Ally Lichen's Friend

8. Twelve Years Old

Ally still enjoyed playground games at age twelve. If anything, they got even more fun as you got older! Everyone became better at hiding and climbing and running and coming up with unique strategies. Soon hide-and-seek turned into an hour-long epic adventure as everyone searched high and low for Ricky, only for him to pop out of a hollow tree that everyone had thought was impossible to fit into.

Today two groups were playing different games, one hide and seek, and one tag.

"Takia!" Ally jumped up and down on the tree bridge, waving enthusiastically at her friend, who had turned the corner in the walk.

"Hi, Ally." Takia waved back.

"Hide-and-seek, or tag?" Ally asked as soon as Takia was within hearing. "I want to play hide and seek!"

"We can play hide and seek." Takia nodded.

Ally narrowed her eyes at her. She had a suspicion that Takia didn't want to play hide-and-seek, and was just agreeing with her for some reason. Takia agreed with her a lot lately. Which shouldn't be a bad thing, best friends often agreed, but still... It felt strange to Ally. She didn't want to be bossy. She wanted Takia to get to choose games too.

"Do you actually want to play hide and seek?" Ally asked bluntly.

Takia shrugged.

"We don't have to!" Ally felt slightly annoyed at Takia's mindless agreement and unhelpful indifference. "We can play tag if you want. Do you want to play tag?"

Takia shrugged again, she was looking a little embarrassed. "I don't care."

Of all the phrases that existed in the world, Ally was certain that 'I don't care' was the most infuriating of all. People cared! People always cared! She always cared anyway. When people said they didn't care, it was probably because they didn't want to make other people upset.

That was how her mother used the phrase anyway.

"To keep the peace," Mrs. Lichen had said before, "sometimes it's best to let others have their way."

Ally wanted to let Takia have her way.

"Takia." Ally said firmly. "What do you want to do?"

Takia was not looking at Ally. "You can pick."

"We'll play tag then." Ally said firmly. "Come on." And she marched away down the bridge, glancing back after a few paces to find that Takia was, indeed, following her.

She hoped she had made the right decision. She had tried her best. She just wanted to be a good friend.

Still, uncertainly bubbled inside her. Takia, she had noticed recently, hadn't been talking to her as much. Of course, they still talked, they talked a lot actually, but just compared to how much time they used to spend together, it was...different.

Ally voiced her concerns to her mother that night, over pumpkin soup and cheesy bread.

"You're growing up, that's part of it." Mrs. Lichen paused, dunking her cheesy bread in the soup.

"But people are still friends when they grow up." Ally frowned, she felt unsettled in a way she couldn't quite explain. "I mean, it's best friends forever. The forever part would be a lie if we stopped being friends just because we grew up."

"I think you are still friends, Ally." Mrs. Lichen sighed. "But not everyone has as strongly held opinions as you do." She smiled fondly at her daughter. "Nor is everyone quite so loud about those opinions."

Ally swallowed the lump in her throat. Was she bossy after all? It wasn't like she told Takia what to do. Not really. Takia just went along with everything she said! If Takia wanted to, she could say she wanted to do something different, and they would have! She would have listened!

"Takia just never says anything about it." Ally was beginning to feel panicked. "So how am I supposed to know?"

"Well..." Mrs. Lichen began gently. "Do you give her the chance to speak up?"

"Yes!" Ally said loudly, but doubts were beginning to creep in. Maybe she was a bit too loud. Maybe she could do a little better listening. Takia had always been sort of quiet, maybe she just needed more time than Ally to speak up.

"I try, anyway." Ally said, and her voice was quiet this time.

"Then that's all you can do, isn't it?" Mrs. Lichen stood up from the worn dining room table, dropping a kiss on Ally's head as she passed on her way to the kitchen.

-------

Thank you so much for reading this far! If you enjoyed it, please vote, add, or share with your friends! I would REALLY appreciate it.

If you have some constructive criticism, please comment. This is the first draft and I would love some feedback.

- Millie Florence

millieflorence.com