"Cat, hurry up! You're so slow!" I laugh breathlessly as you run ahead of me in your favorite color, that bright blue when the sky is just like the ones in the fairytales. Your brown hair whips as you run, unhighlighted and tangling in on itself.

"J - Jade!"

"C'mon, Cat!"

I force myself into one last burst of speed, catching up right up behind you and then tackling you to the ground. We fall in a laughing tangle of limbs, the hard ground taken into complete irrelevancy. We do nothing but lie there and laugh at nothing in particular for a few blissful minutes, devoid of everything but happiness. When the both of us finally manage to take a calming breath we turn on our sides to face each other. Physically, your eyes are same color they always were. That blue-green that always swirled between the sky and the grass, never able to linger in one place for too long. Your eyes used to be bright with curiosity and open like the sea. Now you're the ice; cold and hurtful to touch.

"Cat?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me we won't let anything tear us apart."

"I promise, Jade."

We met before we had dreams and hopes, aspirations and desires. We met before things got complicated.

"So what's your name?"

"Caterina."

"I'm just gonna call you Cat."

"Then I guess I'll just call you Jade."

I remember when you used to mumble and look at the ground because you were too shy to speak and how nervous you'd be in front of other people.

"I wish I was like you, Cat."

"Why?"

"You always know what to say and you're not afraid to say it. I shake just thinking about telling the teacher what I ate for supper."

"Well, whenever you're up there just imagine it's only me, kay?"

"Okay."

I used to have to teach you how to talk to other people. There were times when I practically preached to you what I thought about people because I was desperate for you to understand and the more you understood the more you could accomplish. I showed you how to do mock presentations so you wouldn't stumble over the words you needed to get your point across. I taught you how to stand with confidence, told you how people actually had trouble detecting nervousness in the speaker. It was giving you your voice and now it's the voice that wounds me and cuts deep every day, the same blue-green eyes that slice through my silence when you look at me.

With your newfound voice you started speaking your mind. People were shocked simply by the fact that you spoke, so no one protested when they saw how fast your confidence was growing. You started volunteering first instead of sitting quietly in the back, talking instead of whispering.

"A performing arts high school?"

"Yeah, do you know how amazing it will be there?"

I was already lagging behind you before we got accepted. Your confidence always pushed you five steps ahead of me; you developed an entirely new personality without even looking back to check on me. It was easy for you now; to step onto the stage and perform whatever you wanted without a second thought.

Beck always said he liked headstrong girls.

"Beck? As in Beck Oliver?"

"Why not? He's hot."

"Jade," I say tiredly. "This is our first year here; you just met him."

"So?"

"So -"

"Hey, Jade!" He's standing there with a smirk on his lips, hand combing through his hair.

"Gotta go, Cat. I'll see you around." You toss the words carelessly over your shoulder, greet him with a kiss. That was the first time I ever really felt the way your coldness had burned me. I'm never sure which is which; are you burning or chilling me? Sometimes I think it's the first; it hurts so much I want to tear at myself and everything around me. It brings painful tears to my eyes and choking sobs to my throat. But other times I'm just so numb; just lying there and then I start to tremble softly, little sounds squeezing past my lungs as I cry. You've changed so much.

"Bye." I whisper softly, even though you're already walking away. I've created my own destruction.

We still sit at the same table together at lunch, but we never talk. I'm nothing to you anymore, even though I made you.

I watched you turn from shy Jade to outspoken Jade, outspoken Jade to confident Jade, confident Jade to controlling Jade.

I watched you turn from my Jade to someone I don't even know anymore.

*sigh* It's halfway decent...