Playing Pretend

Once, there was a girl and a boy who loved to play pretend, especially together.
Whenever they played together, which wasn't very often because they went to different schools, they played all day and night.
She was the Soceress or Faerie Queen.
He was the Traveling Mercenary or Forgotton Prince.
They would band together to fight against the Evil Orc King.
Using braided vines and sharpened sticks they would vanquish their dasterdly foes, though they could never say it was done in time for dinner.

When they started Middle School, things started to change, but not by much.
They were still friends and that's all that mattered.
His Mom got divorced for the second time, but they didn't talk about it.
But She knew that as much as He loved his Mom, and She did too, His Mom was like her second Mom, He hated it when she drank.
She didn't think much about it though.
One day when She came to play, She asked him if He wanted to pretend.
He gave her a mean look, We're too old to play pretend, it's time to grow up, He said bitterly.
It made Her sad, but they still talked and played many other games.

Then, one night, all of them were together. The day had started out great, (even if His Mom did have a few glasses of wine before they'd come over)
Late at night, She left with Her Mom suddenly, neither of them knew why.
On the ride home Her Mom told Her what happened.
She cried herself to sleep that night.

Months passed and non of them had spoken.
She cried herself to sleep at night becaused she missed Him so badly.
Just to see His smile, just to hear His laugh.
She stressed about Him and did bad in school
She hated herself more everytime she didn't call Him.
Because She knew that He needed Her more than anything now but she was too scared to call.

Instead She played pretend.
She pretened that His Mom was okay. That heartbrake and drinks and bad pills didn't exist and therefor couldn't hurt anyone.
She pretened that the fight had never happened between their moms, they were all still friends.
They just hungout and played pretened all day long.
All She did anymore was pretend.

Finally She realized that nothing was going to change if no one did anything.
No one else would call and their Moms both refused to be the first to apologize.
She knew that pretending got her nowhere and did nothing.
She finally realized that she could no longer play pretend.