“Over here!” I shouted when a familiar short girl entered the cafe. She smiled and made her way over to where I was sitting in the Grande Espresso cafe.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I said,

“Nothing much, I passed by the park with the pond and I didn’t get scared. ” she says, smiling proudly. Rose Kim. My best friend ever since our freshman year of college. Together, we got through our fears and problems.

Flashback to the first day of freshman year

“I’m late to the first day of class.” I thought, shaking my head while running out of the Kalvin Clean outlet. How embarrassing! I quickly shoved all of my bags in the trunk of my WMB sports car and got in the driver's seat. 

When I got to the University of New Yark, I dashed through the hallways to get to my class. On my way to class, I saw this short brown haired girl looking lost. I stopped in my tracks and asked her, “Do you need help?” 

“Yeah, I’m supposed to be in music class, but I don’t know where that is.” she mumbled.

“Oh really? I am too, let’s go together!” I said, excitedly. “What’s your name?”

“Rose. Rose Kim.”

“I’m Harry, nice to meet ya.” I said, smiling. After our introductions, we headed straight to class.

After a while, me and Rose grew closer as friends. I spent my free time practicing my music with her and just hanging out. She is a really bright person. Everyone’s mood shifts when she is around. Never will someone have a bad day with Rose. Everyday we would practice our music for what seems like hours. We helped each other a lot. One day, after practice, we decided to take a walk at Left Park. The weather was perfect for a walk in the park. When we arrived at the park, me and Rose were astonished at the park’s beauty. We have been here many times but we can never get used to the beauty in Left Park’s nature. The trees swayed in the light breeze and the sun shined on the crystal clear pond. As we walked, we got closer and closer to the pond, where the happy ducks went “QUACK!” Suddenly, a duck waddled up to me and Rose, making a loud quack noise. Rose screamed, terrified of the duck and immediately went behind me.

“W-What’s wrong?” I asked, confused at her actions.

“Get it away from me!” she shrieked in fear.

I looked at the duck in front of me, the duck staring back at me intensely. 

“Quack!” the duck went. Rose yelped in fear in response.

“Let’s just go.” I said, dragging Rose away from the situation.

“I’m sorry. I’m scared of birds. Mostly ducks.” she mumbled softly, following right behind me to the car.

“You’re scared of ducks?” 

She nodded in reply, tears rolling down her cheeks. “When I was little, I got attacked by a duck while I was playing with my brother at the park.” 

When we reached the car, she started sobbing so much. It was like Niagra Falls coming out of her eyes. So. Much. Water.  I patted her back, trying to comfort her. After a while, she calmed down and we made our way to our next stop: the shopping mall.

We walked into the mall, people were scattered everywhere. I looked at all the shops in awe. 

“Let’s go to this shop!” I said, excitedly, pulling Rose along with me.  I walked in the Zucci store, eyeing everything they have in the store. 

“It’s so expensive here!” Rose exclaimed, taking one of the shirts and looking at the price tag. 

“It’s not that expensive, I shop here all the time!” I took one of the shirts on the rack and examined it carefully. “Choose something you like.”

Rose looked at everything in the store and said, “I want it all, everything is so nice.”

“Okay.” I said, unbothered of the price it would be. I walked around the store, taking everything off the shelves, placing it into Rose’s arms. 

“Wait! I’m not being serious, I’m just playing!” Rose said, shocked.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” 

After a while, I had a huge pile of clothes, shoes, and accessories in both mine and Rose’s arms. She helped me carry it to the counter, where the cashier was shocked at the amount of items I had. As every item was scanned, the price went up and up, higher than the debt the U.S. owes to other countries. The total came out to be $250,000.25. Rose looked at me astonished, as I swiped my card. After gathering all of our items, we left the Zucci store.

“Oh! Let’s go to that one next!” I said, pointing at the Versachae store. I started to make my way over to the store when suddenly, a small but strong force pulled me in the opposite direction, to the exit of the mall. 

“No more shopping! You’ve spent too much money already!” Rose said, dragging me outside towards the car. When we reached the car, she quickly shoved all of my bags in the trunk and pushed me inside the car. Once we were both inside, Rose turned to me and asked,

“Why did you spend so much money?” 

I glanced at her and sighed. 

“I have an addiction. An addiction to shopping.”

Rose tilted her head, confusion written all over her face. “What? How? Why?”

I shrugged, looking away from her.

“I don’t really quite know. When I was young, my mother left me in a shopping mall all by myself. I walked around and bought tons of stuff with the money I had.”

When I finally gathered up the courage to look at Rose in the eyes again, she looked as if she was thinking deeply. 

 “We could help each other.” she mumbles, looking down.

