Broken Friendship

3rd, of November

Loud music and constant chattering efficiently destroyed the evenings silence. It was ignored though from the people assembled that were also the cause of the unusual noise.

Margaret Evan looked up from her conversation with one of the guests when she spotted Sarah Jane -her best friend - running forward over the extensive proberty that was the Evan´s asset, waving her hands in greeting., her long brown plaits whipping in time to her steps. She was laughing and her dark eyes shined brightly, happy to finally see her best friend again.

The blond girl hastily excused herself from her previous interlocutor and stepped forward to take Jane into her arms in a high-spirited embrace.

They talked for awhile, their youthful laughter echoing through the air, when suddenly someone disturbed them by drawing Margaret into their arms. "Happy birthday, sweetheart! Long time no see." A slightly hoarse voice congratulated the freshly turned 14 years old girl.

Margaret grinned and returned the hug, all the while curiously eyeing the package her aunt was holding securely in one of her hands.

"There, that´s for you. I hope you like it." She said, pushing the present to Margaret´s chest. The old woman winked once at Jane in a friendly fashion and turned to go and stand with the other adults, leaving her granddaughter and Jane to discover the contents of the package on their own.

"Come on Jane, let´s get inside!" Margaret said, pulling her into said house.

No sooner had they plopped onto the couch than Margaret was impatiently tearing at the gift wrapping paper. Jane was left to fend of the scraps that were flying her way from her best friends wild aussult on the unsuspecting present.

"Oh, look Jane. It´s a bracelet and what a beautiful one at that!" Margaret shirped when she had finally removed the whole paper, waving the bracelet in front of Janes face to get her attention.

Jane´s expression became slightly sad when she caught sight of the sparkling jewellery, abruptly remembering her grandmother.

She cautiously fingered the object while her best friend was falling upon the chocolate that had also been stuck in the present, not noticing Jane´s sudden change of mood.

"I had once almost the same... my grandmother gave it to me for Christmas..." Jane murmured more to herself than to the other girl.

An unconfortable silence settled over them as they remembered the horrible car accident one year ago that had cruelly demanded two victims. One of them had been Jane´s grandmother.

Margaret scratched her head in discomfort, unsure of what to answer.

In the end she comfortingly lay an arm across her friend´s shoulder and - with the words: "Today is my birthday - brooding is not permitted!" - she stuffed a large piece of cake into Jane´s mouth, smearing it over her whole face in the process.

****

Monday, 4 th, of November

Jane strolled slowly through the long corridors of the local comprehensive school, absent-mindedly watching the other students go past her, noting that some of them looked truely worn out from an strenuous weekend of constant celebration.

Jane smiled inwardly, pitying the one´s that were especially heavily shuffling through the hall, trying in vain to block out the noise to ease the pounding ache in their heads.

Her eyes whatsoever abruptly flickered to the side when she heard her name being shouted across the corridor, earning isolated complaints from some of the students that were currently pressing their palms tightly against their foreheads, fleeing into the nearby classrooms.

Jane´s lips curled up in a cheerful smile when she spotted her best friend, but died in the creation when she also noted Margaret´s sour expression.

"Hi Margi, what´s up?" She began, but was interrupted by a hard glare directed at her. "What is wrong, you ask?! I tell you what´s wrong - my bracelet is gone, that´s wrong. And I suspect it was stolen..." She trailed off, locking eyes with Jane. After a moment of strained quietness the dark-haired girl frowned, her face contorted in disbelief. "You aren´t suspecting me, are you?!"

Margaret remained wordless.

"Margaret! We are best friends, I would never steal anything from you. You just have to belief me!"

Again silence was her only answer, disturbing the accused girl greatly.

"Darn it! It´s only a stupid bracelet, don´t make such a fuss over it!" "Aha! You are admiting it then?!" It was more of a statement than a question, not requiring any repley. They stared each other down for a while longer until Jane sadly shook her head in defeat, not trusting what was just happening.

"Don´t pretend, I´ve watched you yesterday. You were running around with my bracelet the whole evening, not once putting it down." The blond teenager accused once again, putting her hands onto her hips. Jane got angrier by the second, not understanding her friends ignorance. "I can´t believe you, Margaret. What´s gotten into you?!" "What´s gotten into YOU!" Margaret yelled back, running of in a fury. Jane only huffed, also stomping off to her next class before the warning bell would rang.

It was lunch time. The majority of the students hastily stormed out of their class rooms to manage to grab a good seat in the cafeteria.

Jane was not in a hurry today, her mind still trying to comprehend the incident from the morning.

While she strode towards her goal, remaining in deep thought, she only became aware of reaching the main hall when she ran straight into another student. They tumbled to the ground, Jane landing on top of the unfortunate person. She struggled to her feet and extended a hand to help the other up as well. "Sorry." She mumbled in embarrassment, bowing her head and slipping past the student into the cafeteria without a second glance.

