“Are you sure your okay?” he asked for the umpteenth time. “Are you sure your okay?”A voice crackled on the other end of the cell phone. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just meet me at the park okay?” she sounded distressed. That was odd, it wasn’t like her to be so secretive.He hung up the phone and increased his stride. The person he had been speaking to just now was his best friend Janice whom he had known since birth. Their parents had known each other for years and they were born only days apart. They had even been wheeled out of the delivery room together, side by side and placed into adjacent incubators. He sighed at the thought. However, their parents didn’t really get on too well. Countless times had he heard his father speaking atrocities about Janice’s mom, it had always disturbed him but that was besides the point. Janice had always been there for him when he needed her, when he was getting picked on at school, she was there to help him back on his feet. When he was stressing over finals, she came over every night to help him study. When Track team tryouts were coming around, she came with him to the sports complex to time him, encourage him and give him pointers. She had always showed support and he had always returned the favor. He tutored her in her weak he smile was sad and uncomfortable rather than the warm and attractive sight it usually was. Step one you say we need to talk He walks you say sit down it's just a talk He smiles politely back at you You stare politely right on throughHe sat down by her. “Hey.” He said.“Hey.” She replied. “You okay?”“I should be asking you that.” He responded. “Is there something wrong?”She bit her lip. “Yes and no.”“Well, can you tell me what’s going on?”She sighed and nodded, then took a deep breath. “Steve, I’ve known you for the longest while. In you I can confide anything and everything.”Steve was listening intently. His gaze unleaving.“I mean you’ve been a great friend and all but, I think it’s time to admit that you and I are just…very different.”Steve’s eyebrows found each other as his features twisted into a frown. “What are you saying?”She turned p her head to look him straight in the face. “Look, you and I come from two completely different worlds. My family is wealthy and I socialize with the upper class and you…” her voice trailed off.Steve’s family was poor. Well, maybe not poor but rather homely. He lived in an old run down apartment that only had two rooms, and usually had to steal money from women’s purses if he wanted to get by.“Wait, this is about richness?” he sounded annoyed.“No, its not just that. Steve, people have been talking. The glances I’ve been getting from people at school, the comments they’ve been making, the constant ridicule...”“So? Forget them. We’re better than them.”She shook her head. “No Steve. Look, I love you and all but, I just can’t deal with it anymore.”Steve’s frown became more prominent. “What are you saying?”The wind blew back her short auburn hair and threw about some of the orange-yellow Fall leaves among the sidewalk. She smiled at him with her mouth but not with her eyes. “It’s time to move on.” “So you just want to end it?”She nodded. “Yes.” Well, that was blunt. “I’m sorry.” She got up and left.Some sort of window to your right As she goes left and you stay right Between the lines of fear and blame And you begin to wonder why you cameSteve was dumbfounded, what the hell had just happened? He watched as his only lifelong friend walked away from him, out of the park and out of his life. Many emotions began to swerve through him: guilt, anguish, upset, but one finally latched on and subsided. Anger.“So this is the thanks I get after seventeen years of friendship!? After everything I did for you? Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”She kept walking but didn’t respond.Steve shouted. “Fine! Screw yourself! See if I care!” And he turned around and ran the other way.Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a lifeJanice started crying. Had she done the right thing? Had she honestly and truly done the right thing?She looked back at Steve who was sprinting the other way. Yes, she told herself. Yes, she had, it was for the best she was sure of it. So why did she feel so bad?Stopping momentarily, she looked up at the sky and began to reflect.Let him know that you know best Cause after all you do know best Try to slip past his defense Without granting innocence“Here, drink this.” Steve said, handing her some tea. An eleven year old Janice took it and gratefully sipped it down. “Thanks.” She said.Steve smiled. She had been sick with a fever all week, and had an overall temperature of a hundred and three degrees. Steve had come over and had been taking care of her all day.“It’s no problem.” He replied.She sat up and rubbed her temple.“How do you feel?” he asked. “A little better.” She smiled and thanked him again. “Hey, Janice?” he said.“Yeah?” she answered“You’re my friend right?”She laughed. “Of course I am Steve, why would you ask that?”“Well um,” Steve sounded a bit nervous “Hm?”“The thing is, I don’t want our friendship to ever end and, um, well…”Janice looked quizzical.“I just want us to stay friends forever!” He grinned sheepishly “That’s all.”“Steve,” she held out her hand. “We’re always gonna be friends.”He took it. “No matter what?”She pulled him into a hug. “No matter what.”Steve smiled. “Thanks Janice.” He hugged her back. “You’re the best.”-Janice choked up on the memory. She promised him…she even promised him…but no, she had to do it, she HAD to. Quickly, she scurried on home.Lay down a list of what is wrong The things you've told him all along And pray to God he hears you And pray to God he hears youSteve busted open his front door in rage.“Hey!” his father called. “The hells wrong with you boy?”He wasn’t listening to him, his mind was on other things. Janice wanted to just ditch him? After everything he had done for her? What the hell? Well, that was fine, he didn’t want anything more to do with her anymore anyway.Grabbing a suitcase out of his closet, he threw it on the bed and quickly zipped it open. Opening his bottom drawer, he pulled out all of his clothes and threw them in the suitcase. Repeating this process for all the other drawers, he zipped up his full suitcaseThere was nothing more for him in this town, he picked up his wallet with sixty-seven dollars in it—the most it had ever carried—and rushed into his fathers room. Grabbing the keys off his bureau, he ran back through the living room and out the front door.“Hey!” his father got up off the couch where he was sitting watching TV and hustled out the door after his son. “Come back with my keys!”Steve didn’t listen, he jumped into his fathers mashed up Chevy, plugged the keys into the ignition and pulled out of the driveway.“Where are you going?” his father shouted. He drove off.Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a lifeJanice unlocked the door to her four story home and scuttled inside. She was still crying as she climbed the first set of stairs to her room. She had done the right thing, she told herself. She couldn’t live with Steve anymore, she couldn’t have him in her life. She needed to move on. But he was everything to her. She tugged at her hair. No he wasn’t. Yes, he was. The voice in the back of her head continued to argue with her. He was the only one who has ever been there for you through thick and thin, and he is the only one you know you can rely on. But…but…But nothing Janice, he’s your best friend and you know it. You know what you did wasn’t reasonable.Oh god, Janice realized. What have I done?As he begins to raise his voice You lower yours and grant him one last choice Drive until you lose the road Or break with the ones you've followedAfter driving for what seemed like an eternity, Steve pulled onto the main road and pushed the pedal to the floor. He literally sped out of that town faster than a gazelle on steroids. He will do one of two things He will admit to everything Or he'll say he's just not the same And you'll begin to wonder why you came Janice quickly dialed Steve’s number into her cell phone and hit the CALL key. She paced up and down her room quickly and bit her bottom lip. Please pick up Steve, she pleaded, please pick up.-On the outskirts of town Steve’s cell phone buzzed to life. He pulled it out of his pocket and threw it out the window where it broke into pieces on the asphalt. Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitternessAnd I would have stayed up with you all night Janice heard a series of three high pitched beeps before she dropped her phone onto the carpet, collapsed into a little ball and bawled.
