1'Best Friends'
Renee and I had been friends since grade five. We only became close friends later. I had always been bullied badly before, so that was my first happy friendship. I stuck to Renee all the time, calling her everyday and even gave her poems that I wrote about her. I wanted Renee to like me as much as I like her. We were very close.
One day, while we were walking up the stairs in school, I asked her, "Renee, we are best friends right?"
She looked down at me with her large brown eyes, frowning.
"No," she said coldly, "I never say that we can be best friends."
Then, she continued to walk up the stairs herself. My heart felt as though someone had pinched it hard. What she had said really hurt me, but I just pretended that nothing had happened. Inside, I was crying.
I kept asking myself, why didn't Renee wanted me as her best friend? Then, I arrived at the conclusion that maybe our friendship just wasn't that important to her. After all, Renee was popular in school while I was the weird, silent girl who wore glasses. Maybe I wasn't good enough to be her best friend.
Still, I called her that day. Calling her had become a routine, it would feel weird if I didn't.
Soon, Renee began to hang out with another girl in school. During weekends, they would go out to have fun, and I felt left out.
I became frustrated with myself. I no longer wanted to wear glasses or be serious. I wanted to become like Renee. So I began to wear contact lenses and tried to be friendly with other people. But, it just wouldn't work for me. I found it hard to talk to other people easily.
When Renee got her first boyfriend, we became close again. Now she had so much to confide in me. I was always there when she was feeling upset. I thought that this was a good opportunity for me to show her that I really care about her.
For a while, our friendship was all right, but deep inside my heart, I knew that Renee would never value me as her friend.
At last, our fragile friendship was shattered when Renee's boyfriend broke up with her.
She came to school one day with swollen eyes, and when I asked her what was wrong, she burst into tears again. She was crying so hard that she had to run off during a lesson, and so I ran after her, but she wouldn't allow it. She glared at me with her blood-shot eyes and said, "Go away."
I waited in the classroom with dread, why was Renee so angry with me?
It turned out that her boyfriend had broken up with her, telling her that he liked me. It was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I wasn't even friends with her boyfriend. I kept telling her that it was impossible but she told me very firmly that there was no mistake that her boyfriend was in love with me. She even told me that she understood.
Only that I knew that she didn't understood at all. She stopped talking to me and we became enemies. Foul rumours about me were spread and soon lots of people knew what happened. To them, I was the one who wrecked everything. To make matters worse, her ex-boyfriend started pestering me in school. I just ignored him.
I was miserable in school so I found an escape route for myself by becoming best friends with another girl, but we weren't really heart-to-heart best friends. It was only that we made it official by telling others that we were.
My friendship with my best friend didn't last long as well. She backstabbed me and soon joined those who disliked me.
I was alone again but I was surviving. By then, the rumours had almost died down but Renee and I were still not talking.
Then, one day, during a baseball match, someone threw the bat and it hit me hard on back. I hated to let others see me cry, so I ran off to the toilet alone. No one was in the toilet so I just all I wanted.
"Cathy?" a voice called suddenly.
I stopped crying. Renee appeared in front of me.
"Are you okay, Cathy?" she asked, looking concerned.
I shook my head.
"I brought ice for you," she said, "let me see your back."
I turned around for her.
"It's red and swollen," she murmured, pressing the ice against my back. "I'll get some ointment from the office."
"It's okay, you don't have to do that," I said.
She just smiled at me and went to the office anyway.
Moments later, she returned with a tube of ointment and began to massage my back for me. That moment was so much like the times when we were still friends, I started crying again. I was crying because of the pain and for everything that had happened to our friendship.
That night, when I went home, I realized that it didn't matter if your close friend wasn't your best friend. All it matter was that there must be trust and respect between friends. I supposed that Renee realized that I didn't betray her. In some sense, she had 'forgiven' me.
The next day, I walked up to her and said, "Thank you, Renee, for yesterday."
"You're welcomed," she said, smiling.
From then on, we started talking to each other again. Though we could never be close friends like before, at least I didn't lose a friend.
A/N: Hey there, this story is based on my relationship with my former close friend. The names are changed. Please tell me what you think, any comments, please tell me!
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