The Problems with Friendship
By: Effervescent Shine
Summary: Tess and Isabel both think about friendship
Disclaimer: Jason Katims owns Roswell, and all the characters associated with the show.
Author's Note: The first part of this story, Differences, is told from Tess' POV, and the second part, Similarities, is told from Isabel's POV. They are talking about each other.
Differences
We walk differently. I glide, smoothly, seductively. Like I know everyone is watching. She marches, confidently. In total control of where she is going. We make the best pair. Together, we could turn every head in the room- guys and girls. We are great together. At least, we were great together. We used to be best friends. Almost closer than that. Just like sisters, really. She always said that she would rather have me for a sister instead of him as a brother. When we were younger, we used to make up stories about how much fun it would be to be sisters. Stories about sharing a room and talking all night, and getting up for midnight snacks. Stories about sharing clothes, and sharing secrets. And when we got older, it almost was like that. We spent so much time together, talking about everything. It used to surprise people, when they found out how close we were. They thought we would be too different. Well, there were differences between us, but the similarities balanced us out. That's a good word for us, balanced. I used to think of us as day and night, light and dark. One is not complete without the other. That was us. We were perfect. Now, here on earth, I think I see traces of how it used to be. She is serious, commanding. I am bubbly and fun. It is enough the same to make me hope. But I was wrong. Because here, away from our home planet, things have changed. And while the differences are there for everyone to see, it is the similarities that are hard to find.
Similarities
We are so similar it scares me. At first, when we met, and she reminded me of me, I was glad. I figured that I would have a friend, someone to talk to, to do all that girlie stuff with. And then we found out she was an alien too, and the similarities struck me again. But this time, raw panic set in.
She is so much like me.
And I didn't know why I was so afraid. If you think about it logically, I should have been elated, she was like a long-lost sister I had just discovered. I could talk about things with her that I couldn't with anybody else, and she would understand. We wouldn't have to get to know each other, she already knows me.
She already knows me. There, there's that fear again. How could I be friends with someone who is so connected to a life I want to forget? Well, maybe forget is not the right word, because I don't really remember it anyway. But she does. She remembers me, the real me. And I don't want to have to deal with that. So every time I'm around her and I feel that pang of familiarity, that 'this is right, this is how it should be' feeling, I have to push it away, push her away, because we are too similar, and I can see parts of me in her that I don't want to think about. Not in any lifetime.