Les Trois Mousquetaires

I couldn’t tell you when they became my people, but at some point, along the way, they did. People always talk about their best friends from university, the ones with whom they do the craziest shit. I’ve spent my whole life looking forward to that, and today it hit me – these are my friends for life right here. This year will end, and we’ll go our separate ways, but what we have will never fade. Even when we’ll be on different continents, the night stars will shine down on our faces, and we’ll know the others are right beside us, dreaming about our next adventure. 

We came to Paris in the fall, and we painted the town redder than it had ever been before. We drunk wine by the Seine, and we supported the crêpe businesses around Châtelet more than any before us. Fontainebleau welcomed us like natives, and away from our native countries and families, we found in a home in each other. 

I met Cameron by the Seine one night, and the energy she had astounded me. At least a dozen au pairs were sitting on the ground around a wooden table, and it had all been arranged by her. I approached her cautiously, matching the photo of her WhatsApp profile picture to her face, edging closer until she saw me. 

‘Are you Ayesha??’ she asked, her face bright and her smile wide.

‘Yeah,’ I replied tentatively. 

She immediately scooched over and poured me a cup of wine. She looked at me with an intensity and excitement that I’d never experienced before. At high school, I had paled in comparison to the popular kids with their knowledge of boys and their witty jokes and their couldn’t care less attitude about studying, but sitting there, next to Cameron, with her bright eyes, I was shining – we all were. I learnt something about myself that night, about all of us au pairs: this year really was going to be the start of our lives. 

I was almost afraid to contact Cameron the next day, unsure if what had happened had been real, but I did, and we met up time and time again after that. We hopped on a train and explored Tours together, she introduced me to thrift shopping for the first time, we read in Shakespeare and Company together. I found in her a friend, a confider, a human-being who sees the light in everyone and everything around her. She loved life, and she made me love it too.

I always say that there are some people who see the world in a special way, a spiritual way. I’d spotted others who feel the gravity of our existence like I do on the metro and in the streets before; it’s as if we can feel the earth tilting and the universe swaying under our feet with every event that passes, but I’d never personally gotten to know a fellow “seer”. Cameron was one. We talked about God and the gods, nature and concrete, heaven and the afterlife. She never judged me, only opened her mind to mine, and that night by the Seine, we flew. 

I met Jessica in November, as the frost began to creep over the ground. We met through Cameron, at her brother, Slate’s house for Thanksgiving dinner – “Friendsgiving” we called it. Jessica was brilliant. She had a genuine laugh that was instantly likeable, a powerful way with words that I admired, and she did not hold back one single bit. I got the feeling that she was the kind of spontaneous person who says yes to virtually anything, and that rang true. I could see why Cameron liked her. 

As I grew to know her, I recognised that she was more complex than I’d initially realised. She was intricate like a puzzle. Her life was a series of individual pieces of different sizes, shapes and forms, working towards a picture, but that picture wasn’t complete yet, and maybe never would be – so she would chase the next piece until she found it. She was dynamic, animated, a classic dystopian heroine. She showed me what life could be about – an endless series of adventures, in which each moment is ‘for the plot’. She gave me hope for living in the light, with no fear and no hesitations, because what’s the point in that? With that in mind, we sprinted across country roads in the dark under the stars. She was crazy in the best way. They both were. We were the main characters in our lives and that was never going to change. 

I don’t where we’re going to end up after this moment. We have plans about our futures but who knows what will happen. But what I do know, is that we’ll decide it. We’ll make the decisions about our lives and no one else. Cameron’s arms around us, as Paris continues to move around us in Châtelet les Halles. I wouldn’t trade our friendship for the world. We’ll come and go through Paris, but the rest of the world, is ours for the taking.