I shivered from the unrelenting cold in my 7th grade math classroom.

It was the fourth day of school, the

heater was already broken, and the cold, grey walls didn’t help much either. I had always despised math,

but it was even worse this year as I didn’t have any friends. I’d finally escaped the hell of Online School,

only to be thrust into a completely new world which I didn’t have any experience with. All of this

would’ve been fine. If only I had friends, which I sadly did not. Preoccupied by my thoughts, I did not

notice someone coming to sit beside me and started muttering curses at my teacher and the class.

Suddenly I heard a small chuckle from my left, I whipped my head up, red coloring my cheeks.

“I-uh, did you hear that?” I weakly stuttered out. This only made the person laugh harder. They stopped

after a few second and held out their hand

“I’m Diya. What’s your name?”

“I’m Ananya.”

This was how I met my to be (ex) best friend. For most, this is a cherished moment, I on the other hand,

have found myself wishing it never happened. It wasn’t always like this, there was once a time where she

was one of the closest people to me, but that time is long gone. Where we used to be attached to the hip,

now it would be a miracle to find us in the same room. But, let's go back before all this and see how the

Break started.

Seventh grade was our best year, we both had so much in common! It was a relief for me to find someone

whom I could relate so much to. And at the same time, I’d also started a new friendship with a girl from

my community, her name was Ishita, we didn’t have as much in common, but she was still very fun to be

with. I had not yet realized that I would one day come to cherish her friendship above all. This story isn’t

about her though, so let’s get back on track.

I saw Diya everyday, and you would think that it got tiring after a while, seeing the same face for an hour

day after day. Not for us. It only brought us closer together. That year, summer came all too soon and we

both were devastated that we couldn’t see each other anymore.

During these months I got much closer to Ishita, both our families met each other and went on trips

together very often. She absolutely adored my siblings, and her brother was well on his way to become a
mini me. We both joked about how our siblings loved the other more than they did us. The months went

by fast and it was time to go back to school.

Many of my friends had moved away during the summer, and my once flourishing friend group now had

only 3 people left. This year, Diya and I didn’t have any class together, but it seemed that the same thing

had happened to her. So we both talked to the rest of friends and asked if they would like to merge groups

with the other. They all agreed and soon we started sitting together during lunch. Everything was great for

the first couple months, we all got along and it all seemed perfect. ‘Seemed’ being the word in focus.

I didn’t even mind the small jabs she made in the beginning. Didn’t mind how she tried to cut off almost

everyone else from my life. Didn’t mind the manipulation. Because it was always directed towards me.

But once she realized that it wasn’t having the desired effect, she started going after Ishita. The comments

started small, always seeming like jokes and having an air of fun around them. But soon, they turned into

poisonous judgments. Her ideas were always shot down and talked over. And she was ignored most of the

time. Ishita was still an angel,never speaking bad about Diya, even when she was horrible to her.

It only took me about two weeks to get fed up with it. I could handle everything said about me, but no one

ever, ever, insulted Ishita. But I'd still wanted to respect her dignity. So, one day, I told Diya that I needed

to talk to her privately for a second. She was confused but relented and I led her to the courtyard as there

was usually no one nearby. That day, in the garden of Coppell Middle School West, me and Diya had our

first actual fight. I talked to her about how she was behaving rudely towards Ishita and how it made both

me and her feel uncomfortable. I’d barely finished my sentence when she started screaming at me. Saying

that I didn't care about her anymore, that I was being inconsiderate, and how she was disgusted that I

would even try to accuse her of being disrespectful to Ishita. I was taken aback by her words, I had neve

meant to seem uncaring, I had merely spoken the truth. But obviously, I couldn’t control my emotions

very well at the time and screamed back at her. This went on for a couple minutes, until she shoved me,

making my head bump into the pillar behind me. My vision became blurry and I couldn’t move much. I

saw her shaking her head and watched her retreating form with tears in my eyes. I felt a burning pain in

the base of my skull, but tried my best to get up. My head was filled with lead, everything was too bright,
too loud and it was too overwhelming for me. I suddenly burst into sobs, partially because of the pain and

partially because I felt so betrayed at that moment. She had become one of my most trusted companions

in the past year, and I couldn’t bring myself to comprehend how she could just leave me like this. I

eventually found the strength to stop the tears and go back inside the cafeteria. My head still hurt and I

couldn’t see straight, so I did the only thing that seemed logical to me in that moment. I stumbled over to

Ishita, plopped myself beside her and rested my head on her shoulder. I vaguely remember hearing her

asking me if I was alright, to which I’m sure she got an incoherent mumble. I don’t recall much of that

day, only a burning hate in my heart for Diya and the resolve to never associate with her again. Sadly, I

still had to sit with her as the rest of my friends were not aware of this incident. But it wasn’t for long

because summer was beautifully hurried in its approach.

At the beginning of this year, me, Ishita and a couple of our other friends decided to split from the group

and start sitting together. It was, and still is the best decision I’ve ever made. As I got further away from

Diya, I realized just how toxic she'd been. I realized how badly she was affecting my perception of

myself. I have learned from this experience and, moving forward, will always try my best to stay away

from people like her, for I know that they will manipulate and cheat and lie, and still try to paint

themselves as a victim. Although this was a very bad friendship, I still got many gains from it, like the

people I now sit with. They are all amazing, wonderful and supportive people. Who I can always count

on.