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    She used to be my friend. Well, I suppose she still is, in a way. I can’t really accept that a friend as good as her was lying all along about everything.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to accept that.

    We met on a playground. At fourteen, I was a little old for playgrounds, but it’s not like I was playing on the slides or anything. I was only there because I was babysitting my little sis and she was getting antsy stuck at home. I didn’t really want to leave the coolness of my air-conditioned house, but given the choice between being a little warm and a grumpy, whiny eight-year-old wreaking havoc in the house, I’d much prefer the former option.

    As I was watching her from my shady spot on the bench underneath a large oak tree, a small, slim girl with long blonde hair quietly sat down next to me. She seemed a few years younger than me, and she looked to be a whole head shorter than me. She said nothing, just gave me a small nod of her head in greeting. I was perfectly content to just sit in silence but apparently she had other ideas.

    “Hey there,” she said softly after a few minutes. She still wasn’t looking at me, but given that I was the only one within earshot of her, it was pretty obvious that it was to me she was speaking.

    “Uh… hi,” I replied, shifting around uncomfortably. My movements must have caught her eye, because she stopped observing the kids playing on the playground and turned her head to watch me instead. I, on the other hand, deliberately kept staring at the play area, only looking at the girl with my peripheral vision.

    “I’m Lucy. Turned twelve a few weeks ago.” A long pause. I guess she was expecting me to respond or something. “So… what’s your name?”

    “Emma Rose.”

    “Hmm, pretty. Wait, is Rose your last name or middle name?”

    I sighed. I should just start introducing myself as Emma;  I’ve had to explain how my name works way too many times. “No, both names are part of my first name. Emma Rose is one name.”

    “Oh, okay.” More silence. This was just getting weird. Although I guess if she wasn’t going to leave and saying nothing just makes things awkward, I might as well keep the conversation going, right? Yeah. Might as well. Maybe I can convince her to run off and bother someone else.

    I took a deep breath and turned to face her, momentarily taken aback by the vividness of her brilliant green eyes. “Not gonna play with the other kids?” I asked. She shook her head.

    “I don’t really know any of them. I just moved here last month from across the state,” she explained.

    “Oh, okay. No friends yet?” Another shake of the head. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll make plenty of friends once school starts.” I gave her a small reassuring smile, but it didn’t seem to reassure her at all.

    “I guess.” She shrugged, and that dreaded awkward silence returned yet again. Luckily, she broke it before it got too unbearable. “I just don’t want to be lonely until then. There’s a lot of time between now and when school starts,” she added.