TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE
It was easy to dump my best friend. Because, really, she wasn’t my best friend anymore. We had grown apart. Each walking different halls at school with different girls. Maybe I shouldn’t have done it on Facebook, but I liked that I didn’t have to tell her in person.
I also liked the kudos I got from my other friends. My new friends. The cool ones.
It was easy to text her all the things I wanted back. My CD’s. My blue tank top and matching shorts she borrowed when she spilled her malt and needed something to wear to the movies that night. The newest book in the trilogy we were both reading.
When she stood on my porch with a box, I made my sister answer the door so I didn’t have to talk to her. She was just too lame for words.
Her t-shirt was rumpled and her hair was tied back in two low pig tails. Totally yesterday and not at all in. I hid behind the door where she wouldn’t see me, hoping she would beg. Just a little. It would definitely earn me points with my new bestie, who stood beside me, snickering softly into her hand.
Instead, she straightened her shoulders and turned away. My stomach hurt until the party that night. Guys, games and a dark room. Did I mention these were the cool kids?
It was easy to fit in with my new crowd. I learned that we were just better than everyone else. We might talk about the same things, worry about the same things and laugh at all the same jokes, but we ruled the school. No one could touch us. We didn’t want them to.
It was easy to forget she taught me to smile when everyone else laughed at my messed up teeth. It was easy to forget that she dried my tears when I was the punchline in the cool kids’ jokes. It was easy to forget I ever thought she was special.
All I saw now was how she laughed too loud, flirted too much and didn’t care what anyone thought about her. A-nnoy-ing.
It wasn’t easy to pull the box out from under my bed. There was more in it than I thought. Matching t-shirts we made on a hot summer day. Home-made fairies in dresses of blue. My favorite color. And pictures. So many pictures. Of us swimming, fishing, hiking, laughing, making faces, hugging…
It was easy to blame her for our break up. If only she had cared just a little, tried a bit harder, then she could have joined the cool crowd like me.
And I wouldn’t be crying in my room all alone.
Words from the Woods 
Very poignant. I see this happen at school far too often. Growing up is never easy.
Nicely written 🙂
Jemi, you are a saint to watch exchanges like this take place everyday. It hurts my heart so much that I cried as I wrote it. Middle school friendship is a place I’m glad I have long passed. However, as I tell my daughter, if you can survive middle school, you can survive anything life throws at you.
Wow, this character sounds like a B$*#. Very nice job capturing that highschool-ish mindset.
I hope the friend she leaves behind has some super secret eye-laser power or something. I bet the girl would think twice about ditching a friend with eye-lasers! I would 😛
Void, sorry to say she’s probably just your typical middle/high school girl. They can be very mean to each other.
I like the eye-laser idea. If I could, I would buy my daughter a pair for her next birthday! Oh wait, you just gave me a great idea…
Thanks!
Very effective at expressing the girl’s feelings. Even though my high school years were a long, long time ago, I remember when this kind of angst ruled our lives. I would not want to relive those years!
Patricia,
I agree. The turmoil they face is not something worth repeating.
Some things never change, eh?
Thanks for your kind comment, Cate.
True that. And I reserve kind comments for those who deserve them.
Thanks for stopping in and for sharing your own writing with others. You’re an inpsiring part of the AQ community.
Makes me not like the narrator that much…obviously shallow and self-centered. I don’t pity her at all.
However I do see how this stuff happens…and usually after a time there is a reconciliation, when things that seemed important at the time are now meaningless.
I have no pity either. We females can be very cruel when we’re trying to claw our way through middle school. It’s pretty cut-throat. I hope any young teen going through the other end of the heart ache can see that the loss is not their’s, but rather it is the girl’s who does the dumping.
I hope they learn to stand tall, square their shoulders and walk away like the dumpee.
Man Cate, I remember those days where it all felt like the end of the world. They were rough sometimes. Took me right back to that time. Nice short story.
Hi Lisa.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I think those days were the end of the world. Or at least our innocence in friendships. Times like those really prep one for real life. If we can endure the broken hearts of “best” friends, we can persevere through almost anything!