Friend Request

by Laura Marshall

But receiving this message from Maria has plunged me back to the playground and the lunch hall, where fitting in is everything and friendship feels like life and death.

one unforgivable act has loomed – squashed, squeezed, parcelled, but always there.

inside I’d always known it was a bit unequal, but I thought that was the price you paid for being friends with someone popular.

I’m in a hall of mirrors, full of distorted reflections and false endings. I’ve lost track of which way I came in and I have no idea how to get out.

toaster. After these last few weeks of hiding, running, reacting, there’s something almost freeing about doing something positive, taking back some of the control that has been wrested from me.