<h4>Chapter 553: Drifting Apart While Clinging to the Lost</h4>


    Lily sucked in a deep breath and steadied herself to continue the tale. "That was really the core of our rtionship when we were young. Ste would be with me every step of the way. Now some things I''d pull her into. The big one was reading. I started trying that out before we got to school and I tried reading to her. She''d even sit and listen to me thought truthfully I doubt it made much sense to either of us just yet.


    "We did y with other kids at that age, but I don''t remember them and none of them are that important you know? She was my best friend and I was hers. Even as babies we knew that if we had each other, we could do anything. We slept together a fair bit you know? One set of parents would take both kids for the night so the other set could get away. It happened so often that we probably spent more time in bed together then apart." Lily let out a forced giggle that didn''t sound anything other than pained.


    "Then we started school I suppose. That was terrifying for a younger me. I didn''t know what to do. There was all these people and I didn''t like ANY of them. Ste to the rescue though. She found me crying in a bush out in the yground easily and stuck by me. Promised to defend me from anyone. I still remember it to this day. She said ''It''ll be ok. I''ll pwotect you. I won''t let anyone be mean to my bwest fwend''. She might have been missing a few teeth at the time…


    "She lived up to her promise for a long time though. A few kids tried to pick on me. Normally boys. They''d call me a cry baby and talk about how I didn''t really deserve to be there because I couldn''t deal with not having my parents. Ste jumped in front of the first ones and told them off, called them ''Big meanies that only felt good picking on little girls''. They didn''t like that at all so they tried to punch her but she dodged a few clumsy strikes, using her natural athleticism till a teacher came along and saved us. She was my hero though.


    "It happened a few more times, but what ended it was when someone finally got a hit in on me and I REALLY started crying. Ste came flying in from the side and jumped the poor kid that attacked me. She bit and scratched at him, and didn''t let him go. By the end of it he was bleeding quite a lot, actually ended up with scars from it, or so my mother said. A teacher came over and asked what on earth was going on and… somehow Ste didn''t get in trouble for it. She was defending me.


    "Sometimes I wonder if that was the beginning of the end" whispered Lily softly. The story stalled for a bit as Lily gathered herself but Vivian could see how this all ended. The painting may only be partially finished but the lines had all been drawn in. Kat was getting most of it but her mind didn''t want to connect the dots. Refusing to consider what horror awaited Lily at the end of her tale.


    "Never mind…" said Lily taking in a deep breath. "It probably wasn''t. Anyway, after that was elementary school and THEY had a library. I''d find myself there when I could. Ste would join me sometimes but she was always very sporty. She''d drag me out to the big free for all ser game many a time. This is where she started to gather other friends. In elementary school.


    "That was ok though. It was always Ste and Lily, the two strange best friends that didn''t share a lot inmon. We had each other''s back though. I''d help her with homework every day after school except Tuesday because that was sports practice. I think she yed ser but I don''t know for sure… it changed to tennister on. I remember that clearly.


    "Anyway, we started to have a friend group. I don''t really remember any of their names and there was just so many. I didn''t really talk to the rest of them. Ste was enough for me. I''d hang out with the others for her, and that was all. Eventually I started to help them with homework sometime as well, inter elementary years but not all the time. Mostly just the hard stuff. Ste I''d do it with almost every day.


    "On the weekends I''d still get together with her and one of our parents would watch us. Sometimes we''d go out. We went bike riding, roller ding, mountain climbing, you name it. Ste always said that we lived in my world throughout the week at school, and so I could spend the weekend living in hers. A nice sentiment I suppose. And a cruel irony if looked at fromter on…"


    Lily sighed, the lights dimming in her eyes again. Kat was now enraptured in the tale, her sadness mostly forgotten and reced by great joy at hearing Lily talk and even greater joy from hearing about the girl''s past. So Lily continued, "Perhaps I should skip forward a bit. Nothing much happened in Elementary School other than that. A few more bullies tried things, but they never worked. I had Ste and she had a posse.


    "But thene High School. Everything changed. For both me and her. Firstly, Ste got really into tennis. A few friends stuck around for that, but a lot left. That didn''t matter because she picked up a whole knew set of them. I do know there names but… they don''t really matter either. I don''t want to think about it.


    "Anyway, we were in High School and Ste had started to… really develop. She wasn''t me little red haired best friend now she was… ok she was HOT. Ahead of her years in many ways. At this point… ok well it isn''t really fair topare but in general well… she had long red hair, though less red then Kat''s, and she I doubt she was as tall. Oh and she was tanned from all her time out in the sun. Something I never really managed.


    "That was when I started noticing things. Realising what I found attractive and what I didn''t. Something happened that first year at high school, that I buried deeply for some time. Still it wouldn''t really matter that first year.


    "The second and third though. That''s where all my problems were. See, once she got into tennis Ste started to ypetitively and she was good. Suddenly she was one of, if not the most popr girl in school. She had a big group that followed her, a bunch of boys that were interested in her, and she didn''t exactly have time for the nerdy best friend any more.


    "I actually did try. See I… no I won''t say it just yet. Anyway, I tried to be around her as much as I could at school… but we didn''t see each other for homework often and asionally I''d do both sets alone. When we were in school, I didn''t really get to talk to her with other people monopolising her time…


    "Then they started talking about boys and how good they looked. Something I just… couldn''tprehend. That… I think… was the real beginning of the end. See… before that, she yed tennis because she enjoyed it. She was popr because she was attractive and skilled. She stayed popr because she yed the game of school."


    Lily let out a long sigh but didn''t stop long. "She started to pick on other… kids? Were we kids at that point? I guess so… but I doubt Ste would like to hear that. Looking back on it… I wish I''d stopped her but… after I told her off for it once and she berated me for ''getting worked up over nothing'' I didn''t have the heart to deny her.


    "So the terror began. She established herself at the top of the pecking order and what little time I spent actually talking to her more or less vanished. I didn''t even notice it at the time. I still sat with her. Still ate lunch. Still lived next to her… but I know now she wasn''t my friend any more.


    "This all came to a head one day when a boy asked to talk to her alone after school. So obviously she invited all of her friends… even me. I think it was the first time she''d spoken to me directly in months at this point and even though I had a bad feeling… well I went with her… and it was ufortable. I didn''t like what I saw… and I ignored most of it.


    "What I saw was Ste systematically tearing into this poor boy. Devan? I think his name might have been. Pointing everything possible that was wrong with his appearance, his life choices, and talking about how he had the gall to ask her out when she didn''t even like him. How much of an idiot he was. Still… that was nothingpared to the idiot I was about to be."