Friendship Fails of Emma Nash. Chloe Seager

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СКАЧАТЬ Steph and Andy together. I know she said she was fine with it, but it’s probably going to take some getting used to… I mean, if I’m feeling weird about this, it must be ten times weirder for Gracie.

      THEN came the breakthrough moment. Faith was smiling goofily at her phone, at what I’m assuming were messages from Claudia. Meathead Babs was busy pretending to lick his hot dog in an erotic manner. Steph and Andy were taking a selfie. Just as I was about to jump into the perfect Emma-sized gap between their heads, I noticed Gracie looking a bit lost and small.

      It was like everything went slo-mo. I knew I had a big decision to make. Continue to photobomb Steph, or go and actually be a good friend. Such…tough…life…decisions…

      The camera clicked. Without me. (Obviously, I photoshopped myself in as soon as I got home, but I’m halfway on the road to recovery.) If I was really serious about making my friendship with Gracie work, I was going to have to try harder than one awkward game of Scrabble.

      ‘Hey, let’s go over here,’ I said, putting my hand on her shoulder.

      ‘Why?’ She practically jumped out of her skin. ‘Where are you taking me?’

      ‘I’m abducting you, obviously.’

      ‘Seriously, where are we going?!’

      ‘For the love of God, I’m not Willie Thomas!!!’

      Eventually we got away from the group. She shrugged at me.

      ‘What’s going on?’ she asked.

      I took a deep breath. ‘Are you OK? You know, about Andy and Steph?’ I gabbled.

      She looked a bit taken aback.

      ‘Yeah. Fine. Why?’

      ‘You just seemed a bit…maybe not fine?’

      She crossed her arms. ‘Did Steph send you? Are you going to go back and talk about how possessive and uptight I’m being?’

      It was my turn to look taken aback.

      ‘What?! NO! I just thought you might be feeling weird, which would be completely understandable.’

      Her shoulders relaxed a bit, then, and her face softened.

      ‘And it wouldn’t mean you were being possessive or uptight, or even that you weren’t fine with it,’ I went on. ‘It would just mean you were adjusting, which would be totally normal.’

      She searched my eyes for a moment, as if looking for proof I was tricking her or something. Eventually she must have decided I wasn’t, because she said, ‘Well… OK. I guess it is a bit weird.’

      I nodded like I knew. Which I absolutely don’t, because I don’t have any siblings. Would it be the same to imagine a friend dating my mum…? GROSS. NO. TOTALLY NOT THE SAME. GETOUTGETOUTGETOUT.

      ‘Do you want to talk about it?’ I asked.

      ‘I don’t know,’ she started cautiously. ‘Like, it’s nice in a way, I mean it would be nice if Steph came to our family events and things…’

      ‘That would be fun,’ I said.

      ‘Yeah. I mean…it will be nice for a while. But they’ll probably break up, right? And then what will happen? Will Steph still want to come round mine?’

      ‘Probably jumping ahead a bit.’

      ‘Yeah, but, it’s true, right?’

      ‘Well… There might be some potential awkwardness if they break up.’

      Gracie sighed.

      ‘But I think that’s all it is…just awkwardness,’ I continued. ‘It wouldn’t actually damage your friendship with Steph or your relationship with Andy. Their relationship is their thing.’

      Gracie nodded, but she didn’t seem convinced.

      ‘Is this what’s bothering you?’ I carried on. ‘Their potential break-up?’

      ‘No, I mean, there is that… But it’s more like… I don’t know.’

      ‘What?’

      She chewed her lip.

      ‘I would never say this to Steph, so please don’t repeat this.’

      ‘I won’t.’

      ‘Do you swear?’

      ‘I swear!’

      ‘But you tell Steph everything.’

      ‘I won’t tell her, I promise!’

      She paused.

      ‘What if I become less important to both of them, than they are to each other? That would be awful. I’d feel left out at home, at school… I guess, I don’t know, this relationship just invades my life from all angles.’

      She put her head down, covering her face in rivulets of red hair. Suddenly I had an urge I’d never had before… To hug her. I mean, we’ve hugged before, but I mean really hug her. Squeeze her.

      ‘GRACIE,’ I shouted. ‘That is so not even a tiny, weeny possibility! Andy is your brother, your blood. Blood! Blood! BLOOD!’

      ‘Please stop shouting “blood”.’

      ‘And Steph is one of your best friends!’ I carried on.

      She looked up at me, through her hair.

      ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ I said. ‘They’re going to have a, um, different bond with each other than they do with you. But not more important. No way.’

      She looked at me all vulnerable and bushbaby-eyed.

      ‘Do you really think so?’

      ‘YES. Of course!’

      She nodded.

      ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘You know, I actually feel lots better.’

      I thought about going for the squeeze-hug, then, but I thought it was still probably a bit premature. So I just linked my arm through hers and we went back over to the group.

      ‘What were you guys doing?’ asked Steph.

      ‘Oh, er… ’ I looked at Gracie, who stared back at me with pleading eyes.

      ‘Just checking out the cute hot-dog guy,’ Gracie finished.

      Steph frowned, glancing at the hot-dog guy (who was in his fifties and sporting a handlebar moustache), but didn’t ask any more questions. She turned back to Andy.

      ‘Thank you,’ mouthed Gracie. And she smiled at me.

      And СКАЧАТЬ