My best friend Claudine and I spent every spare moment together. One night we even got matching navel rings after a big night out. We always swore that we would be best friends forever and that nothing would split us up.
I met Geoff on a night out with Claudine at our favourite club in the city. We were on the dance floor and he sidled right up near us. Geoff was tall with short brown hair and a winning smile. He saw that I was drinking martinis and he bought me one. I played it pretty cool at first but he was bright and funny and I couldn’t help but like him. The feeling was clearly mutual and we exchanged numbers at the end of the night.
I had been burnt by my last relationship and I wasn’t eager to get into another one so quickly. It was Claudine who talked me into seeing him — she spouted off about how attractive and charming he was and I couldn’t help but agree. She told me that I deserved someone nice and that she had a good feeling about him. Claudine was generally a pretty good judge of character — she saw through my last boyfriend as the cheating cad that he ultimately was, even before I had the wit to see it.
I took the plunge and called Geoff. We had coffee and talked for hours and I found it hard not to fall for him. His eyes sparkled when he laughed and he was so handsome. He had also come out of a relationship in which he had been cheated on and so we connected on that level in particular. We started seeing each other regularly and for the first time in a long time, I was really happy.
I did my best not to neglect my friendship with Claudine but soon enough it took a bit of a back seat. If she asked me out and I had already made plans with Geoff, her voice would change and soon it was apparent that she was feeling a bit resentful. I wondered if I was being selfish and Geoff even asked if we should slow things down a little. Claudine eventually stopped talking to me and I got really down about it. Something funny happened though — Geoff started becoming a bit distant as well and I didn’t know what was going on. I confronted him about it but he was elusive and wouldn’t talk about it.
One day I bit the bullet and decided to mend my broken friendship with my best friend. I bought a pizza from Claudine’s favourite pizzeria and picked up a bottle of red. When I knocked on Claudine’s door there was no answer so I went around to the back of the house — something I was in the habit of doing in case Claudine was just in the shower or something and couldn’t hear me knocking. The back door was open as usual and I entered. There was no sign of Claudine but the stereo was playing and her bedroom door was slightly ajar. I guessed she had company over and I didn’t want to disturb her. I was about to write her a note when I saw something that will be burnt into my memory forever — there were Geoff’s pants on the floor. I know they were his because they were his favourite brown cords with a tear just below the right knee. My heart was in my throat and I was both furious and deeply hurt. This was happening again and at the hands of my best friend! I left in a state and went home and cried myself to sleep.
Weeks went by and I had little contact with either of them. Geoff didn’t call, but I saw him once while I was on the way to work. He just pretended not to see me.
Claudine called me once about meeting for lunch but I pretended to be busy. I was so angry at myself for not confronting her but I was confused and upset and I couldn’t think straight. Weeks went by and I got very depressed. I didn’t know what to do. One day I was home alone, drowning my sorrows in a couple of glasses of wine, when Claudine turned up put of the blue. An eerie calm came over me and I managed to talk to her as though nothing had happened. I could see that she had a guilty look in her eye, even though she tried to avoid my gaze. We had a few drinks and suddenly I stood up and said, “Let’s go out!” We hopped a train and went into town. We had some drinks and then some more and soon we were laughing like old times. I kept ordering drinks — doubles for Claudine and singles for myself. Claudine was getting very drunk and I guess that was my plan, even though I didn’t know it yet.
Out of nowhere I suggested that we do something spontaneous and get tattoos and Claudine seemed to love the idea. We went to a seedy tattoo parlour and I spoke to the guy working there about getting Chinese characters tattooed on our left shoulder blades. I told Claudine that it would mark our friendship and that it would mean we were connected “no matter what”. The tattooist wasn’t keen, as we were clearly legless, but I slipped him a little extra money to sweeten the deal and he finally agreed. We walked out with our new markings and I felt as though I was entering a new phase of my life. I haven’t spoken to Claudine since, so I’m guessing she found out what her tattoo actually means. My tattoo says “revenge”, Claudine’s says “cow”.
Picture posed by models.
