I see that list of prompts... “Please don’t let go” with Webby and Lena. I am craving that best friend angst and guilt. 😬
Please don’t let go - Webby and Lena
“C’mon, Lena, you don’t have to do this,” Webby pleaded, taking a step closer to her friend. She clutched her secret file book tightly against her chest, her hands covered in glitter by this point. Her knuckles were white.
Lena avoided the duckling’s gaze. “Webs, I know you believe in the magic of friendship and all that junk, but that’s not how the real world works. We can’t do this anymore.”
Webby bit her lip. Lena could tell she was on the verge of tears, but she held them in. “But it does. It’s worked before. Lena, please trust me. I know we can do this.” Her voice broke on the last word and she gulped, the beginnings of tears starting to shimmer in her eyes.
Lena fidgeted with her amulet. Magica was gone, so it was just a useless piece of rock hanging against her neck. But it was glowing slightly, in a way only she could notice, and she just couldn’t take it off and join Webby.
“I can’t,” she whispered.
“Yes you can!” Webby snapped back, frustrated anger spilling into her voice as the tears began to spill over. “I know you can! You’re strong, Lena! And you’re my friend!”
Lena took a step back as Webby took a step forward. She turned slightly away from her friend, her shoulders hunched. She couldn’t hold Webby’s furious, stubborn gaze. “Then maybe you don’t know me as well as you thought,” she whispered, her lips barely moving, barely loud enough to be heard.
But Webby heard her, all right. She couldn’t bear to look up from the dusty ground, afraid of seeing the expression on her friend’s face, but the silence that pressed between the two was almost worse.
The wind whistled quietly, kicking up dust, making itself known now that the screaming ducks had quieted down. Lena kicked at the ground with her webbed foot, watching dust cloud up and swirl around her legs before melting back into the ever dusty-brown landscape below her.
“Look, Lena,” Webby sighed. Her voice was edged, her tiredness and frustration carrying a new hardness to it. They couldn’t keep this up for long. “I know I’m not an expert on friendship. And I know- I know, I know I didn’t know you as well as I thought I did.” She swallowed, then carried on, her voice wavering. “But I do know that friendship needs two people steering the ship. Not one.”
“And if it had only been me we would have never gotten this far.”
Lena frowned, crossing her arms. She still refused to meet Webby’s eyes, but she imagined the stubborn little duckling was facing her head on, her face set in steely determination, her hands fisted on her hips.
Webby gave Lena a moment to reply, and when she didn’t, she continued on. “We can keep going. You just need to embrace our friendship! Let the amulet go! You can do it Lena, I know you can.”
“I can’t,” Lena whispered.
“You can!” Webby insisted. She was as stubborn as ever, but her voice was rising steadily, and it definitely wasn’t because of excitement.
Lena clenched her fists. Her heart ached, but she knew there would only be one way to get Webby to leave her alone.
Lena whipped her head around, eyes blazing. “No, Webs,” she replied quietly but firmly. “I can’t.”
Her heart was breaking, on the verge of shattering into a million tiny pieces, but she forced herself to keep an indifferent expression and hold Webby’s hopeful gaze. She was sure everyone would be able to hear her heart cracking and falling apart, but it was just her imagination.
Webby bit her lip. “You don’t mean that,” she whispered, her voice quavering.
Lena’s lip quivered and she forced it to stay still. With every ounce of resolve she had left, she forced her mouth to open and utter the words “I do.”
“I do” was a commitment. A promise.
They were known for happiness and love. Lena had never thought about marriage, but now she suddenly saw herself in a white dress and veil, standing on a stage with a random minister and a faceless duck wearing a white tux.
The duck morphed into Webby, who glared at her and shook imaginary white roses out of her hair. “Please don’t let go,” she whispered, her eyes pooling with tears once again. “Please don’t let go of our friendship.”
Lena bit her lip, her tongue turning to stone. She didn’t trust herself to say anything else. It had been hard enough as it was.
Webby gulped. “Fine. Fine then. Take our friendship. It wasn’t ever real anyway. I guess you’re back to having no friends.” She thrust her bouquet into Lena’s hands and jumped off the stage, running away. She ran straight through rows of faceless ducks sitting on black folding chairs. Her feet kicked up dust, the tiny brown particles stark against the polished black floor, and the world morphed back into the dry, empty plains.
Lena watched Webby run away until she was just a tiny speck on the horizon, when she joined the other tiny specks. They folded around her, comforting her.
Lena brought her arms to her chest, hugging herself. Something hard bumped against her chest instead, and she looked down.
Webby’s bouquet had transformed into a hard, shiny black book. Curious, Lena flipped it open and found a photo album. Of her and Webby.
A photo album of their friendship.
She flipped through the pages idly, the memories from each picture curling up in front of her face. It felt like a hug and a slap in the face at the same time.
Heart aching, Lena turned to the last page, where something different bulged in the laminated photo holder. She ran her fingertips over the smooth surface.
A colorful friendship bracelet, the twin to the one she had thrown into the water so long ago.
Lena stumbled and fell back. The soft ache was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. She didn’t move, even when the dust collecting in her hair and feathers.
She yanked the bracelet out and rubbed it between her fingers. It was soft, but not too soft. It was knotted with the precision of the girl who knew how to sew, knit, and crochet, but had the quirky, jagged edges and too-tight knots of the girl who, in her excitement, had rushed through it, not being able to wait to show it to her friend.
Lena clutched the photo album to her chest, Webby’s bracelet squeezed tight in one of her fists, and sobbed.
In all of her years living alone in an abandoned amphitheater with only an annoying, melodramatic shadow amulet aunt for company, she’d never felt so alone.
Oooooh boy this is really tough XD Lena, please please please go home with Webby and mend your friendship. You can do it! It only gets worse with time!
Ahhhh I’m sorry this took so long! It wasn’t supposed to but then I got wrapped up with stuff XD sorry about that!
*sings quietly* Lena likes Webby, Lena likes Webby, Lena’s scared Webby will reject her at their wedding like she rejected her XD