The room was filled with a mass of students, sitting around the many tables, chattering on about last weekend, giggling loudly and sharing their food with each other.

Jane looked around in search of her own clique, finally spotting a blond mopp of fuzzy hair.

She strolled over to the group, intending to seat herself into the last free chair.

Suddenly a bag was thrown onto that said chair, successfully occupying it. Jane looked up towards the "culprit" in uncomprehending wonder. A pair of midnight blue eyes met hers - blue and brown clashing immediately.

"It´s already occupied!" Margaret said, her tone emotionless. Jane only shrugged, about to draw over a chair from a nearby table when Margaret`s voice sounded once more.

"And any other as well!"

Jane looked confused for a moment, but suddenly understood only all to well, turning around and running off without another word, her eyes burning with unshed tears.

"He Margaret, why did you do this? Aren´t you two best friends anymore?" A skinny red-haired girl piped up, earning an annoyed look from the addressed (addressee) to teenager. The girl swiftly ducked her head back behind an enourmous, thick book, pretending to read it with great interest.

"Hi guys!" Andrea greeted when reached the table, plumping a ragged, black bag to the ground, whiping a thick strand of black hair out of her face. "Uh, look over there. Do you see that bloke at the window.... yeah, the one right next to Jonny." She sighed dreamily, resting her chin upon hands that stuck out conspicuously because of gaudy pink nail varnish adorning them.

"Okay, okay I see him... " Margaret tried to pacify her friend when the other girl again and again pointed in an excited manner at the mentioned boy, earning strange looks from other people.

"That´s Georg. He is Kevin´s best friend!"

Silence.

"You know - Kevin! That handsome sweety from the basketball team. We were going out yesterday." Again a heartfelt sigh loosened itsself from within her throat.

"I don´t know any Kevin." The redhead from earlier stated, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.

"Wait a moment! I think I have a photo of him." Andrea shirped, beginning to rummage through her belongings, spilling some to the ground, creating sounds of rustling and clattering.

"AHA! Here it is." She triumphantly held up a slightly torn picture, smiling brightly.

Margaret bend forward in interest to get a better look. "That´s an old school photo, isn´t it?" She asked casually, getting a `yes´ from Andrea.

Suddenly Margaret´s features paled visible when she notices Jane in the picture, standing somewhat to the side and - more importantly - wearing a sparkling bracelet. Margaret´s brows furrowed. A bracelet that looked exactly like her own.

Oh my...

She realized her mistake in an instant, becoming even whiter...

Andrea had stuck her hands once again into the bag, apparently searching again for something else. Suddenly her head popped up and she revealed a shining bracelet.

"I guess that´s yours Margaret. I took it yesterday from the table after your party to impress Kevin with it." She put it with a charming smile right into its owner´s hand. "You know how dumb boys can be." She whispered in a conspiratory fashion, leaning into Margaret`s shoulder and chattering on without a care in the world.

Her torrent of words was only broken when suddenly Margaret stood up, fleeing from the cafeteria in hurry, receiving odd glances from some of the students assembled.

****

Her steps took her to a small bridge right before the park ended. She leaned heavily against the railing, letting recently suppressed tears finally slide freely down her face. It didn´t matter that the teacher would reprimand her afterwards for skipping lesson. She had just lost her best friend.

Margaret, how could you do this to me? How could you say those things? How could you even think them?!

"Is our friendship so insignificant to you?" She sobbed out loud, not caring if anybody would hear it.

Unexpectatly two arms wrapped around her waist from behind, pressing her back into a warm body.

"No, it isn´t. I´m so sorry. You have to forgive me... please forgive me. Please." A voice pleaded, breaking slightly owing to the persons own distress.

Jane stood frozen for a while, but - recognizing Margaret´s voice - melded back into her best friend, feeling strangely comforted by the apologizes being softly whipspered into her right ear.

A weak smile tentatively graced Jane´s lips and she slowly lifted an arm and put her bare hand over Margaret´s.

They stood like that for long moments, enjoying the warmth of each other while looking out over the gurgling river.

Jane started slightly when she suddenly felt something cold and metallic being pushed into her hand and gazed down in wonderment.

Her eyes glimmered with fresh tears when she recognized the object as Margaret´s bracelet, hesitantly twisting her neck to lock eyes with her best friend.

Margaret nodded encouragingly as she held their eye contact, a warm smile adorning her features. "It´s a gift. Please, accept it."

A pleasant feeling of contentment spread from the pit of Jane´s stomach throughout her whole body as she held the silvery jewellery tightly in her fingers.

"Thanks."

End

****

Well, what do you think?

I know, it´s rather pointless, but please review anyway…

^-^