Best Friends Fall Away

First Contact.

Some years later, when Gemma had started her GCSEs and suddenly everything became complicated, Mary Drump and Karen Svendsen, the mothers of this broken friendship, made contact. The Svendsen family had moved three years ago, when Alice was in Year 7, to a large new home in Southern London. They had not thought to inform the Drump family of their sudden proximity, as that name had not been in their thoughts for a long time.

But eventually contact was made, or discovered, and they agreed to put the past events behind them, and (via Facebook) scheduled to meet at a lovely gastropub in the Kentish countryside.  It was never something Mary would have chosen, far too pricy, she would have gone to a McDonald's at the first opportunity, but she agreed for her daughter. And this was just an example of the root of the problem.

Ever since that fateful day, Gemma had never given up on the memory of Alice. She thought and talked of her on a weekly basis. She sent Alice's old Sottish address monthly letters, which of course were never returned. She made up stories in her head with her former best friend. It bordered on unhealthy obsession, especially seeing as Gemma had so few friends of her own. Mary was occasionally concerned about her daughter's apparent lack of social cohesion.

When the news of the meetup reached Gemma, she was ecstatic. She wouldn't stop talking about it in the weeks before it happened. Her old best friend, given back at last. 

Gemma wasn't doing too well at school. Her marks were average to extremely poor, and she had at best a small handful of friends. Her best friend was called Megan, and they were not even the closest of friends. So Gemma had held on to the memory of Alice's friendship, and what started out as longing had turned into a bizarre kind of worship. Gemma idolised Alice.