EVALINE.

We fell apart slowly, each of our pieces chipping a little, each of our smiles eroding, each of our laughs dimming. I could feel myself fading from her mind, a distant memory, an old polaroid, the first drawing on a piece of paper - being drawn over again and again and again. Soon, Julie would always be busy, and I would pretend that I was too.

The rare days we found ourselves at Joe's Bagels, in that corner, holding our drinks to our lips, we would talk about different things. Every day, she looked less and less like the Julie I first met.

I can't plot a chart to show you how we fell apart, or how our pieces broke in all the wrong ways. I can't show you how each and every day, more cracks started to show on Julie Moore's peachy, perfect facade. Gone was the Julie I knew, washed away to a different shore.

But I can show you the day it ended.

Or at least, the day I thought it did.

+

Evaline Clarke and Julie Moore found themselves in the crook of Joe's Bagels, warm drinks in their hand, the heater on high. It was early in the morning, during Winter break of Julie's freshman year, snow coating the town of Cairnview.

Julie brushed the snowflakes from her hair with one hand, and the other remained on her phone.

Evaline Clarke looked at her, a wave of sadness and nostalgia hitting her all at once. "So," she said, "how've you been?"

Julie eyes remained on her phone before hesitantly looking up, staring straight in Evaline's green ones. It felt like the first time they met, except there was no smile on her face, no warmth in Julie's dark eyes; just annoyance, boredom. Eva knew, right there, that the Julie Moore she had come to know and love was a myth. She was gone, swallowed and taken over by a new Julie. It was selfish of her to blame Julie for growing up, for finding her tribe - she knew that. But still, it wouldn't stop her from harboring dissent towards Julie. Towards Anya. Towards Everett.

"Jules," Eva repeats.

"Hm?" Julie asks, head snapping up.

"How've you been?"

"Oh," she said, shrugging. "Okay. Everett and I have cheer prac tomorrow which totally blows because hello, it's Winter break!" She rolled her eyes. "And the gang had like -"

"The gang?" Evaline asked.

"Ev, Anya, Keely, Matthew, Dick, Nox and me," Julie said with a quirked eyebrow, as if she expected Evaline to know what she was talking about.

"Wait," Evaline said. "Keely and Dick? As in Keelian George and Richard Norbert? From my year?"

"Yeah," Julie said, eyeing Evaline with mild annoyance. "So?"

Evaline leaned forward, eyebrows knitting into a worried frown, fingers interlacing. "You know they're bad news, right?"

She quirked an eyebrow, bristling. "You don't even know them."

"They're assholes, Jules -"

"Don't call me that."

Evaline bit down hard on her bottom lip, tasting the tangy, mettallic taste of blood. "Julie," she corrected herself. "They're bad news. That crowd isn't the right crowd for you or Everett."

"You know that's funny," Julie said. "Because they say the same thing about you."

"What?"

Julie sat back, folding her arms over her chest. "They know we're friends. They know I'm like, your only friend. And they know that you keep holding me back. It's true, really. You shelter me. You text me every fucking day. You always call. Can't you take a goddamn hint, Evaline? I've moved on. I found new friends, friends who are funny and help me grow and are showing me this whole new world outside Cairnview, outside...well, you. And I tried. I tried to keep a part of me tethered to you for just a little while, I tried to hold on to both you and them but clearly, you expect me to the Julie Moore I was back then."

Julie shook her head, her annoyance having faded into a sort of wistful nostalgia. "It's been a year, Eva. I'm not that Julie anymore. And maybe, you're not the same Evaline either." She shrugged. "People change."

"People change," Evaline echoed, staring at the cup of coffee in her hands. "So that's it, then, huh?"

Julie stood up and said, "Thanks, though. For what it's worth, some of my best memories were with you." She gave her a small smile, not the warming, toe-curling, love-inducing smile she had given Evaline that first day, but the smile of the new Julie Moore. Sickeningly sweet. Practiced saccharine.

Evaline watched as her best friend walked out on her, and she wondered how much more she would have to endure before finding a real friend. She had lost Keely once upon a time, and she had lost Everett. And now, Julie.

People change, she thought. People change and life goes on. It was a book closed, the final words of Julie Moore, the last of her life with her.

But little did she know that it was barely the end of the book. In fact, it was just the beginning.