Free Friends ForNever by Katy Grant Page B

and me.
    Nic made a snorting sound. “Nothing that major. We just need a break from each other. Right ?” She glared at me.
    Sarah jumped off her bed, her eyes wide. “Oh, no way! You two can’t be fighting! We can only have one war going on in this cabin at a time. What happened?”
    I refused to say anything. Let Nic tell her own version of the story. This should be pretty interesting.
    But Nic kept quiet too. Finally I started off. “Okay. So we went to the climbing tower, I made it all the way to the top for the first time ever, and Nic got mad at me.” I brushed past her and went to sit on my bed. “Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it? You’ll have to ask her what possible reason she could have for getting mad at me for a thing like that.”
    I yanked off my sneakers and sweaty socks and tried to toss them toward the spot where all the shoes were lined up on the bottom shelf, but they just banged against the wall and knocked everything out of order.
    â€œOh, yeah. That’s exactly what happened! You totally left out the part where you said I was being mean and you didn’t want to hang out with me anymore! Make it sound like it was all my fault! Turn Sarah against me too!” Nic was screaming now. I’d seen her mad before, but this was a surprise.
    â€œI never said that!”
    Nic growled in frustration. “But you said all that other stuff, didn’t you? About how you don’t want to be my friend anymore.”
    I hated that Nic and I were fighting like this, but I couldn’t help it. I was still mad. I am not competitive . Nic was just jealous because I happened to be good at something she wasn’t so great at. If the tables were turned, I knew for a fact that I would’ve told her what a great job she’d done. I was always happy for her whenever something good happened. Why couldn’t she be the same way for me?
    â€œHey, stop it!” Sarah warned. “If you two don’t stop yelling at each other, I’m gonna bang your heads together like coconuts.”
    I glanced up at her. “You’ll do what?”
    â€œThat’s what my mom’s always threatening to do to my brother and me when we start yelling like this.” Sarah came and sat on the end of my cot. “Okay, start at the beginning. Who said what and why?”
    I closed my eyes. “Sarah, do you mind just staying out of this?”
    â€œHey, don’t yell at Sarah!” snapped Nic.
    â€œI am not yelling at Sarah,” I corrected her. “I just don’t want to talk about this. If you want to tell her your own fictional version of the story, fine by me.” I plopped back on my cot and stared up at the wooden rafters overhead. On the beam right above me, someone had written GOPHER LOVES BEN with a thick black marker. I lay there thinking what a strange message that was.
    â€œFine. I will.” Nic came and sat on her cot. For the first time all summer, I regretted that our beds were three feet apart. “Here’s what really happened, Sarah. We were on our way back from the climbing tower, and for no reason at all, Darcy made this comment about how I was acting totally mean.”
    She glanced at me and then looked back at Sarah. “Okay, maybe she never said ‘mean,’ but she implied it. And then she said, ‘What’s your problem? I think we’ve been spending way too much time together and we need to take a break from each other.’ I mean, that really hurt my feelings!”
    I sat up and looked at her. “Nic, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to hurt your feelings. It hurt my feelings that you got all mad at me for being good at something. And she called me competitive!” I told Sarah.
    â€œBut you know how sometimes you can be—,” Nic started to protest.
    â€œWait a second!” Sarah yelled. “I think I see the problem here. Darcy, you apologize for saying you