Genevieve’s phone rang almost the instant she walked in the door. Genevieve flipped her phone open and was pleased to hear Emilette’s voice.
“I'm sorry for embarrassing you,” Gen said as soon as the phone was open.
“I don’t care. Like I ever do. Really, Gen.” Emilette said meaningfully.
Genevieve had to admit that Emilette got angry very rarely.
Genevieve laughed into the phone. “You don’t do you? We’vebeen friends for like three years and I’ve never seen you angry at me.”
“Well, once or twice,” Emilette responded. Genevieve thought about it for a second and agreed.
“Do you want to come over again tonight?” Genevieve knew her mom would most likely not be home; her schedule tended to get a little confusing, and rarely coincided with Genevieve’s. Time with Emilette would easily be better than staying up late with a book. She’d read all the ones in her house thousands of times. Emilette confirmed and hung up.
Less than fifteen minutes later, Genevieve was rushing down the stairs to greet her friend.
“I'm sorry,” Genevieve cried, as Emilette gathered Genevieve into a hug. Emilette bundled the two of them inside, sitting down on the couch and grabbing the remote off the arm next to Genevieve. She flipped through the channels until she found some dumb cartoons she and Genevieve had loved when they were little. Soon,Emilette had her best friend laughing and smiling again, the way she liked to see her. But Emilette’s false smiles were tinged with sadness, because she had come to see Genevieve about something she needed help with. But Emilette had a hard time getting to the subject.
She approached it delicately, as she and Genevieve sat down to the pizza they had ordered. “Gen, I need to tell you something,” Emilette began. Genevieve motioned for her to go on. “Well, you know how you’re parents are…” Emilette didn’t want to use theword; she knew saying “divorce” could really grind her friend’s gears. Genevieve nodded. It bothered her sometimes, that Emilette wouldn’t say “divorce”. Sure, the word made Genevieveuncomfortable, but she’d grown since third grade. Emilette didn’t know what it was like, so it was a subject both girls avoided prudently. “Well mine are…” Emilette didn’t have the courage to finish. She burst into tears, and Genevieve held her gently. “If they do it, I'm going to kill myself.” Emilette said with some finality.
Genevieve stood suddenly. “Emilette! You don’t mean that!” Emilette looked at her friend with tear-stained eyes. Genevieve’s looked very similar. Emilette nodded wildly.
“I do! I do!” She screamed “No one cares anyway!” Here she shot Genevieve a dirty look. “When, when have you ever? Lauren, Vivian, Kathryn, Diana…they actually care. You only call whenyou have problems.” Emilette cried accusingly.
Genevieve knew this wasn’t true, but didn’t have the courage or the ability to deny it. Not when Emilette was like this. “I do care. You have to know that Emmy!” Genevieve cried desperately.Emilette shook her head, walking out of Genevieve’s house, leaving behind her best friend, turning her phone off. She didn’t want to talk to anybody.
***
Monday finally came, though it seemed to take forever. The girls had hardly spoken all weekend. Genevieve pondered for all of that Sunday how a good day could have gone so horribly wrong. Genevieve didn’t see the need to meet up with her friend in the lunch line. She saw Nick across the cafeteria, and he waved, but Genevieve was too upset to acknowledge the gesture. She ordered her wrap and headed toward the back hall. She figured she was on her own for lunch today. That was fine, in her opinion. She was sick of Emilette always bringing her down.
Emilette was already at their lunch spot when Genevieve arrived. Genevieve didn’t care; she knew Emilette was there because she didn’t have any other place. “What are you doing here?” Emilette asked absently. “You should be with Nicholas.” Genevieve sat down and took out her book without saying a word. “If he wants me, he can find me.” She replied tersely. Emilette sighed.Something suddenly broke inside Genevieve.
“Don’t sigh at me, Emilette,” Genevieve snapped.
“What?” Emilette asked, taken aback.
“At least I went after him, which is more than you can say,” Genevieve glared angrily at her friend.
“Whatever pain you’re in is hurting your judgment Emilette! You have to know that boy likes you! You won’t do anything about anything! You go on and on about how I should, but you’re too scared…”
“You think I’m scared?” Emilette cried, interrupting Genevieve. “You’re scared of the whole world. You’d be nothingwithout me!” Both girls stood, facing off.
Emilette was impressed by the speech her friend had made, but now was not the time to admit this, especially with Genevieve as mad as she was.
“Then why don’t you ditch me?” shot back Genevieve. “You’re jealous of Nicholas, of the fact that I'm happy, because, forwhatever reason, you’re not. You hate that I went to that party and you didn’t.”
“I should have ditched you, forever ago! If I had, I would have been at that party, not you! Why are we even friends?” Emilette screamed, her voice echoing in the dark hallway.
“Your guess is as good as mine! Maybe you just pitied me, because I was a loner. I was the nerd in the corner, crying into her books. But I’d still be better like that than dealing with you!”
Emilette looked insulted. She’d never chosen her friends based on pity, Genevieve knew that.
“I guess you don’t know me at all do you? Huh? Do you even know what it’s like to be me? Do you? I won’t even live to be seventeen! Did you know that? My birthday is in five days and I'm not going to live to see it!” Emilette covered her mouth and sobbed.
“What do you mean?” Genevieve asked softly, guiding her friend to sit down again. She felt awful, calling her friend out like that. She knew she had to be gentle with Emilette when she was like this. Genevieve hated hurting her friend. Seeing Emilette upset like this killed Genevieve inside. Genevieve desperately wanted to know what her friend could have meant, but didn’t want to ask. Instead, she tried to apologize, but was silenced as Emilette started to tell Genevieve her story.
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