Hypocracy

  Remember, remember, that day in November?
It had been a long and painful month for Jennifer, who after just starting her las semester of college, lost her mother to breast cancer. Although she knew that it would be a difficult tragedy to overcome, she had no idea how many aspects of her life a death in the family would affect. Amidst her irrational blurr of thoughts, she pictured it to be like in the movies(as we all do when gobbsmacked by life's experiences); where her entourage would come to her rescue and help her emerge as a phoenix rising from the ashes. But life went on and most people preffered to remain in their shallow social bubble than look at such a crude and inevitable reality. Jen was now floating through her days, through college and lost sight of most of these phony friends. But she still stuck around Ariella, who had always remained close to her.

Lately Ariella had been acting strange,however and had grown distant from her at a time when she was most needed. The dynamics of their relationship changed vastly now that Jen was down. To Ari it was too hard to express sympathy towards one of her greatest competitors, but this of course remained under wraps of layers and layers of political correctness. Avoidance became her greatest defense. 
Despite her strength of character, Jen's heart opened up in this time of vulnerability inciting love and compassion in even the "busiest" of people, who insisted on showing some form support in whichever way they could. But not Ari, who only grew more distant and uncomfortable.

So when Julia, a mutual friend was back in town for a visit, the ever-egoistic Ari knew that this was her time to shine. She took her down to their favorite bar and made sure not to tell Jen a word. She indulged in telling Julia all that had happened while she was away, which meant making it seem as though she was the heroin of every story. Suddenly Jen walked in, looking disappointed. Ari got caught off guard and slightly turned her shoulders inwards, acting like she didn't see her.

“Oh... Jen, I thought you were in class”

“and i thought you would have called me-”

“JEN!!!!”, Julia shouted excitedly, oblivious to the socially layered conflict stirring in the air.

As Jen sat down Julia prompted her to catch her up on what she had missed. Although she knew this wasn't the time nor the place, she had to tell Julia about her mother's passing, as it was too recent to ignore. She swallowed hard and began to arrange the words in her head, attempting to inform her friend but not throw herself a pity party. She always thought that it was common courtesy to keep her tragedies to herself so she tried to put a light spin on most things, but this time around there was no way to avoid the awkwardness.

Well,she began as she finally mustered up her courage,while fiddling with the peanut shells on the table.

“--My dog died” shouted Ari," from across the room, as only a good competitor could do.

“What” said Julia, “aw poor bubba”

“I know... he was only five and he choked on a rabbit bone, can ye believe it.”

Jen's jaw dropped, like it had never dropped before. She could not believe what Ari had just done. Suddenly all the noise in the bar turned to buzzing and she felt as though she were in a bubble looking out at the world. She transported herself back to her mother's funeral where she saw people looking like small ants as they pretended to live through their petty social interactions. Nothing had changed, only this time her best friend cunningly betrayed her through a social swipe that she would never forget. She always said that death brought out the best in people, and the worst in people, today she discovered the worst in her best friend.