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Puberty brought Demi a dynamite teenager temper, like most teens. What had come along was a teenage fling, like most teens. But for Demi, for the first time, felt the choking feeling of jealousy, confusion, and frustration all tangled up. Eventually, things changed when she was 16, the most handful age.
“Wanna come over? I can order a pizza and we can film a new episode of our vlog.” Excitedly, Demi called Selena, “You know, it’s been a while since we last hung out and I don’t really wanna go outdoors…” Selena cut in before Demi could finish her thoughts: “Hey, um… how about another date? Gonna go shopping right now…”
“With who? I mean I can come along. I can’t remember the last time I went to the mall.” Demi genuinely wanted to spend some time with her BFF.
“No, Demi, I'm sorry, but I'm going with someone else… How about next weekend?”
With someone else? Well, this couldn’t be her parents because she would’ve said so. In this case, she must be going with another friend or a boy. Both possibilities troubled her. And “next weekend”? Did Selena forget Demi’s schedule was full? This messed her up. Demi got perplexed for this was the first time she had such a strong feeling of frustration in such short seconds.
“Who is it?” Directly she asked.
“A friend.” Selena replied, and in case Demi got this the wrong way, she added, “And SHE is a girl.”
Demi frowned. Clearly, she's not satisfied with such a blurry response. “Who?”
“Fine, if you really wanna ask… Do you know Taylor Swift?” Selena, also a teenage girl, felt offended by how Demi was trying to get “too intimate” with her personal life.
And Demi is not dumb. She sensed how Selena is not satisfied with her pushing so hard. Though, she couldn’t control her tantrum and talked back in a sullen yet rather mocking tone: “The girl who sings?”
“A SINGER is what people call her.”
Demi sighed: “…Sure. Have fun.” “Of course. Thank you.” Then Selena hung up.
Was that a fight? Demi assumed to herself. But how? For years they’ve been best friends and never had such a weird fight. Such a… sarcastic fight was new to Demi. “Maybe that wasn’t a fight and I'm just overthinking, right? But she sounded weird. And I wasn’t glad about it.”
In fact, Demi wasn’t like that a while ago. But one night at a sleepover, when Demi and Selena were just messing around on Selena’s bed, Demi suddenly felt rather unusual.
A terrible fight about “the best flavour of ice cream” or “the hottest guy in that movie” wouldn’t really hurt a relationship. What really could make a crack are stuffed-in thoughts and boredom.
Who knows? Meeting a new friend surely is exciting. Getting to know each other, talking about so many new subjects, sharing minds… and possibly, that new friend is the real best friend of you. The old BFF you had, by then, should start to have flaws jumping out, more and more. Then you’d think: “How did I oversee all those problems of hers while we were close?” That could be how you give yourself an excuse to like the new bestie more.
“You seem troubled.” The blonde girl walking next to Selena in the mall noticed how unpleasant Selena is, then so she asked.
“Well, Taylor, you remember when we hung out with the Jonas Brothers and I came with a girl? It’s her.”
Taylor took her to a bench and took a seat: “I don’t feel like asking too much about your thing… But I’m sure she’s not intentionally trying to disturb you. She felt nice.”
“Oh no, it’s okay. I’m just not happy about the way she thinks I have to share everything with her.”
Taylor realized it was about her. Though Taylor would want to be close friends with Selena, she knew this should be taken care of. “How about let’s just call it a day and you go talk things through with her? It sounded like Demi just misses you but didn’t say it in the right way.”
“Yeah, probably.”
“I'm sorry for being so jealous. I just felt like we weren’t so close recently… and I got nervous.”
“No, I wasn’t paying attention to our friendship recently. And I'm sorry for not telling you I made a new friend.”
“You don’t have to. I mean trying to be in every part of your life is dumb and inappropriate.”
…
They almost talked everything through. They hugged as best friends. Then Demi made the best, and also the worst choice, to gently press her lips on Selena’s. Selena was taken aback. But instead of pushing Demi away, she let her. “Is that something we also need to talk about?” Selena simply asked.
Blushing hard, Demi was thinking about whether should she apologize for it. Eventually, Demi only said “no”.
After a while, Selena said: “I don’t know if I feel the same way. It’s new to me…”
“It’s new to me, too. …I guess we should just forget this experiment and still be BFFs?”
“Yup. Could be for the best.”
The fact is, after getting to know how sweet a girl Taylor is, Selena automatically chose to spend more time with her. When with Demi, Selena can’t escape from the answer to the kiss and the explanation for her letting Demi do so.
Being with Demi came with this trouble. When you can flee, why sink? That’s how unconsciously Selena made her choice. She merely desired a not-weird friendship with a generous girl.
And never have to think about her feelings for Demi.