Our Life After

Apologies

*Lizzie's POV*

Mom came into my room a little while later to check on me.  She sat on the edge of my bed and rubbed my back while I cried into my pillow.

What did I just do? I think.  Did I just ruin my relationship with my best friend?

After a while, mom just said, “Do you want to talk about anything?"

I sat up, smoothed my hair and nodded my head.

“Go ahead whenever you're ready."

“Okay" I said and launched into a big conversation about how I thought it would be a good idea to tell Catherine about my crush on Joshua because she would have a different opinion than mom and we ended up fighting and arguing and I burnt the journal she gave me with 6 years of adventures in it and I'm worried I just screwed up our lifetime of best friendship.

She just sat there for a moment pondering before I said something that I realized I shouldn't have.

“She said something happened between you and Gale.  What happened?"

She looked at me with eyes of fire and said, “She told you what?"

“Something happened between you and Gale......"

Shut up you stupid stupid person.  Just stop talking your making it worse!

“We aren't going to talk about that!" she says harshly.

“Okay.  I am sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."

She sighs.  “You have to go apologize.  It's what's necessary if you don't want this to fall apart."

“But mom! I didn't even do anything wrong!" I immediately yell at her.

“And sometimes that's the case, but usually when you apologize first she will follow.  It's too late to see her tonight, but you will see her tomorrow at school.  Now let's go have dinner."

**************************************************

I woke up the next day to get dressed, ate some breakfast, and as I was throwing my hair in a sloppy bun I was still pondering what I should say to Catherine.

I'm still not even sure I want to apologize.  I didn't do anything wrong.

I'm waking to school, and I see Catherine standing with some other girls.  We make brief eye contact and I walk into school and straight to my locker.

Then we meet again in 4th period, but stupidly I didn't say anything.

The last bell rang to leave school, and as I was grabbing my books from my locker, I saw her walking down the hall.

Say something! My brain screams.  Stop her!  Say something!

“Catherine!" My mouth says before my brain thinks about it.

She stops in her tracks and tries to get around me but I run and grab her arm.

“Let go of me!"  She yells loud enough that a few teachers turn around.

“Wait! I just wanted to say I'm sorry! It was a bad idea, I wasn't thinking! I should've just shut my mouth I didn't mean anything I said."

She looks taken aback.  “Well......... I'm sorry too.  I shouldn't have reacted the way I did.  I will always want to be your best friend no matter what.  I love you."

I give her a great big hug, and I feel immediately bad because I burnt our journal. I don't want to tell her.  I can't.

So instead, I say  “Let's walk home." with a smile.