Real Friends (An IM5 FanFiction)

Prologue.

Dana's POV

"Just a second, Mom!" I tried to sound normal as I held my clenched fist in my other hand.

"Dana?" she called. I could hear her footsteps coming up the stairs.

I frantically looked around my room trying to find something that could cover the hole I had just made in my wall. My eyes landed on my Sports Illustrated calendar and, just as I moved it, my mom opened my bedroom door.

"Is everything okay?" She asked me.

I rubbed the back of my neck to hide my newly cut knuckles, "Yeah! Everything's fine, why?"

"I heard a loud thud," her eyes searched around the room.

"Chair!" I blurted out causing her to look at me with one eyebrow raised, "The chair... fell? Yeah! It fell!" I nodded.

She eyed me suspiciously and, after a few seconds, said, "Okay... well Emilina dropped something of for you, and I'm about to hop in the shower so make sure you get it," I nodded and, just before closing my door, she poked her head back in and said, "Happy birthday, Sweetie," and with that she left.

I looked at my bloody knuckles and cursed under my breath.

I looked outside into the hallway and quietly made my way to my bathroom after determining that it was safe.

I opened my medicine cabinet and took out gauze and tape. After bandaging my hand, I went downstairs.

My mom was sure to be out of the shower soon so I picked up the box from the table and grabbed a bag of chips and a water bottle for when I got hungry later. Right when I got to the top of the stairs, I heard her turn off the water. I rushed into my room and closed the door, letting out a sigh of relief.

I set the chips and water down on my bed before sitting down at my desk. I unwrapped the box to find a bunch of sticky notes and folded up papers inside. I took all of them out and looked through them until I recognized them to be the notes Lina and I had passed to each other in class; I even found one from sixth grade. After four years, she kept all of them.

I looked back in the box to find another layer of papers, but this time, they were pictures of the two of us throughout middle school to the ones we took this morning at school.

At the very bottom of the box, there was an envelope. I opened it and read the paper inside:

"Happy birthday, loser! Sorry I cant give this to you in person but, as you know, its mine and Nick's one year anniversary! Ugh! Sorry! This is about you! Being best friends with you has been absolutely amazing. I honestly don't know what I'd do without you. You keep me grounded and without you, I'd be in a psych ward by now! We've been through so much together and I thank God that I have you in my life. I'm so sorry that I cant be with you right now but I hope that this makes up for it!

Happy birthday, Dana! I love you!"

After reading that, I smiled but then quickly returned to frowning.

Exactly a year ago from today, one of my closest friends asked out my best friend, Emilina: the girl I'm in love with. And she didn't even know the truth about him.

"Happy birthday" my ass.