Watching your best friend make new friends and leave you behind is a special kind of heartbreak. It still stings a bit as an adult because the two of you spent so much time together and were into the same things, and then they chose a path that you didn’t get to follow. Maybe you tried to follow because the person was that important to you, or maybe they shoved you away and made it clear that you were no longer part of their life. Maybe you realized that you didn’t want to have anything to do with these new people and walked away on your own. Or maybe it was a little bit of everything.
No matter what, it hurts like hell.
Seems like the pain of your first lovesick broken heart isn’t quite as bad as losing your best friend. Love is supposed to break your heart, according to all those songs, so maybe you expect it. But a best friend? Someone you’ve been with since you were little kids? You don’t get to mourn publicly for that. If your boyfriend breaks up with you and you start wailing in the middle of the lunchroom, people understand. If your best friend takes up with other kids and you cry in the bathroom… yikes.
So what happens when both happen to you at the same time?
Vera and Charlie grew up near each other and have been best friends since forever. He knows her family secrets and she knows his. They’re normal little kids – kicking around in the woods and climbing trees.
Suddenly they aren’t little kids any more and Vera realizes she’s in love with Charlie. Charlie realizes he’s in love with Vera.
And everything goes to shit.
Cannonball Read V 