Between Us

**Chapter 3: Drifting Away**

Looking back, maybe it was bound to happen. Friendships, especially when you're young, are fragile things—held together by shared moments, secrets, and a kind of unspoken loyalty. But sometimes, they slip through your fingers without you even realizing it.

When I was younger, I had my little group of friends. We were inseparable, or so I thought. Isabelle, my ex-best friend, was the kind of girl everyone wanted to be around. She was perfect—smart, beautiful, always getting the highest marks in class. Being friends with her made me feel better about myself, like if someone as good as Isabelle could spend time with me, maybe I wasn’t so bad after all. We did everything together. And even though she was one year older than me, it never felt like it mattered. We were best friends.

Then there was Joyce. She was two years older than me, older than Isabelle too, and she was nice. She made me feel included, like I was part of something. Joyce had this way of making you feel important, like she saw something in you that others didn’t. I thought our little group was solid, that nothing could change it. But I was wrong.

The first crack appeared when a new girl joined our class. She was Joyce’s age, and right away, I noticed the way she carried herself—mature, confident, almost like she was trying to be the older sister of the group. It didn’t take long before Joyce started hanging out with her more. Slowly, almost without me noticing, she slipped away. She would still smile at me, still talk to me like everything was fine, but I could tell it wasn’t. We weren’t the same. She wasn’t mine anymore.

Losing Joyce hurt, but I told myself it was okay. At least I still had Isabelle. Or so I thought.

When the new girl came, it was like Isabelle had found her perfect match. They clicked in a way that made me feel left out, like I didn’t belong anymore. They walked home together after school every day, spending extra time talking, laughing—getting closer in ways I couldn’t compete with. I would watch them from a distance, wondering when it had all changed. Isabelle, my perfect friend, was now slipping away too.

It felt like a slow betrayal. I knew I couldn’t blame them. People grow apart, and maybe I was never going to be able to keep up with them. But that didn’t make it hurt any less. One day, I looked around and realized that my two best friends, the ones I thought would always be there, had both drifted out of my life.

On top of all that, there was him—the boy I never really noticed until everyone said I liked him. And his best friend, my daily tormentor, who never missed a chance to make me feel awful. His name wasn’t important; it was what he did that mattered. He teased me, bullied me, made fun of every little thing I did. It was like a game to him—how far could he push me before I broke?

I remember the worst day clearly. It was a regular school day, and I had just changed into a new school uniform, feeling good about myself for once. I loved standing near the classroom window because the light from outside made everything feel a little brighter, a little better. What I didn’t realize was that the sunlight streaming through the window also made my uniform see-through. My underwear was showing, and I had no idea.

I don’t know how long they had been laughing behind my back before I found out. But when I did, it felt like the world came crashing down. He didn’t say anything directly, but his friend—the one who never let me live in peace—made sure I knew. The snickers, the looks from the girls in my class, even my ex-best friends, Isabelle and Joyce, all made it clear that they had noticed long before I did. The shame was unbearable.

In that moment, I wanted to disappear. Everything was my fault. I felt like the whole world was against me, and there was no way out. My friends were gone, the boy I was supposed to like didn’t even acknowledge me, and I had just become the punchline of another joke.

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