A Detached Friendship

Part 1

When she handed the rock to Jackie, it was clear that Lily wanted an accomplice; someone to share in her murderous ritual of inflicting death to the injured, trembling rabbit they were holding down.

In a huddle of what she thought were friends - life-long friends, Jackie looked around and felt engulfed in the confusion, the yelling, the sweat above her lip and the bangs over her eyes. What was clear as day was the person that Lily was versus who she pretended to be. Jackie had seen this side of Lily before but she never thought it would come to this.

"Do it, Jacky!", Lily said rhythmically. The more anxious and louder she got, the more she said it.

"What the hell, Lily?" Chase screamed, filling in the pause between Lily and Jackie's argument, trying to make sense of it himself.

"Just stop, Lily!", Jacky said, hearing the tremble in her voice, much like the rabbit's squirming under the sets of hands between them. Her voice wasn't as loud as Lily's. It hinted weakness and she knew Lily had heard it too. She tried to speak over them, "Stop it, get out of my face, Lily!", she stated with more conviction, but she knew Lily was not convinced and asserted herself more within the huddle.

""I'm not a animal killer like you, Lily," she yelled as she tried to stammer back on her feet again. Lily took Jackie's hands and pulled her back down so forcibly, that she got her back on her knees in a swift motion. Jackie was more surprised by Lily's force than of her actual intent on hurting another animal. Lily was adamant that Jackie join in on her sadistic hobby.

Its amazing that in such a short time frame, of say three minutes, Jackie guessed, so many thoughts can flow through the mind. The trepidation of the present flashed so many parts of their friendship that was now coming to an end. And what an end to come to. The slaughter of a helpless animal in the forest as a result of three 15 year olds. Jackie could not believe it had come to this.

Jackie's mind flashed to a year before when they were a group of four friends. Best friends. Everyone in school knew them to be the fan four, short for 'fantastic four'. A cool little clique that senior boys enjoyed looking at, and junior girls beamed to talk to talk to; Marley, Chase, Jackie. Lily. The friendship seemed to be built on a strong foundation. There was history between Chase and Jackie. They had known each other since kindergarten and even at a young age, Jackie sensed Chase to be different from the other boys when they were crashing their toy cars together but Chase would be on the other end of the classroom playing house with her and the other girls. There he was with Jackie, in the little house structure, or pretend grocery store with the little plastic fruit and vegetable items that were almost always slobbered on by some of the junior kids in the classroom. Chase never hid his exuberance. In grade six, Chase told Jackie he thought he might be gay. Jackie wasn't surprised and Chase knew she had known for some time. He always felt close to her, knowing that he could be himself with her. The friendship had been solid from the start. Jackie had lost her little brother to leukaemia when he was only 4 and she was six, so having a close friend in Chase, she felt a sisterly connection to him and the need to protect him; especially since his flamboyant behaviour became more apparent to other kids and usually was a reason for many of the boys in their grade to tease and bully him. Chase usually shrugged it off or displayed his flamboyance blatantly before all their disgusted faces in. But Jackie knew it was his defence mechanism and became that much more protective of him.

Marley had always gone to St.Mary's, but she never really knew Jackie or Chase like she did when the three of them started junior in the same class. In grade 4, Chase began to talk a lot about Marley to Jackie. He liked her sarcastic humour and her rebellious attitude towards their teacher and any other authority figure. Jackie would listen with scepticism about their blossoming friendship. She would later admit that it was part protectiveness of Chase and part jealousy of sharing him. But when Jackie got seated beside Marley as part of Ms. Higgins' monthly desk arrangement, she quickly learned how cool Marley was and how artistic she was too. Her defiance with authority was in part due to her passion to do nothing but insert her head in her sketchbook and draw amazing pictures. No, they were pieces of artwork, Jackie thought. Mystical dragons, fiery dragons, dragons in the cosmos and cartoon Nazi-dressed dragons. She had an interest in dragons, obviously, but she also had an amazing talent. The beginnings of their friendship were based on a pure interest in art and grew to hanging out after school laughing about the newest nonsense Marley got in trouble for with Ms. Higgins and having deeper discussions about how they had both lost a sibling at such a young age. Chase couldn't have been happier having his two best friends become friends with one another and there in grade 4, formed their group of three. And then in grade 6 came Lily.