“How could you?” Lindsey choked out.

“How could I what?” Julie retorted.

“Don’t act like you don’t know. How could you do something to hurt me and so many people so badly, without remorse. I can’t believe the monster you’ve become.”

“Monster? I’m no monster. If anything I helped our friendship. I tried to help us become closer,” Julie said.

“Oh really? Well all you did was push us farther apart, if none of this happened we could still be friends... but it’s too late for that.”

Lindsey looked at her old friend, and wondered what had become of her. What could drive her to do something so extreme.

Several months earlier, Julie and Lindsey first met. Lindsey was walking home from a long day of school, running through the lines of her school play in her head.
She heard a whimper of a voice say,
“Please... just leave me alone...” Lindsey looked up to find a group of kids surrounding that voice on the other side of the street. Just in time to watch whoever they were surrounding get pushed over and left there while the other kids were laughing and running away. Lindsey rushed to the girl, who sat there with tears streaming down her face, and helped her gather all of her books and papers that were now scattered everywhere and eventually looked at the girl.
“Are you okay?” Lindsey asked.
“Yeah... I think so,” the girl mumbled noticeably embarrassed.
“What’s your name? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”
“I’m Julie, I moved here the start of this summer,” she said with her eyes on the ground.
Lindsey got up and offered Julie a hand up. “Do you need help carrying all of these books on the way home?”
Julie looked up at her shocked, but saw that she genuinely wanted to help her out. For the first time she felt like somebody actually cared. “Umm, alright. Thanks,” she said in what was practically a whisper.
On the way to Julie’s house, her and Lindsey talked, and it was much easier than they both expected. But Lindsey found out that for the first few weeks of school Julie has barely had a real conversation with anybody from school much less made any friends, and that she was even.... scared to walk home by herself now, just because of the way she has been treated. Lindsey could tell that even as they were talking she was holding back tears.
When they reached Julie’s house Lindsey gave her her books. “I’ll see you tomorrow alright, talk to you later!”
And she did, they started walking home together every day after school, and hanging out together on weekends. They eventually became very close friends, even best friends. Which was more than Julie ever hoped for. Because for once in her life she had somebody to confide in, somebody that would finally listen and understand her without judging her.
Eventually winter came along and so did Lindsey’s play, something she had been looking forward to for months. Lindsey started having to go to rehearsal after school and spending time with another close friend of hers, Lauren. Strangely the more they spent time together the more uneasy Lauren got until eventually one day she went to Lindsey.
“Lindsey... I’m starting to get nervous. I’ve started to get threats, telling me to get away from you.”

They read some of the notes and decided it was just some sick, twisted prank that somebody thought was funny and didn’t let it get to them.

It was the night of the dress rehearsal. Everybody was there and ready to go, except one person... Lauren. Lindsey was worried out of her mind. She knew that Lauren could be late, but lately it was different. Considering the threats they thought were a joke. But now the thoughts were running through Lindsey’s mind, what if it was all true?

That night she still hadn’t heard anything from Lauren, no phone call, nobody knew what happened to her at rehearsal, nothing. Until she heard a knock at her bedroom door.

“Lindsey” her mom called through the door “can I talk to you?”

Lindsey heard something off in her mother’s voice. “Yeah, Mom, of course.”

When her mom came into the room her eyes were red and puffy as if she had just been... crying.

“Mom what is it?” She asked already feeling the tears in her eyes.

“Honey” her mom whispered “ it’s Lauren, she’s-” her voice broke off “honey she’s gone, nobody can find her... we’re fearing the worst.”


Not only did she find out that week that she may have lost her best friend which was incredibly painful, she also found out something even more disturbing.

She was looking through Julie’s bag to find the pack of gum Julie asked her to get. But found something else.
“What is THIS?!?” Lindsey demanded waving the one of a kind bracelet she gave Lauren.
“What is what?” Julie asked startled.
“Where did you get this bracelet Julie?” Tears starting to roll down her face. Everything started to click.

“How could you?” Lindsey choked out.

“How could I what?” Julie retorted.

“Don’t act like you don’t know, how could you do something to hurt me and so many people so badly, without remorse. I can’t believe the monster you've become.”

“Monster? I’m no monster, if anything I helped our friendship. I tried to help us become closer.” Julie said.

“Oh really? Well all you did was push us further apart, if none of this happened we could still be friends... but it’s too late for that .”

Lindsey looked at her old friend, and wondered what had become of her. What could drive her to do something so extreme.

But with that Julie ran, from Lindsey and everything that just took place.

Lindsey sat there dazed not knowing what to do or how to feel. But she somehow knew that she would never see Julie again.