If the title and plot of this story seem familiar, it's intentional! This is a rewriting of Drabble: Reunion in a slightly more prosaic format (~730 words compared to 100) - which should provide more of a grounding for anyone wishing to continue the tale.

Teaser: I stood on the concourse of Arrivals, nervously awaiting the appearance of Jack. I'd been having second thoughts about this reunion ever since I'd arranged it - after all, a lot can happen in five years, and in my case, a lot had happened in the past five years.

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I stood on the concourse of Arrivals, nervously awaiting the appearance of Jack. I'd been having second thoughts about this reunion ever since I'd arranged it - after all, a lot can happen in five years, and in my case, a lot had happened in the past five years.

On the other hand, Jack was probably my closest friend throughout High School, and although our relationship was strictly platonic (we were both teenage lads, and both interested in girls), we were virtually inseparable.

As I stood there waiting, I thought of the events leading up to this point. We'd both met on the first day of High School. Although we'd come from primary schools on the opposite sides of town and were placed in different forms, we noticed in our first lesson that we had a similar class schedule - so naturally stuck together as we learned to navigate the "big school" (or so it seemed at the time! Funny how small and compact it seemed in retrospect when I first arrived at university...) In addition, although both of us were quite tall and lanky, we weren't interested in (or good at) sport. So every break and lunchtime, while the majority of lads migrated onto the field for a kick around, we'd migrate into the library. Then when lessons restarted, we'd carefully walk down the corridors, attempting to avoid as much of the mud being walked in by the others as possible.

Although we studied similar subjects up to GCSE level, our interests had started to diverge. I chose a course of sciences for 'A' level, whereas Jack opted for English Language, English Literature and History. We still remained close at breaks and lunches, and before leaving for our respective universities exchanged email addresses.

We hadn't met since, but had remained in contact via email. At first, our emails were incredibly long, giving blow-by-blow accounts of the first few days in university, but as time went by and our course loads increased, the emails diminished in size and frequency to a couple of paragraphs a week.

Since leaving university, our emails decreased yet again to occasional correspondences every couple of months - with a big gap of about six months about a year ago. Quite frankly, at that point of time I was going through a major upheaval in my life, so tended to stay offline.

Then suddenly a few weeks ago, Jack asked he could come over for a few days - a sort of reunion. Perhaps he'd realised that I'd been deliberately sketchy when recalling what I'd been doing recently. Come to think of it, so had he... I was hesitant at replying, and was in two minds about it, but since we'd been such good friends there was a chance he'd accept me for what I now am - and I was incredibly curious to find out what he'd been up to over the past few years and why he was so cagey about it. So I quickly wrote an acceptance, stating today's date and announcing I'd meet him at the local airport, and pressed "Send" before I changed my mind.

Was it the right decision? Would he accept me? Then again, with his cryptic comment in reply that he'd changed a lot, so don't be too shocked at his appearance, would I accept him? I nearly thought of replying that I'd also changed a lot, but chickened out.

So here I was, standing at arrivals, nervously awaiting the appearance of Jack. Had he gained weight? Gone punk or goth? Joined the armed services (actually, that would be a shock given how timid he was at school!)? As for me, I'd considered wearing jeans and a T-shirt, but felt it would be better in the long run to show the 'true' me rather than hiding it.

Eventually, I saw what appeared to be a familiar face coming down the concourse - but the body and clothes attached to it were completely different to what I'd been expecting! Could it be? Surely fate couldn't have been that improbable? Could it?

"Jack?"
"Chris?"
"Well, I prefer Jackie now. And you?"
"Christine. When?"
"About six months ago."
"Snap!"

In that moment, my anxieties washed away. We both immediately knew why each of us had been so cagey over our recent activities - and that this weekend would involve a lot of catching up - and comparing notes!