Red ✔

Friend or Foe?

Chapter 16: Friend or Foe?

BEEEEEP!

"Um, hi, it's Leo again. I am so sorry about what happened. Please let me explain. Meet me at Madison Park. If you do not forgive me, well, I guess we are not friends anymore. So...um, bye," Leo leaves her thirtieth message on my cellphone. 

Leo has been emailing, texting, calling, Facebooking, Skyping, and messaging me all week. She tries talking to me at school, but I pretend to not hear her or walk away the other direction. Sometimes I will even run, but, being me, I do not get far and, being her, she understands the message I am sending her. The rest of the 5ies are getting more suspicious about our demeanour. Nicole does not intrude because she knows exactly what is going on. Leo and I converse with our friends at separate time, not together, so my friends are torn without realizing it (except Nicole). I ignore all her messages and phone calls. I delete ever single email she sends. She sends one like every twenty minutes, saying how she wants to be friends and blah blah blah. I do not bother with second sentence after that. I barely glance at the subject of the emails. On the other hand, it is nice to she cares this much about our friendship.

I am still broken hearted about the whole situation. Leo and I were friends for seven years. We met at the hair salon called "Caesar". We were waiting to get a haircut. Being the only two little girls there, we began chatting about the hairstyles that we wanted. We instantly became friends. I thought I would not see her again, but she transferred to my school on grade two. At school, I introduced her to Marilyn and Holly.

I wonder about friendship. Was she using me? Was she cheating me? Did our friendship mean anything to her, because it sure did to me? I peer at the picture of us on my dresser mirror. It gets me thinking about everything we have been through. If she were in my shoes, she would go see me in heartbeat. Maybe I should go see her at the park.

I leap onto my feet from my chair. I fly downstairs to the washroom and knock on the washroom door as I have seen the lights on.

"Dad?" I ask beside the door.

"Yeah?" he utters quietly, almost missing his reply.

"I have to go to the park to meet up with Leo now. We have to talk about something...really important," I say vaguely.

As usual, he answers, "Okay, be careful."

"No worries." I take my thick coat from the closet and pull it on.

I like how he trusts me with all this freedom. I find it strange behavior for a single dad to allow me to go wherever I want and whenever (sort of) I want. 

I wheel my bicycle out of the garage. I click on my helmet. My quick feet pedal to Madison Park. Today is a moderately cool weather. The snow is scattered across the streets like spilled milk. The cars have made incredibly muddy. That is the flaws of snow. After a few days, the fluffy snow will change into a hideous brown colour. Leo is seated on the park bench.  She is wearing this funny-looking, hot pink hat. It looks like it is made of wool. Her hands are clamped together. She has a very worried and impatient expression on her face.

Madison Park is a very lovely park. Trees are lined up beside the route to the playground.  There are swing sets, see-saws, monkey bars, and a big castle setting with spiral ladder and slides.  Also, there is a huge field, where teenagers play football, baseball, soccer, and many more.  A baseball diamond is planted beside the field. That area has a pile of icy snow spread along the perimeter.  I go here every once in a while.  When I was younger, I would go every day. Mom and I went on the swings together.  Most of the time, she pushed me. Then, I would push her.  I wanted to prove I was strong enough to push her.  I barely did get her four feet high in the air, however.