Two-Faced Figures-By: Ritika Elenkovan

A couple of months ago, I had a feeling I was becoming the third wheel because my friends were having conversations between themselves, excluding me. That is normal. Yet, I felt excluded because they didn’t want me joining in their conversations, as if it were confidential. I’ve been friends with these two girls for the past eight years, ending up with a connection that no other friendship was capable of having.

Throughout our friendship, I’ve been through ups and downs with these friends. It ranged from acknowledging their pain to cuddling them with words of comfort or support. However, when they ask me if I’m okay, it seems like a return of favor, not from genuine concern. When they “comfort” me, it’s as if they rethink the choices they made with being my friend.

The hours and days I spent encouraging them was worth one hour of their time sympathizing for me.

When they would talk to me, it was only when their “partner in crime” was busy talking to someone else. I was only there to fill up the empty space as if I was at a lower class than they were.

Back then, they would value my presence; now, they could care less.

These incidents narrowed my visions of friends. How are they friends when they wouldn’t even care if I moved away? Have they ever thought about my feelings? Shouldn’t I be the one with a terrible life? I eventually labeled them as fake. A word that is being transmitted through the school walls every day, though it’s yet to be true. Recently, I’ve been skeptical about every conversation I’ve had and comparing it to my real friends and it made me realize how many things I wanted to say, but didn’t have the chance to speak.

I believe that the true nature of humans will never change. In the end, just to fit in, a mask is put on their faces, tearing them apart, and leaving their closest friends for a “better” group of people. A friendship is built with trust and communication; one part relies on the other. The connection I had, lacked communication, instead, it was filled with normal-everyday sayings.

It’s not just what I believe in, it’s how our society is created today. Vulnerable teens giving up and giving in to the stereotypes, afraid of facing the judgments. My story is one in a billion. No matter how hard you try or think about your friendship, in the end, it’s their decision to change into a two-faced figure.