Last week was a friendly week for us. I got Desiree introduced to my friends, I got introduced to hers. Usually the two groups were filled with prejudice against each other because, you see, her group is the elite in our batch while mine is what you might call the 'social climbers'. Before I introduced her, my friends actually LEARNED about some sophisticated things they suspected would be all Desiree talk about. Bunch of phonies. They're just like Desiree - trying to impress people - only then I didn't think Desiree was faking herself. In case you haven't noticed, I honestly wondered why my friends bothered to do it when they come from an intellectually acknowledged high school.
"She's so sweet," Grace remarked.
"And so smart," Asri chirped in.
"I wonder how someone can be so flawless. I mean, she had such a pretty face, too!" Banyu joined the choir of compliment.
"She's agreeable. She didn't sulk when I brought up that subject about online games," Reka muttered. Even Reka, who didn't play along with the 'impressing game' and decided to give Desiree a quick test instead, was pleased by her answer.
I nodded with agreement to every praise they chanted. I was a believer in the beauty of sharing. I like to share the things I like. I liked Desiree and I kinda liked my friends, so I wanted them to get to know each other. For a while things went on peaceful.
***
It became problematic when greetings like "Hello!" and "What are we going to watch today?" and casual conversations about what happened in classes turned into "Where's Desiree? Why are you not with her today?" and a series of other questions about Desiree. You see, I used to be the one who gets to choose the subject of the pack's conversation. They used to tell me I have the most interesting life: an extreme roller-coaster of happiness, sorrow and ambition.
It's worse when I realized I used to be one of them, not some message carrier of Desiree's whereabouts.
[M]
