic had tucked us so deeply inside our own heads that just leaving our apartments meant slipping into a waking dream. Everything looked familiar but also eerily different: storefronts taped up, sidewalks empty, public gathering spaces sealed from use. Behind us in Prospect Park, Brooklyn kids played baseball because everyone was trying to pretend things were getting back to normal. Behind them, parents sat masked on the sidelines because nothing was. Alison and I stood a baby hippo’s distance apart because that was what you did that summer when you really loved someone. You gave her space.
“I think we are moving,” she said.
I nodded. My go-to when I’m caught off guard is to pretend I've already gotten the entire itinerary for life. But my gut sank. Alison and I had lived six blocks away for 12 years and six subway stops away for the 10 years before that. That's 22 years of navigating bad bosses, life choices, weird Pap smears, and possible haircuts. Twenty-two years of grabbing minutes here and hours there, of bumping into each other by accident and running for each other when things got bad. Moving sounded bad. Moving sounded like at least 10 subway stops.
“To North Carolina,” she added.
This story is from the November 2022 edition of Harper's BAZAAR - US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 2022 edition of Harper's BAZAAR - US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
A League of Their Own
Emma Corrin, breakout star of The Crown, is Marvel’s newest supervillain. But they are so much more than Deadpool’s latest adversary. They are utterly, completely themselves.
Musicians RHIANNON GIDDENS and BRITTNEY SPENCER on COUNTRY music's BLACK HISTORY and why the genre is at a TURNING POINT
Country music's popularity is at an all-time high in America, with the genre boasting a more diverse audience base than ever before.
BEAUTY
THE BEACH, BOTTLED
TRIBUTE
FAITH RINGGOLD'S ART of LIBERATION
I Love MESS!
In praise of DESIGN that more HONESTLY REFLECTS our COMPLICATED, CHAOTIC, VERY REAL LIVES
My FATHER the SUPERHERO
DASHA NAVALNAYA, the daughter of the late POLITICAL ACTIVIST ALEXEY NAVALNY, on how he dedicated his LIFE to ENDING INJUSTICE in his native RUSSIA—and still always made TIME for HER
BREAKING New GROUND
A DANCE forged at the dawn of HIP-HOP will make its debut this summer at the 2024 OLYMPICS in PARIS. As TEAM USA dancers SUNNY CHOI and VICTOR MONTALVO prepare to take the Games by storm, BREAKING'S PIONEERS recall who and what brought them to this MOMENT.
Main SQUEEZE
CINCHED WAISTS are all over the runways, but the silhouette is less about cutting an HOURGLASS FIGURE (and appealing to the male gaze) than FEELING a sense of POWER and CONTROL
The DYSON Dynasty
How a British VACUUM CLEANER company has almost single-handedly TRANSFORMED the way we DRY our HAIR and become one of the BIGGEST, HOTTEST LUXURY BRANDS in beauty
WONDER Years
For four decades, MARC JACOBS has made fashion that is PERSONAL, URGENT, and ERA-DEFINING. \"Once I knew what I LOVED,\" he says, \"I just COULDN'T GET ENOUGH of IT.\"
