0 comments

Kids

End of the world was a game everyone played. It was this really fun game where you gave yourself a name, an animal, and you would pretend to save the world as your animal. If you had nothing else to play, then that was what you usually would play. Our recesses, which were thirty minutes long, made this game harder to play. But that was fine. I loved playing this game. There was nothing better than this game at recess. A classic, and great. Everyone knew the rules, but that was fine. Well, except for new kids. This was really a game played at my school. And only my school. At the beginning of the school year, I made a new friend, who was new to the school. She always picked what we were going to play. Every time. It was very annoying. "Can we play my game today?"

I would ask at the beginning of every recess. And she would look super upset and get mad. "NO. Today, we are going to be pretending to play sports, so we can impress my crush. Ah, yes. This is what we did just about every day. Her crush, who wanted nothing to do with her. He didn't even really like sports. He liked video games. But she insisted we carry a basketball around in her arms and walk around near him. I would try to steal the ball and dribble it, but she would get mad, and she would steal the ball back. It was very boring, and thirty minutes almost every day got scheduled to do this. The worst game ever. One day, she wasn't there. I hung out with my other friends, who were playing end of the world. I had so much fun playing this. It was the most fun thing to do, let me promise you. The next day, my other friend was back.

I started to beg her to play this game. But we ended up just walking around with that darn basketball again. This went on until recess one day. I had convinced her to play the game for just thirty seconds. We were playing the game, and I noticed her enjoying it, getting into her character. But then she broke out of character. "We're done playing this. Back to that basketball, where did you put it again?" She says. I point to the bin of basketballs. She runs over to get one. But I was upset. I ask if she liked playing it. "Yes, but I want to impress him. You know that." We argue, but recess is over. I don't know if I want to be her friend anymore. We never play my game, and she talks too highly about reading my diary. But after I got out of school, my mom was talking with her mom. Apparently, they had insisted we had a playdate at mine. I reluctantly agreed as I knew she would be mad if I said we couldn't.

So Wednesday rolled around faster than I wanted it to. We took her to my house, in my mom's huge car. The cold January wind was forgotten as soon as we got in my mom's warmed car. My mom drove us home, hearing about our day. I took her into my room. We played some games and talked about random stuff. We had a snack and went back into my room. I needed to use the bathroom, so I left her in my room as I went to the bathroom that was down the hall. When I came back, I saw her reading my diary. I was so frightened, I just stood there. I wanted to cry but I didn't want to look like a crybaby in front of her. She was a year older after all. She must have found it downright boring, because after about a minute she shut it, and started talking about something else. Like it never happened. About thirty minutes after that, she needed to leave. My mom piled us in her car and drove us to her house. I dropped her off at the door.

In a way, I was too frozen still to say too much. My mom knew something was up though, as she asked me what had happened. I told her about what happened, and the invasion of privacy. She understood and drove us home. She said to stay away from her. My dad told me that we weren't going to have her at my house from now on. We had dinner and I went to bed. But I felt like I had to stay awake. I grabbed my diary. "Dear diary, I can no longer write to you. You see, my friend has read you today. If I continue to write, then this diary can be used against me. I'm sorry." I write. I feel slightly better and go to bed. We never talked about my diary again. After that, I did everything to avoid her. We were no longer on speaking terms. But it was clear she was almost using me. No one in my life, not even my parents, was I willing to let read my diary. Esspecially not her, after everything she was making me go through emotionally.

Not playing end of the world with me to impress some boy should not have been a reason to not play with me. I was her best friend, and she should play with me. Not impressing some boy who wants nothing to do with her. In March, we talked next. It was the very beginning of the month, and she was really trying to impress him. She had even told him that they wanted to be together. She had pushed me before to ask if he liked her. And every time he said no. Considering we were in elementary, this made sense. But she was persistent in pursuing him. When she wanted something, she did everything to try and get it. If she was so willing to give me up for that, Then I guess we were never really friends.

June 07, 2022 12:46

You must sign up or log in to submit a comment.

0 comments

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in the Reedsy Book Editor. 100% free.