"Apart"



In a tranquil neighborhood filled with quiet streets and lively parks, Tina and Lucas knew they were made for each other. They spent their time exploring their surroundings, shared their childhood secrets and always had each other’s backs. Growing up, their friendship was cherished in the neighborhood, with everyone knowing they were the dynamic duo.

However, those warm and sunny childhood days started to become a distant memory as soon their teenage years approached. Lucas, for some unknown reasons, started changing. He started hanging out with a new group, the most popular kids in school, and it seemed to Tina that they were more concerned at their status then making real friends. As a result, for the sake of socialization or acceptance, she would never sacrifice her core values which impressed many.

Although Lucas had new friends now he made the effort to try and include Tina because he still wanted to keep their friendship alive. However, as time passed by he slowly started to distance himself from her, been too occupied with his new group of ‘friends’. Lucas would insult the very same things that ushered Tina entertainment and joy and call her ‘nerd’ and ‘goody-goody’ behind her.

Tina tried her level best to salvage her relationship with Lucas who had ghosted her all of sudden. However, every attempt from her end was ridiculed and mocked by Lucas. The last nail in the coffin was Lucas dating Alex, who had been Tina’s class crush for all this time. She felt agonized and betrayed, and thus decided to confront Lucas.

Tina started the conversation with allegations even without letting Lucas speak, as she accused him of pretending to be a loyal friend. The unsparing fight reached unbearable conditions as both of them cursed the other endlessly. The argument surprisingly took a toll on their friendship with both of them completely ceasing communication and breaking any future expectations of being friends.

Every hallway transformed into a battleground for them as they fought brutally. From petty insults to shedding hostile glares to hatching plans against meeting one another, they single handedly seemed bent on wrecking the warmly shared friendship that their neighborhood not too long ago had looked at with envy as they seem too inseparable for the world to fathom.

Living apart, engaging in different activities and attending different institutes never seemed to lessen their resentment or their determination of breaking contact. To them, the hope of rebuilding their bond was always overshadowed by the pain the betrayal caused them.

One day, Lucas got invited to his high school reunion. His gaze swiftly zeroed in on one name in particular, and to his frustration, that name was Tina. It filled him with an intense feeling of nostalgia and what could have been so that even for a second, he thought about them being friends who supported one another instead of destroying each other's lives.

But that moment was over in a flash, and Lucas’s defense mechanisms distracted him from his thoughts. He started to believe that he had always been better than that and moving forward without Angelo was a blessing because she was an enigma of toxicity who had kept him stagnant. So, he resolved that he wouldn’t go to the reunion because meeting his closest friend-turned-foe was out of the question.

Tina attended the reunion with a color palette of emotions agitating within her core. Some faces were familiar, some needed warm hugs and others old pals were waiting all along. But every time she turned her gaze to a different angle in the room, a void was lingering which resonated with melancholy. Lucas occupied a little corner of her heart and every moment she spent with him, every laugh, every adventure and every shard of memory was all dearly missed.

As the hour grew late, Tina understood that she had to decide. To forgive and forget was an option, but so was to seethe in anger and resentment. Nevertheless, she exhaled, set free her past memories and smiled because she knew that her previous friendship was unhealthy and she was better off without it.