Friday 13th March 2026 20:48

Friday 13th

(true story)

Friday 13th, the moment I have been waiting for, I had to do it. It was just a text, just a text, I repulsively repeated to myself as my fingers tapped rapidly across the keyboard. The moment I have been stressing for all week, what might happen, our friendship, everything we built together, the plans we made where we did everything together, it was time.

Send

I clicked it, no going back, just re-reading it to myself as the words pound in my head.

‘Hey Amélie so I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I was going to tell you in person but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. So basically at this moment of time it is best for us to take a break from friendship right now. I know it’s not ideal and I am sorry I know it’s really confusing, but I just can’t do this right now. Know that this isn’t book closed, it’s just a wait until the next sequel. I really hope you understand.

Xoxo Lizzie’

I glanced at it again, was it too much? Too fake? And how would she understand, today we were laughing about inside jokes, 5 hours later I texted her saying I want a break, everything was so complicated. I just wanted to curl up in bed, put my headphones on and stare into space listening to music. I knew things would get messy, but I never thought it would get this bad. At least I knew I had one person by my side, my best friend Lylah. She guided me through all of this, it was comforting.

Little did I know she, and almost every other one of my friends would turn their backs on me. Especially when I needed them most.

Next day at school. I came in with my head down, for the first time in my life, school felt weirder, it felt more depressing, and those voices around the corridor, which I used to not even hear, were now louder than ever. This had never happened before. I didn't know what was going on, were people talking about me? This felt like a new concept, as I was still processing it until Lylah came round, then I seemed to forget about it for a while. At lunch I sat with her, my other friends and then suddenly, I could hear the footsteps of someone else get progressively louder, it was Amélie. I looked at her, and we locked eyes, and suddenly I reminisced about all the good times we had, second guessing my choice of text I sent her last night. Our life plans, how at 18 we would sign up for the traitors and go do that together, go to the same university, have the best time of our lives until we are 22. I go do my PHD while she moves to Paris to go date her dream Parisian boyfriend. At 25, we go do the show race across the world together, as a celebration of me getting my doctorate while she also helps me find a boyfriend and soon to be husband. We get married at 26 and have 2 kids, one at 27/28 one at 29/30. Then we would live our perfect life together, forever, until the day we died.

For context- that never happened, but it doesn’t mean I don’t still remember it. Suddenly I regret every decision I made last night, until I remember why I did it. It was like she was manipulating me this entire friendship, it was all so enclosed, I never felt free. And the lies, the lies still pounding in my head. The fake stories, the ones about my friends which led me to reluctantly have to pull away from them. The trust was broken, for both sides. She sat down at a 90° angle from me and we both sat in silence, eating lunch as normal, but it wasn’t. The space felt colder, conversations were more strained. I wondered if they were talking about me behind my back as I shoved food into my mouth feeling anger, disappointment, stress, relief and sadness all at the same time. Were they choosing sides secretly behind our backs? I felt like I was shrinking, disappearing piece by piece into a shadow of darkness and worry.

This stayed like this, normal, just quieter, until Thursday, the day where everything started to fall apart. Recalling this makes my heart feel on fire, while my spine shivers all the way up my back. It came slow though, like a heavy cloud pressing down on my chest. The silence between Amélie and me was deafening. I could feel the weight of judgment from people who barely knew half of what was going on, whispers felt like knives that sliced across my skin. This is the day where I couldn’t hold it in anymore. All my life I have been some perfect child to everyone, to my friends, my parents, teachers, literally everyone I ever knew. The girl who had perfect grades, perfect hair, good at everything, a bubbly personality, and someone who never had any problems. This wasn’t true however, of course, everyone had their own life problems, just no one knew until this day, because yes I never told anyone, but also no one bothered to ask anyway. This topic was always something that I didn’t really enjoy talking about so whenever someone says ‘are you ok’ I just reply with ‘yeah’. Why burden someone with my problems that they probably can’t even fix. There was no point anyway, it would just make me seem like an ‘attention seeker’ or a ‘pick me’ as I have been called.

I was wandering around slowly, bored but I still strolled with purpose. The breaking point came. Two of my really close friends came up to me, they exclaimed and asked why I was ‘blanking Amélie’ and how she was mad at me, also spreading rumors that were far from the truth. This made me starstruck because I honestly didn’t think she would’ve stooped that low. She beat me to the race, she told them first, I was too slow, they all turned their backs on me.

That wasn’t what I meant when I said I wanted a break, I didn’t want to hurt her, that wasn’t the point of this. What I was hoping was that we would take a little break, then when the time was right, I would tell her why, and we would rebuild our friendship. Of course we had to get in a fight though, meaning I never got the chance to tell her that. That I missed her, deeply, but I guess the world has a plan for us, even when it feels like the whole world is against me.

I went to tell my other friend, Grace. It felt like and it still feels like she is the only one I could fully trust. The only one who was there for me when I complained, when I didn’t have to live up to the standards of being ‘perfect’. There were similarities between us, we were both known for being amazing, bubbly and someone with no problems. We could relate, and for once it finally seemed like I wasn’t alone, we could hold each other while we shared our problems. It was.. nice, it was like I could finally breathe and be myself.

Things between me and Amélie, we eventually came to a mutual understanding, but nothing was the same ever again.

Laughing about inside jokes between our water bottles- gone

Playing hide and seek in the forest- gone

Doing dances together- gone

Those sleepovers we would have every Christmas- gone

They’re all gone. Forever. I still remember and cherish every second of those times, even if they were when she lied to me. I wonder if she still thinks about me, about us.

This isn’t a story about the day me and Amélie had a friendship breakup, it's about the day I became a teenager.