Take A Risk

Absorbing

Then the day.

            There was no teaching at lunch today, it was Friday and Mrs. Meyers had set it up so we only met certain times each week.  I was sitting, alone, in my usual spot, about to unpack my lunch.  My phone buzzed.  Kiera.

            Do you want to have lunch with me?

            I sat back and for a second just stared at the ceiling.

            Yes, I would!

            Meet me at my locker.

            She was shoving her backpack into her locker and trying to pull her lunch out.  Her hair was wild, eyes wilder.  Finally she forced the locker shut and slumped to the ground.  I lowered myself down next to her.

            “You were right, Emery.  Something happened and I think about it when I try to write.  My friend… my friend.  Wont work, not now, I’m busy, they always said.  And I caught them one day, with my other friend.  Lying, all that time…”

            Kiera’s voice begins to quaver.

            “Oh, I hate friends, you can’t ever rely on them, they fail you and you can’t trust them!  But not you Emery, you’re not like them.  You’re different.  Honest.  Open.  And trustworthy.  You’re a friend.  A real one.”

            “Hey, you don’t hate friends, you—”

            “It just, it makes me feel like I’m nothing when people go behind my back and… and…”

            I looked over and saw that she was crying.  I tentatively put my arm around her shoulders.  She rested her head on mine.

            “You are not nothing.  Not to me.  You have to give your friend a second chance.  I know it’s hard.  Forgive.  Move forward.”

            My heart was bursting free from some sort of cage, awash with emotion.  I felt like I belonged.  I didn’t try to explain to myself— then, or later, how that moment felt.  It was as if, by reaching out and trying to catch the feeling in a net of words, it would somehow deprive it of its magic.

            You are not like them.  You’re different.

           

            “Endings, I don’t like endings.”

            “You said the same about beginnings and middles,” I laughed.  “Its only a short story.  A part of something bigger.

            “Should it have a happy ending or a sad one?”

            “That’s up to you.”

            There was a pause.

            “There’s going to be a school dance next week,” Kiera said.  “I’m going with some friends.  You should come.”

            “No, I shouldn’t.”

            “Why not?”

            “I just… I don’t think it would be fun.”

            “You’re scared.”

            “No!”

            “Take a risk.”