Have you ever been to a breathtaking forest, in which the view of the trees and the sound of the birds is so relaxing that you don’t pay attention to other noises or movements that happen around you? Your guard is down and if you are not careful, you may not even notice the danger lurking in the grass.“Ouch!”you shriek in fear and pain as something stings you where it hurts most. You stand speechless, breathing rapidly, while trying to understand what just happened. You’ve been bit by a snake. You act fast to try and stop the deadly venom from spreading. Afterwards, you think back and remember that you had seen that snake nearby, but decided to trust it. A slightly different experience has happened to me, and it was horrible.

It was two years ago, in the end of summer. It was a wonderful day to start school and I was excited to meet my best friend, Arba. When I entered the school yard, I realised how much I had missed her. I noticed her in the crowd and  decided to greet her with a hug. Together we went inside the school building, where the first assembly was being held. We finished the assembly and happily went to our class . The first three weeks of school went by fast and smoothly, until one day when me and Arba had a small argument.

It was a stupid and  I can't even remember it now, but for the size of the argument, it sure did make a big mess. As we always do when we are in a conflict, we started hanging out with other friends. At first, I thought the fighting wouldn’t last long but I came to realize that it was going to and I missed my best friend, already. I would go to school and would have something very funny, important or “juicy” to tell her but I could not; therefore, I started to feel empty without my best friend beside me everyday. I felt trapped in my own thoughts because I was keeping so much to myself. I kept repeating those funny, interesting, little stories in my mind so I wouldn't forget to tell her any of them. I was keeping so much in and it was becoming unbearable. I know it doesn’t seem that hard, but for me, a 14-year-old girl who was used to telling her best friend everything, it was extremely hard. Days, which felt like months, passed, but nothing changed, not a smile, not a “good morning” was exchanged.

After some time, I decided to be the bigger person and just speak to her, so I sat at her table during geography class. I greeted her, but she just looked at me and turned her head. The look she gave me was devastating. It felt as if her eyes were looking into my soul and crushing it, while her serious face gave me a cold, uncomfortable feeling. I’ve seen people angry, and that was way passed angry. Frightened by her, and scared for our friendship, I acted as if I didn’t analyze her facial expression and just skipped it by laughing and continuing to listen to the teacher while she explained the Albanian riviera. That class felt as if it was never ending. I had a feeling in my stomach and it weren’t the “butterflies” that people feel sometimes, it was a feeling suggesting that something bad was going to happen very soon. And it did.

The day after, I asked her to come and talk to me during lunch break and she did, with four other friends. She had an audacious expression and, I, curiously as to what was going to happen, put a brave, yet relaxed face; although, uncertainty was rushing through my blood.

“Hey, can we talk in private for a moment, please?” I asked casually.

“If you want to say or discuss something, you can tell me in front of my best friends. I don’t hide anything from them,” she replied with an attitude, while trying to prove that she didn’t need me.

“If you consider them your best friends, then I’m wasting my breath talking to you,” I answered, but still trying to hide the fact that what she said, made me a bit jealous.

“Look, I’ve been supportive for everything and you’ve never done anything for me. I’m done being your friend. We’re done. And you know what? I’m done keeping your secrets,” she answered, right before she started blabbing about everything I had told her, so loudly that everyone stopped and created a circle around us.

It was a humiliating situation, so I ran to get away from it. I pushed some people away to open a small path, so I could remove myself from all the stares. I ran into the bathroom, with tears flowing down my face. Some girls I hung out with, came to help me but I locked myself in one of the bathroom stools and kept crying and regretting every decision I’ve ever made, while remembering all the wonderful times I had with my so called best friend. Crying out of devastation of losing a great friend, I suddenly stopped. I remembered what she had done to me and suddenly all I could think of, was her cruelty. I was full of rage and anger, when, unaware, I found myself crying again, but this time I cried while thinking of how I could've been so blind as to not notice that this was coming to me for a long time.

I stood there for 15 minutes. In those 15 minutes of hell, I went back and forth between crying out of sadness and being furious for what she had done. But then I got myself together. I opened the door, just to see the faces of my friends looking at me with sad eyes, filled with pity, which were the last thing I wanted to see at that moment. I took a deep breath and with a weak voice I said: “ Lighten up, it’s not the end of the world, I’m going to be okay.” They smiled and helped me wash my face with some cold water. After that, without any fear,  I went outside, walked straight and kept my head high. Inside, I was still embarrassed, but that faded while I told myself that I have nothing to be ashamed of and that I didn’t do anything wrong. People gave me stares and judgy eyes, but those girls, the ones I barely acknowledged before, helped me through it and stood up for me, not because I needed it, but because they wanted to, and I happily let them.

While walking through the hallway of my school that day, I figured that people have more similarities with snakes than they think. Just like a snake, at first they don’t move or make any weird actions that can cause suspicion. They slowly gain your trust by making you believe that they will not hurt you, because they are not interested in doing that, and just when you start to believe them and let your guard down, that's when they act. They betray you, or in the case of the snake, bite you, which leaves you with thoughts and uncertainties that you need to get out of your mind because it will destroy your self esteem, just like venom destroys the body if it is not removed in time. At the end, you are scarred. You’ll always remember that life changing experience that occurred to you because of them, and you’ll never go back to the same person you were before the event.