TAKE AN OATH

The silence after Marie’s question was killing. It took a little while for Jean to come back to the reality from what was going on in her mind. She was thinking about how she would cope with Marie being gone, and how they would keep in touch with each other. Primarily, the thing that was disturbing her was the fact that she would be left without friends again as other batchmates did not fondly accept her different likings.

But because Marie had put forward a serious question, Jean answered, “Because you are going away tomorrow.”

“I am here with you now,” Marie mentioned and asked, “Why don’t we make full use of that instead of getting upset over something which neither of us can change?!”

It was a rhetorical question; Jean understood that, and she responded, “That is logical. I want to have the best memories with you.”

“I am not dying; just going away,” Marie reminded.

“Don’t talk about dying,” Jean said, and both of them started talking about all the things that mattered to them.

They must have taken one or two extra laps of such a big stadium without realizing how much they had walked. Even when they came back to their room, their talking did not stop. Jean was bombarding Marie with one question after the other, and Marie was answering each one of them very calmly. In fact, she was enjoying being answerable to someone for once in her life.

Till very late at night both of them continued their talk, and because the other two roommates, Sophia and Charlotte, decided to extend their vacation, Jean and Marie had the whole room to themselves. Instead of taking an advantage of that situation in a way which would be exciting for the youngsters by doing anything that they could being alone behind closed doors, they were only talking to each other, and that showed their genuine feelings for one another.

When Marie was continuously yawning, Jean took the initiative to go to their beds from the chairs of the study table in which they were seated. Marie would have never let Jean know how sleepy she was because she did not realize the way she showed her love to somebody was toxic for her. No sane human being would continue being uncomfortable just to spend a couple of extra minutes with someone only because they feel they love them.

Loving someone gets more beautiful when you love yourself first, just the same way. Rarely, young people are taught to care about themselves exactly the way they care about their love interest. That is because not every place accepts them in a similar manner. Most of the adults till date do not give proper respect that they must give to teenagers.

Not to forget that they are human beings too, and every person has their own right to live in a fashion which they deem appropriate. Coming into this beautiful world through one’s parents deserves the utmost amount of respect, but that shouldn’t give them the liberty to create a toxic environment for their children no matter whatever their age is.

The first impression matters the most. For children that begins at home with their parents. So, if parents inculcate values of self-respect and self-esteem, keeping in mind that in the future their kids will also fall in love with somebody. And the youngsters should be brought up open-minded in order to accept their partner’s privacy and not to entertain toxicity in any kind of relationships at all is the way confident, bold, and ethical children are raised.

That is what Marie lacked. She couldn’t understand that her likes and wants in life were equally important in any friendship or relationship. She would sacrifice everything she got only to make the other person happy without caring about her own feelings.

Certain parts of the world still accept such a kind of living which brings no good to anyone because the other partner will start taking things for granted by not caring about who sacrifices for them and their basic responsibility towards their partners. They will anyway do whatever they want to do. And that may not be very pleasing to their other half.

But with Marie it was nice for her to have someone who cared about her exactly like she used to for her. That is a matter of luck by chance to get a genuine and self-less friend and partner. Just as Marie’s head touched the pillow, her eyes closed immediately, and she entered her dreamland while Jean was observing her and controlling her smile to see how sleepy her friend had been.

The alarm rang the next morning, waking up the two girls. Even though both of them were still very sleepy because of the late night, they stood up to get ready for their first day of school after vacation. Time was passing by very quickly, especially knowing that they were together only for a couple of hours, and before the evening, Marie would have been gone forever.

Both of them had opted for liberal arts, and they were yet to decide their subject of specialization. So, they walked to their designated classroom which was as big as a hall, right after they had a sumptuous breakfast at the cafeteria. They did not realize that they were holding each other’s hand while they were walking. It was a good time for them not to have been noticed by others because many students were still enjoying their holidays at home.

With Jean sitting down behind Marie the way it happened during the introductory week, three classes happened back-to-back, and then it was their lunchtime. A nanny walked into the class just at the moment that the teacher walked out, and she asked, “Who is Marie?”

As soon as Marie stood up, the nanny said, “Your father has come to take you. Please report to the admin office.”

It hit the two girls that this was happening sooner than they thought. Their hearts started pounding loudly, and Marie’s eyes were getting filled with tears. She had thought that she would have time until early evening to be with Jean, and she did not want to leave this soon. But she had no other choice.

She got up from her chair and, as the rest of the students were not really bothered and were leaving the class to enjoy their small break, Marie took a step towards Jean’s table. Both the girls stood facing each other. Jean started listing everything that they discussed last night about what one must do in order to stay in touch with the other person.

She was talking very fast because she had many things to remind Marie. In the middle of that, as it was getting late, Marie kept her hand on Jean’s shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, Jean. I remember everything word by word.”

After which, they hugged and shed a tear or two. Because Marie had to leave at that time, and in order to conclude their talk and her beautiful bond with Jean, Marie requested, “Jean, promise me that when we both grow up and get a job, we will meet each other. Promise me that you will stay in touch with me; you have my email and my phone number as well. Promise me that you will keep our friendship a secret, and you will not let any other girl become your best friend.”

With a very heavy voice and a little positivity in her mind with the hope of meeting her first love again in life after a couple of years, Jean replied, “Pinky Promise!”