Snaking her arm through the crook of my elbow as if we were two members of the gang from The Wizard of Oz, prancing down the yellow brick road, she offered to show me to my next class.

But she didn’t stop there. She helped me find the rest of my classes that day.

And the next day we sat together at lunch in the school quad.

After that, we were inseparable.

It was like we’d met at the perfect moment. She was in need of a new friend, and I was in need of any friend.

But Millie wasn’t just any friend. She was different from any person I’d ever met. I’d felt so lucky to have found her the way I did.

At least, I thought so then. Now, I’m not so sure.

It seems weird to describe Millie as my best friend. From the get-go, she was so much more than that to me. Sometimes we joked that we were more like sisters. Soul sisters. But even that phrase doesn’t do our relationship justice.

Our friendship was intense and all-consuming from the beginning. The connection we felt to each other was strong. The first few times we had sleepovers, we played this game late at night, when everyone was asleep and the sky was pitch-black, dotted with shimmering stars. One of us would draw an image on the other one’s back and that person would try to guess what it was. It was a game of focus. Of shutting everything else out. In order to guess correctly, I had to home in to every curve of her fingertip, every angle, every motion, every push and pull.

It was simply me and her. Our fingertips. Our breaths. Our beating hearts.

Nothing else.

Millie was good at the game. Much better than I was. Then again, I’d never claimed to be an artist.

The first time we played, I’d been so nervous. Mostly because I thought I’d have to pull up my shirt and she’d see my fat rolls. Millie was thin. I was afraid she’d make fun of me the way my former friends sometimes did. I didn’t know her well enough then to know she’d never do that.

But, lucky for me, we drew over each other’s shirts. No skin required. I can’t tell you how relieved I was.

That night I drew simple, easy things—a sun, a tree, the wavy cresting lines of the ocean. Millie drew a cloud, a rope, a woman drowning. I didn’t get close to guessing the last one.

That was the first inkling I had that there was more to Millie. There was a darkness in her.

At the time I had no idea how deep it went.