Best Friends
Lily met Marlene McKinnon when they were a mere five years old. It was a beautifully warm summer’s day that marked the beginning of primary school. Marlene was sitting in the back corner of the classroom, with an expansive desk all to herself. It seemed that no other child in the entire Kindergarten class of 30 would even dare to go near her. Found on the desk was an extremely messy array of pencils, crayons and paper. Lily, being the inquisitive young girl she was just has to interrupt the poor girl’s peace and quiet.
She strolled up towards Marlene’s desk, finding her to be colouring in a large, strangely proportioned creature using a stubby brown-green pencil. Lily cruelly considered whether the other children were avoiding this corner of the classroom simply because they were frightened at the sight of Marlene’s drawing.
Wanting to get a rise out of her, she craned over the desk towards Marlene with the most judgemental face she could muster, asking “What is that?”
Marlene jumped out of her seat as though she was given an electric shock. It was obvious that she had not known that Lily was there. With an awful distaste, she looked Lily up and down as she settled back into her chair.
“A crocodile.” She replied, eyeing Lily hesitantly.
If Lily was given the chance to guess, a crocodile would have been pretty low on her list.
“Well, it’s quite shit.” She stated as a matter-of-factly.
If Marlene was surprised by her bluntness, she didn’t show it. In fact, Marlene supported a slight smirk on her face. As Lily was about to walk away, disappointed, not receiving the reaction she was expecting, Marlene triumphantly flipped her off. Satisfied, Lily considered herself impressed and joyfully sat down next to Marlene.
“Now this is someone I can get along with,” Lily thought picking up a bright pink crayon, deciding that Marlene would be her friend for a long time.
***
During the course of primary school, Lily and Marlene’s bond only strengthened. Absolutely no one could even attempt to come between them. They were, unfortunately to most, inseparable. As they progressed through the years, they quickly gained the infamous reputation as the ‘twin troublemakers,’ even though they couldn’t look any more different. Lily, embellished with sparkling emerald eyes had distinctly pale skin, whilst sporting thousands of freckles and flaming auburn hair. Nevertheless, Marlene flourished with lovely tanned skin, innocent dark-brown eyes and the most gorgeous blonde hair Lily had ever seen.
Regardless, Lily and Marlene would spend their primary school years repeatedly causing extensive bouts of mischief, constantly tormenting their teachers and fellow peers. At one point during Year 5, they had snuck out of the classroom that often, the teacher would have the door locked from the outside and would ask another staff member to unlock it for recess and lunch. Looking back, Lily believes that they possibly went too far as children, but it isn’t something she dwells on too frequently. Anyways, high school came about with enough problems of its own.
***
As they began high school, they gained a newfound infatuation with romance. Strange feelings of attraction and desire had aroused and Lily and Marlene soon realised that they had very little experience with the topic. Determined to learn, they became tremendously invested in other people’s love lives. One of their favourite activities was pretending to be random couples in the hallway.
“Amelia, I swear I didn’t, I’m too good for it you know!” Marlene would whisper, pretending to be Gideon, who was fighting with his girlfriend across the hall.
“If you touch her again, I’ll fucking smash ya, ya cheating dog!” Lily would reply, pretending to be Amelia.
“No, babe, I swear-”
"Just fucking kiss me already,” Lily would finish, watching as the couple proceeded to make out. She and Marlene would pretend to do the same.
***
Their profound people-watching activity is how the Marauding Map came about. On a fateful summer’s day, just before school finished for Year 10, Lily and Marlene were sitting in their favourite spot behind the school’s old stairwell. They had skipped Maths to avoid the dreadful Mrs Smith and were sharing a blunt between them. Soon enough, they broached their favourite subject regarding the current relationships in their year.
“Did you hear?” Marlene mentioned, lying upside down on the stairs, “Pandora and Emmeline broke up, again.”
“Seriously? They just need to leave each other alone at this point,” Lily replied, shocked, “How long did they last this time? Like, three weeks?”
“Something like that…” Marlene started, trailing off seemingly stuck in thought. She would do this a lot.
“Oh my god, wait!”
Interested, Lily sat up gesturing for Marlene to continue.
“Apparently Barty and Mary hooked up, but you didn’t hear that from me.”
“No fucking way! Honestly, I can’t keep up with all of this.” Lily said, shaking her head in disbelief. “I wish we had a way to keep track.”
They sat there pondering, up until almost the end of the period, when Marlene suddenly stood up, with a mischievous look in her eyes. “Actually, I might have an idea. You have a pen?”
“Yeah,” Lily replied curiously, yet not bothering to get up, “Just take it out of my bag,”
Lily watched as Marlene took her favourite pink Sharpie out of her battered schoolbag and started noting down all of the known relationships and hookups right on the wall of the stairwell. She drew special lines between each name, with a key off to the side, indicating what they did and who they did it with.
“Look! Now we will never forget!” Marlene yelled excitedly.
Lily, in the state she was in and being more concerned about her next meal, believed that it was an absolutely genius idea. Little did she what it would lead to.
***
Nobody knew about it. It was just Lily and Marlene. From then on, every hook-up they witnessed, heard about, partook in or hoped would come to pass was documented on the wall.
“Lily!” Marlene called out, clicking in fingers in front of Lily’s face, “Lily, come on!”
No matter how hard Marlene tried to get Lily’s attention, it was no use. She was too busy staring at Dorcas. The most popular and utterly gorgeous person in the whole school and the one person that Lily was completely infatuated with.
“Lily!” Marlene called, desperately trying again. “Fuck me, are you going to write on the wall or what?”
"Sorry,” Lily said as she withdrew herself from the window, reluctantly drawing her gaze away from her proclaimed soulmate.
Marlene simply smirked as she figured out what Lily was looking at. She knows that Marlene finds it hilariously pathetic, but she doesn’t care. She was more concerned about figuring out how to win over Dorcas.
“You’re obsessed.” Marlene finally said, looking at Lily with a smidge of sympathy.
“Destined,” Lily merely replied, drawing a gold line between hers and Dorcas’ names, signifying that they were bound to be together one day.
Maybe it was a stretch, but Lily had desperately hoped that it would be true.
***
Yet after all they had been through over the past 11 years, this is what Lily just does not get. She and Marlene were going to own this year. They were going to grow up, get their shit together and make the most of their last two years at school. They were determined to come back, stronger than ever. But one minute they were having the time of their lives at the summer festival for Lily's birthday and the next minute, the bitch blew it all up!
***
“I don’t need your life story dear,” The nurse said, with a kind look in her eyes, “Just tell me what happened today.”
Lily, with a tampon up her nose and a bruised eye, took a deep breath.