**AUTHORS NOTE: This is so random I wrote this chapter in half an hour... I don't think I like it and I probably won't continue it but if you like it please let me know and I might :) Thank you!*
“Please, just give it rest!”
I didn’t mean to shout. But I was so annoyed, and I couldn’t help it.
Anna stopped short, then gave me a funny look, rolling her eyes.
“There’s no need to overreact. I’m just having a laugh. You’re a total drama queen.”
I should have stopped there. I should have apologised, laughed it off.
“Yeah, cool, just a “little laugh” once in a while. Oh please. You keep bloody going on about it and now you’ve made it awkward for me ‘cos everyone knows. I wanted us to laugh about it- not the whole school! I can’t even look him in the eye now and you keep winding me up! I’m sick of worrying if he’s going to mention it every English lesson because you make it so obvious. I’ve tried to ignore it and laugh with you, but you’ve taken it too far now, so just tone it down and try and act like you actually give a shit about my feelings!”
We had stopped in the street. Anna was staring at me, incredulously.
“Duhhh, we’re best friends. We’re supposed to tease each other! What the hell’s your problem?”
I sighed, exasperated.
“Anna, you’re just doing it to make me embarrassed. You took a joke to far, fine. Just bloody stop it now, Ok? Can’t you see I hate it?”
Her face set. A hard, defiant look.
“Fine.”
She stalked off down the street, her khaki rucksack bouncing up and down on her back. I watched her go, feeling awful. I wanted to run after her. I mean, she was being pretty horrid to me, but I had overdone it.
“Anna! Wait!”
My feet pounded the ground as a raced around the corner onto the main street. Cars whizzed past as I frantically searched the milling crowd of school children by the bus stop. Her familiar red hair stuck out a mile. I ran towards her.
She looked over her shoulder at me, her eyes stony.
“What?”
I gave her a pleading look.
“Come off it, Anna. I’m sorry I overreacted, but you were pushing me to far OK? Can’t we just forget it?”
“NO!” She shouted. “I was just joking around and YOU weren’t when you said I didn’t give a shit about your feelings. I DO! I’ve known you forever and you’re my closest friend. I’m sorry if I made it awkward for you- sure, I am! But that was a little joke between friends, not a massive argument about your feelings!”
“You made me upset!” I screamed, not caring that the bus stop had quietened to listen to us. “You made me feel like a stupid lovesick puppy- and yes, you don’t give a shit! Who’s the one overreacting now?”
We stared at each other. I think we both realised we had taken it to far. But it’s too late to take it back it now.
I think she was about to apologise. I thought for a fleeting second it was going to be all right. If I had just grabbed her arm, and pulled her back, and told her I was sorry. And that she was right- I DID have a little crush on our English teacher. But she had made me feel like an idiot, and I resented her at that moment. Little did I know that the next words I said would change my world.
“Look, just get lost.” I said, scornfully. “You really don’t care how you made me feel, so I’m not going to argue with you now.”
I turned to go, pulling on my earmuff headphones. They had little owls on them. Anna had got them for me after I had agonised over them in the shop.
“Oh for goodness sake, I’ll buy them for you if you don’t want to waste the money!” She’d laughed, pulling them off my head and dragging me from the mirror to the till. “You do fuss too much sometimes, Frankie!”
I laughed at how stupid I’d been- Anna was right. I did make too much of a fuss.
“Hey Anna, I’m really sorry.”
We both turned to look at each other.
“Yeah, sure you are. I upset you? Then what do you think you just did to me? You’re a real bitch sometimes, Frankie.”
She swung away from me and started to storm across the road.
“ANNA! LOOK OUT!
The scream escaped me, but I don’t remember uttering it. The milliseconds seemed to slow into hours, my mouth frozen in a silent scream. The squeal of the brakes, the clouds of petrol fumes, the horrified look on the drivers face as the double decker bus ploughed forwards, taking my best friend with it.