Bender

"I'm tired of your crap, Alfred," I spat, glaring into the cold blue eyes of the boy I used to call my best friend. His face, usually glowing with energy and happiness was now weary and unreadable. Sighing, he turned away from me, slowly walking back down his street.

"I'm sorry, Al," he mumbled, his voice low and filled with sadness. "I didn't want it to end this way. I just thought that you of all people-."

"Me?" Angry tears jumped to my eyes. "Alfred, I thought you enjoyed my company! We've been best mates since before we were born! Remember you said, I…I-!"I choked back a sob. "And now you want nothing to do with me? I don't understand, how could you be so-."

"So what?" Alfred whirled around to face me, a dangerous glint in his glare. "Alfred, don't do this, Alfred, don't do that, Alfred, I'm telling mum on you, Alfred, listen to me! Dammit Alice…" The anger became a sympathetic plea as he took my hand in his much larger ones. "I'm sick of being treated like your puppet. Like I'm some extension of you, like I'm just a tool. Dammit, I'm human too, ya know? When we were younger I didn't mind so much." He grinned wryly at the memory. "I was new to the neighborhood, I kept getting chased by that creepy chick, and you protected me. I'm grateful for what you did for me all those years ago, but now you won't let me live. Why can't I decide who my friends are? Why can't I decide what games we play, where we go, how to dress? I'm in middle school but it's as if I'm still a child in your eyes, Alice."

I gawked at him. "I…I just thought…you never told me," my weak protest unable to undo seven years' worth of the damage my obliviousness had done to our friendship. I sniffed, making my heart a stone as I prepared for his response to my next and last question. "…how long have you felt this way…?"

Alfred shifted uncomfortably, refusing to meet my pleading gaze. "…since the fight," he whispered. I stiffened. I remembered that day all too well, when I was eleven and he was only ten. My mother had brought me a tea set all the way from London when she returned from a business trip that summer. "Only share it with someone you trust," She told me. "Someone you treasure more than even this china set." I had plenty of girl friends to invite for tea, Elizabeta, Francine, even Angelique. But I knew that the one I trusted the most was Alfred. I showed him the beautiful blue and white lacquer, beaming up at him for approval. Yet his disinterest, apparent in his face at the sight of a tea set instead of something more 'exciting' than a model airplane hurt me. I shouted at him, accusing him of being a bad friend, and he yelled back, screaming about the stupidity of tea parties and stupid girly things like them. In my rage, I poured my cup of iced peppermint tea over his head, and in turn, he seized my tea cup and hurled it into the pond in my backyard. It was the only fight we'd ever had. Even after he fished the now chipped tea cup out of the pond, even after he apologized, even after we swore never to fight again, I felt in my heart that it would never be the same.

As he turned away from me, I realized how wrong I had been. I wanted to shout, to run up to him and grab him by the arm and lead him back to me like I had when we were younger. I wanted him to grin in that stupid way of his and sing 'Just kidding, Alice!', so I could call him a stupid twit and we could be friends again. But he didn't turn around. And he didn't look back, even when I fell to my knees and sobbed.

"Please…don't go…"

-END-CHAPTER-ONE-