“What did you say?” I turned my head in her direction, trying to hear what she said.

“We could help each other. You’re addicted to shopping and I’m afraid of ducks so, I could help you with your addiction and you could help me get over my fear.”

I stared at her, quietly thinking about what she said.

“ Okay.” I said softly. 

The next day, we met at Grande Espresso to talk about how we were going to help each other solve Rose’s fear and my addiction. 

“I have an idea” Rose shouted, all of a sudden. The cafe went silent, everyone turning to look at her. Her face was red as a tomato. 

She quietly repeated, “ I have an idea.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“ You probably won’t like this, but we can deactivate your cards.”

“ What? Are you crazy? No, I am not doing that.”

“ It will help you stop spending your money impulsively.”

We sat there staring at each other in silence. 

“ Fine, I'll do it.” I said

“ Great! Call the bank right now.” Rose exclaimed.

“Right now? It’s too early, they probably aren't open yet.” 

“ Harry! It's four in the afternoon.”

“ Okay, okay.” 

After calling the bank, we were thinking of ways to help Rose get over her fear. 

“Let’s go to the park.” I said

“ NO! The last time we went there I left crying.” Rose said, clearly upset.

“True, what about the zoo? All the animals are locked up there.”

“Fine.”

We went to the zoo and Rose was fine at first. Then we reached the birds section. When I looked over at her I could tell she was nervous. We got to the first bird and Rose just stood there, in shock. I asked her if she was okay, but she just stood there. I waved my hand in front of her and she immediately went behind me, hiding away from the bird. 

“It looks angry, what if it attacks me?” she whispered.

“It’s locked up, I don’t think it will attack you.” I said, pulling her in front of me to see the bird.

“It’s not gonna hurt you. Just look at it. So small and fragile. It wouldn’t dare to hurt you Rose.” 

Rose’s face softens after she hears my words.

“You’re right. The bird is very small, it wouldn’t hurt me, right?”

I nodded my head and walked on to the next cages, Rose trailing behind me. The next animal was Rose’s greatest fear: a duck. In this section, you could have a hands on experience with some of the animals so I decided that she should go and touch a duck.

“Come on, let's pet the ducks.” I said cheerfully.

“Wait, what? No, no, no!” Rose started to walk back but I quickly pulled her away towards the ducks. I held a small yellow duck in my hands and showed it to her.

“Look! It’s adorable.” 

Rose looked at the animal, fear visible in her eyes. I gently grabbed her hand, cautiously and slowly pulling it towards the duck. Her hand shakes like an earthquake as it gets closer and closer to the duck. Rose closed her eyes, like she was expecting something bad to happen. But nothing happened to her. 

“It feels like.. a pillow.” Rose said, her voice softening after touching the small duck. She continued to pet the duck without my help.

“Here. Carry the duck.” 

She took the duck into her hands and said, 

“So cute. How was I so afraid of something so fragile and adorable?” 

I laughed at her.

“Are you still scared?” 

She shook her head. 

“I don’t think so. My heart isn’t racing as if I was running a marathon and my hands aren’t trembling as bad as it was before when I would see a duck.”

I sighed and smiled in relief. 

“See? It wasn’t that hard to get over your fear.”

She laughed and placed the duck down back in its home. The duck scurried to its home, hiding away from all the eyes on it. 

The next day me and Rose met at Grande Espresso.

“How long should I go without my cards?” I asked.

“You could go a month without your cards.” Rose suggested.

“I need a little money for food, gas, and other necessities.” I said

She nodded and said, 

“We should go to the mall. We can see if we can hold you back from buying so much stuff.”

We went to the mall, walked around, went into stores, and talked. After a while, we got something to eat and sat down.  

“ You know I think not having money to spend helped me. Now I need to go to the mall with money and not spend so much.” I said

“ Actually, you do have money, one of your cards is still activated.” Rose said

“ Really?”

“ Yeah! To not spend so much, just think about what you need or distract yourself.”

I smiled, proud of myself.

We finished eating and left the mall to go back home. 

Present

“You didn’t get scared of the ducks?” I said, taking a sip of my drink.

“Nope!” Rose says proudly.

I clapped my hands and smiled at her. She laughed and bowed.

“Harry, did you buy anything you didn’t need or lots of things?” 

“Nope! I went to the stores and only bought a jacket that I needed, since it’s a bit fresh outside.”

Rose smiled widely and clapped for me this time. 

“Thanks a lot Rose.” I said

She tilted her head in confusion.

“For what?”

“For helping me with my problem. I probably would have been broke if I continued shopping for things I didn’t need and loads of things.”

She smiled softly.

“Thank you for helping me get over my fear of birds. I appreciate all the things you have done for me.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s what friends would do for each other.”