Free Sticks and Stones by Susie Tate

chaffing at the bit for a big party, but when Frankie pressed her she just shrugged it off and claimed she couldn’t be bothered. Which actually wasn’t far from the truth. The extra hours she’d been putting in were wearing her down.
    Having a disinterested orthopaedic surgeon on her team for six months had increased her workload but she’d managed. But over the few last months, since they had threatened to remove Dylan from the rotation, she had been covering for him in an attempt to make him look good, and now she was really struggling.
    To top it all off her yearly appraisal was coming up and she didn’t feel nearly as confident as she had in the past. There were two audits she had yet to finish, and a poster presentation she had to submit before she would be even halfway ready, and somehow she didn’t think her performance evaluations would be that stellar either.
    It wasn’t just all the work stuff that was exhausting though; she was tired of hating Dylan. To go from loving him so fervently to hating him with equal passion was agonizing. She had come to the decision that indifference was the key and had decided to look on the bright side; at least she’d finally been cured of her ridiculous crush.
    She remembered every poisonous word he said to her in the mess with absolute clarity. Some of it she could have forgiven. He’d got the wrong end of the stick and he was angry, so some of the things he said were understandable, but not the stuff about her mother.
    Not when he knew.
    He knew what it was like for her.
    That…that she couldn’t forgive. That was what broke her trust in him; broke her love for him. At least now she could move on. That is, if she could summon up the energy. Rich was still making it known in his subtle way that he was interested. Lou had to give it to him; he was persistent.
    ‘Happy birthday!’ The chorus of voices assaulted Lou as she pushed open the door to the pub and her head snapped up. The place was completely rammed. Every head was turned towards her and Frankie, who was beaming and bouncing up and down on the spot excitedly.
    ‘I know you said you didn’t want a fuss,’ Frankie said, ‘but I couldn’t help myself. You would have never let me get away with no party on my birthday. Lou smiled at Frankie and tried to muster as much enthusiasm as she could, giving her a big hug and spying the huge cake balanced on a table in the middle of the pub. It was a massive, exact replica of Lou’s favourite pair of shoes, complete with spiked, ridiculously high heel, red sole, and intricate design. Lou pulled back and looked at Frankie, cupping her face with her hands.
    ‘I don’t deserve you as my best friend you know,’ she whispered, and she knew that, despite the noise in the pub, Frankie had heard her when her eyes filled with tears and she gave Lou a shaky smile. After that it was a whirlwind of hugs, kisses, old lady jokes and the like.
    ‘Hey babes.’ She turned to see Dylan standing in front of her, his hands shoved into his pockets. ‘Happy birthday,’ he said, offering a small smile. For the last month since their fight in the mess there seemed to be some sort of unspoken agreement between them: no more physical contact. After years of teasing and casual affection the difference was stark, but at the end of the day Lou thought it was probably for the best. A clean break was what she needed and that was exactly what she was getting. She summoned up the strained smile that she used with increasing frequency when he was around, and pushed her hair back behind her ears.
    ‘Thanks Dylan,’ she mumbled, looking away quickly from his gaze, and she heard him sigh.
    ‘Come on honey, time to do the candles.’ Frankie was tugging on her hand and looking at Dylan warily. Lou had managed to convince her to speak to Dylan again after about a week of the silent treatment. She was pretty sure that Frankie had never given anyone the silent treatment, let alone for a whole week.