Shorts

The Promise

Hi! Yo I'm back with another short story! This story was written for a national short story competition at school. The theme was the promise. And so I centred this around a promise that is commonly broken: "I'll always love you" and I kind of created some characters around that. I thought two best friends who fall in love. Cliché right?! But when I thought about it more, after thinking about doing a guy and a girl for like a minute I thought: "why not defy hetronormality" and so I created Bea and Vikki. I was limited to 1000 words so it's pretty awful to be honest but here it is.
*okay can I also just say that if any of these people or places are people or places you know then that's just a coincidence because I base these on my friends and I think it's pretty obvious if you're my friend who they're based on and one character is always based on me okay thanks :)*
"YOU PROMISED ME!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"STOP THROWING BOOKS AT ME!" Vikki screamed back.

"VICTORIA JANE SMITH HOW DARE YOU! NO I WILL NOT STOP THROWING BOOKS AT YOU. YOU ARE UNBELIEVABLY LUCKY I AM NOT INTELLECTUAL ENOUGH TO OWN AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA."

"WELL IT'S NOT MY FAULT I BROKE THE PROMISE," she screamed back, tears streaming down her beautiful face. Tears streamed down her face like little raindrops, but the rain outside no longer cried alone.

*at five*

"Bea, can we play Mummies and Daddies please?" little Vikki was always adamant that this was the game we played.

"Vikki, only if I can be Mummy or we can both be Mummies."

"Look Bea, I have my baby and you have your baby. What's your baby called?"

"My baby is called Vikki after my favourite friend," I replied, but in that moment I had just renamed my baby for the twenty-seventh time.

"Bea you're my favourite friend too," Vikki whispered as she toddled towards me. "Promise you'll always love me and I'll always be your favourite friend please Bea."

"I promise I'll always love you and you'll always be my favourite friend."

When we started to grow up, Vikki started to grow into a shell of the outgoing 5 year old she was. She started to grow anxious but with every moment she grew more anxious, she grew more beautiful, in my eyes at least. She grew nervous meeting new people, she couldn't go out with me as much as she used to. She gradually stopped going out. She could only go out if she had specific things with her. So she could only go out if she had her phone, fully charged, with her charger; a pair of headphones, the one pair in her house that worked which were green; her musicals playlist up to date; her green spotty umbrella and her fold up waterproof coat all tucked neatly inside her flower print bag. I loved her in spite of these odd traditions she had to do. But the only things she would go out for were musicals. We did so many together and we went to watch so many together and that was always my favourite part of being her best friend forever. The thing I couldn't do was when people made fun of her because she was always going to be that 5 year old who wanted to play Mummies and Daddies with me and she meant the world to me and I loved her with all my heart. When we got older and we started preparing for our exams she got even more anxious and the panic attacks became more frequent and I was the only one who knew how to calm her down. I was the only one who would sit outside with her whilst she couldn't cope and fetch her some water and I know that meant a lot to her but I just loved her so much and I couldn't not help her.

*at sixteen*

"Vikki come on, come with me to London to see Matilda, I know you would enjoy it," I say over the phone.

"No Bea sorry I have so much revision for my Geography mock it's actually ridiculous."

"Okay Vikki, I told you not to take Geography but couldn't you please come out I have your bag prepared please Vikki you know I love you and I'll protect you."

"Fine, Bea, but I know you couldn't punch anything to save your life so have fun protecting me even though you are in CCF," Vikki laughs back at me, and I smile, relieved that she's laughing and smiling again.

"Okay, meet you at the train station. Have fun with the revision on the train. I need to revise Economics actually ugh."

***

"Come on Vikki," I mumble to myself, smiling to myself at the thought of her smile and that she would let loose for tonight.

And, in true Vikki style, Vikki showed up just as the train pulled into the station and she smiled with her floral bag with all her preparation in it.

I smile as I see her from where I'm standing on the platform and grin as she looks sort of muddled but she looks a lot happier than she did this morning.

"Come on Vikki," I shout, as she runs into my arms.

"Aw, I love you Bea, you know that." Inside I hope for a moment she's telling me she loves me as more than a friend but I know that that's never a good route to go down because when reality sets back in, I know she doesn't love me and it hurts a lot. But I smile. I smile through the pain like I always do.

"Aw, I love you too Vikki," I say sincerely as I hug her. We hear the train whistle blow and we almost miss the train.

***

"Look Bea! It's the restaurant!" Vikki shouts excitedly and I feel like she's 5 again. It makes me feel nostalgic because we first ate here when we were about six and we've loved it ever since. But the décor changes a tiny bit every time we visit, so that's our little challenge: to spot the difference in the décor. Vikki wins each time because she is a lot more observant that I am but I mean my attention is usually on her face which is completely lit up. As we started to get older, the waitresses and waiters thought we were together. It was funny to Vikki but it made me hurt inside.

"Hello you two! How are you doing; what are you coming to see?" Ren asks us as soon as we walk in.

"Hello! How are you, Ren?" Vikki asks, grinning from ear to ear.

"I am good today, how are you Vikki. How is your aibou, Bea?" she asked, pronouncing Bea completely wrong.

"I'm not her aibou, Ren but I'm very good today," I quickly reply, quickly clocking Vikki's reaction. "But we're going to see Matilda."

"But if you wanted you could be my aibou."

"Promise?"

"Promise."