Ice Skating

We went ice skating today, my two best friends and I, and when we were skating, we didn't skate together. Tamora, the flirty charismatic one, immediately found a new group to skate with, one girl and four guys. Kitty, the sexy, stylish one, skated with her boyfriend, his hoodie hanging huge on even her voluptuous frame. And me? I skated alone, knees bent low toward the ice, head bowed, arms outstretched for balance, the quiet writing one.

We whirled around the rink, sometimes passing each other, but ultimately absorbed in our hopelessly separate worlds. An hour of this, if you can imagine, each turn in the frozen atmosphere irrationally bringing tears to my eyes. I blamed it on the shards of ice flying through the air with each turn of the blades upon its slick surface. We had planned this excursion to be together, Tamora, Kitty, and I, but it was obvious that things do not always go as it is imagined they will.

I finally slid to a crisp stop before Tamora and her new found friends. She had always been so quick to befriend - everyone LOVES Tamora. She did not express surprise at my stopping, but instead smiled in that way of hers - the one where it is impossible to gauge whether her mood runs warm or cold where you are concerned. But the girl she was with smiled with clear heat, her eyes sparkling in her pale visage and burbled out, "So YOU're the best friend!"

I was completely taken aback. Tamora was my best friend, yes, but it had been a long while since I'd thought of myself as hers. She was too often with Kitty, rarely with me. Then I realized - the new friend had mistaken me for Kitty. Yes, that was it. I grinned politely back at the girl, hiding my hollow heart in the smallest, most cramped closet in my soul to re-emerge eons later as a skeleton secret.