Friendships and Their Beauty

By: Anu Subramanian Senthilkannan

I sat with my knees up and arms combing the sand. I stared at the calm, blue water, and the fiery, orange sun dipping into the horizon and fading. I felt the cool and light breeze hit my face and sweep my hair away from my shoulders. I saw my brown hair glowing in the yellow light from the sun with my golden, bronze and yellow highlights shining. I truly cherished that moment of silence and peace. But it just had to be shattered by my mom’s loud voice.

“Lily!”, she screamed.

“Lily, get back in the house, it’s time for dinner!”, she shouted again.

I grumbled and stood up slowly, dusting off the sand from my white, floral sundress I was gifted for my 14th birthday. I shook off the leftover sand from my matching sandals and started the 5-minute walk up to my summer beach house.

I went into the dining room and saw my mom setting up the table and laying the homemade sandwiches on the table. I sat on the chair that was reserved for me and waited for my parents to join me.

My mom soon joined me and we both waited for my dad to come down the stairs. Soon enough, he came down and joined us.

“Hey guys! Let’s dig in!”, he boomed with his loud, rich voice that I loved to hear.

We quickly said our prayers and I immediately grabbed a chicken sandwich, devouring it.

“Woah, honey! You must be hungry but slow down! The sandwiches aren’t running off anywhere!”, my mom joked.

I just smiled back and continued eating. When I was done, I told my parents, “Good Night!” and ran upstairs to my bedroom.

I flopped down onto my extra soft and fluffy bed and checked my phone and laptop for any notifications. When I was done, I slid under the blanket and turned off the table lamp beside me. I was mesmerized by the silver moonlight that shone through the windows and danced around the room. As I was gazing at it, memories of last month rushed back to me. They played in my head like a film.

*Memory 1* *Last week of school before summer break*

My best friend, Rose and I walked up to the school together and noticed the big noticeboard right at the entrance. We stopped and read it. It said that auditions for joining the Cheer Squad in the next school year were open the whole of this week! We were both thrilled! And the best part was that they had 2 spots open! We had always wanted to join the cheer team together!

So, we signed up for it, practiced together and came up with our own cheer routine. We worked very hard but we were still very nervous on the day of our audition. Nothing could fight the butterflies that were swarming around in my stomach. I looked up at Rose and she gave me a big thumbs up. She wasn’t nervous at all but that was just Rose!

Finally, they called our names. I walked up trembling while Rose confidently strutted up to them. The difference between us was so obvious. But again that was how it always was. We were always the two opposites. North Pole and South Pole. Sweet and Salty. Yet, we had found something in common and became BFFs.

We started our cheer routine and finished it with happiness and contentment filling every nook and cranny of our bodies. Everything had gone according to plan and we had executed the routine to near perfection. I was overjoyed!

On the last day of school, during assembly, the cheer team came up onto the stage to announce the news everyone had been waiting for. I was excited and nervous at the same time. I was almost certain that we would get in together as Rose and I held hands and crossed our toes and fingers. Oh how wrong I was…

My whole world toppled upside down when the cheer captain said those dreadful words.

“We are pleased to announce that we have chosen Rose Johnson and Cherry Smith as our new cheerleaders!”

The whole assembly burst out in thunderous applause. That is everyone except me. I was shocked, to say the least. Rose looked at me apologetically and said, “I’m sorry!” over and over. I kept saying, “It’s fine!” but I knew that it wasn’t.

As everyone celebrated the new and the last day while going home for the summer break, I did the exact opposite. I went home and ran up to my bedroom, slamming the door. I fell on the bed face down and just sobbed as if my life depended on it. I let it all out. But I still felt hollow, like an empty shell. I couldn’t face Rose.

But I decided not to be a coward running away from my problems and called up Rose to meet up in our favourite café down the road the next day. Rose readily agreed and it was all set. But the next day, when I reached the café, she wasn’t there so I waited. I was confused because Rose was normally a very punctual person. After waiting for an hour, I got fed up and went back home.

I called her up and found out that she was out at a meeting with the cheer squad. She didn’t even apologize and she sounded so different. So mean and so arrogant. I was stunned. But what really stupefied me was that she cut off our friendship. I just hung up on her and wept.

Tears rolled down my face as I remembered, clear as daylight in my head. I shook those thoughts away and tried with difficulty to sleep. I finally slept after a long, long time.