True Friendship

"Star? Where are you? I came as fast as I could," I bounced straight up the stairs into my best friend's room, my phone still ringing with the latest text.

I felt myself involuntarily freeze when I entered the room. Star's normally pristine space looked like a war zone. Clothes were scattered along the floor near an upside down laundry basket. Pens, pencils, papers, binders, and notebooks were thrown from her ripped carnation pink backpack. Old tumbling and gymnastics trophies from Stars childhood lay at the base of a now dented wall. One particularly persistent trophy stuck out of the wall at an odd angle. Her makeup bag was scattered around the room. I saw a pack of eye shadow stuck on the ceiling fan.

I gawked at the room with a growing feeling of disbelief. This was not Star. Something major had happened.

Star herself was sitting on her futon beneath the only window in the room. She was staring out at the lights of the city. They looked like multi colored fireflies in a sea of twilight.

"Star? What's wrong?" I asked as I picked my way through the mess on the floor. Hopefully I wasn't stepping on anything important. It'd probably already be broken anyway. I shoved some pillows out of the way before plopping down on the extra fluffy duvet.

Star looked oddly calm considering the state of her room. She had her arms wrapped around an orange pillow in a massive death grip. Her eyeliner was smudged and a pimple on her forehead had somehow poked its way past her foundation. Her face was utterly passive. Her eyes hadn't left the window since I'd entered the room.

We sat like that for ages. I spent the time staring out the window and occasionally throwing a glance with a raised eyebrow at Star. She didn't move a muscle.

Finally, after what felt like hours Star spoke.

"I'm pregnant."

My heart skipped a beat.

"You're what?"

Star removed one hand from the pillow to pass me a pregnancy test. The double pink lines blazed forth from the white stick like a shooting star.

Star had been acting strange lately. She'd been more moody and hadn't been showing up to cheer. Plus, she'd been gaining weight. It was subtle I only noticed because I'd known her for so long.

"Oh, Stary," I gasped, involuntarily falling back to her childhood nickname. "Are you sure? These things can be wrong."

Star's gaze had shifted to the test in my hand. "Aunt Flo never came last month, Pauly," was her only reply.

I nodded. "What do you want to do?"

She didn't reply.

"Do you want me to drive you to a- a clinic? I can get a fake ID. I'll pretend to be your aunt or someone-" My voice cracked and I didn't continue.

"I've decided to keep it."

My eyes snapped to her face. Silent tears pushed past her wall and a sad smile dominated her face.

I couldn't help smiling either as I said, "Oh, Stary." We were quiet for a moment longer.

"What are you gonna do about school?" I asked out of the blue.

She shrugged. "The year is almost over. I'll let people say what they want about me. It can't be worse than what they already think."

We sat in companionable silence for a moment more.

"Do you know who the father is?" I dared to ask.

Star made a face. "No, and I don't want to."

I thought back to a month ago. The only major party we'd been to in March was at Dash Baxter's house. I vaguely remember losing Star for a couple of hours but not much else. We were all a little tipsy.

Star spoke next. "I'm scared, Pauly."

The tears were flowing freely down her face now. I was surprised to feel a drop on my own cheek.

Without hesitation I leaned over the plentiful pillows and pulled Star into the biggest hug I could manage.

"Me too, honey. Me too."

A/N: I feel bad for how these characters are treated. I understand that they're the antagonists half the time but, hell, everyone's human.

I hope this tugs at your heat because it does at mine (even tho I wrote it XD). I need to go cry now.

Until next time, GeekyZelda