Of Course It's A Lie

The End

Lunch. Roof.

These two words repeated like a mantra through Nunoe's head. After all the texts Nunoe had sent Sumire, all the panic and worry and anger and hurt, all she got in return was two words.

Apart from Sumire, Nunoe had no friends anymore, so no one asked her where was headed. No one wanted to remind her to eat. No one was going to save her a spot in the courtyard. No one would ever try to push a bully off the field for her sake.

Nunoe walked up the stairs to the roof, a sense of foreboding burning in her stomach. She clutched her backpack for comfort. As her fingernails scratched at the warm surface of the cloth, the cold metal grooves of a pastel-colored keepsake charm suddenly brushed her fingers.

Enraged as though by taking orders, she promptly unclasped the charm and tossed it into a garbage can as she passed by. It was Sumire's trash, not hers. She didn't want it.

She blinked in the sunlight. There was Sumire, her back to Nunoe, staring out into the vast blue spring sky. Birds chirped, and a little monarch butterfly danced between their two figures.

Sumire's long ivory hair was tied up in a cute ponytail. She'd recently dyed the ends red. She hadn't asked Nunoe what she thought of it. She hadn't even bothered to show it off to her.

It looks ugly, though. Nunoe thought viciously.

As though hearing Nunoe's thoughts, Sumire turned and looked at her right in the eyes. The first time she'd looked at Nunoe right in the eyes, they were seven. And Nunoe had just established firmly and without a doubt that she'd never leave Sumire behind.

Yards of grayish concrete separated them. Nunoe was too afraid to come closer. The ugly hate in Sumire's eyes was seething and visible even from here. The blue sky around them seemed to be closing in, somehow. Suddenly, Nunoe's entire brain felt like everything it was thinking and feeling and remembering was bitter and faraway.

She gulped. She couldn't say anything. Then Sumire opened her mouth.

"We're done here." She said. And she began to walk towards Nunoe, because Nunoe was standing in front of the door.

"Wait, what?" Nunoe instinctively protested. Her fists were curled. Sumire wasn't that far away now.

A crow cawed from behind Nunoe. She licked her lips. "You never explained. Why you hate me so much. Why you never want to be with me."
"I don't hate you," Sumire said, although her slitty pupils said otherwise, in Nunoe's opinion. "But I can't stand to be around you anymore."
The blow to Nunoe's heart may as well have been physical. She blinked again, her throat dry.

"Why?" Was all she could manage before her voice cracked. She had always been so open around Sumire. Only now did she realize that she had bared both her innermost thoughts as well as her worst weaknesses to the girl standing before her.

"You should know. I don't want to hurt you, but the truth is that you're so unbearable. You hurt my feelings so much, and you never even realize it. You never even ask me if I'm okay. You never think about how I feel, if you just insulted me. I'm not saying you're a bad person. I'm just saying you're unbearable to be around."

And with that, Sumire walked right past Nunoe and opened the door. She paused.

"If you want, we can still be acquaintances. But not like how it was before."

And then she was gone in the next second.