A good friend is a cure to everything

It wasn’t Sunday afternoon, but Astoria Allan desperately wished it was one. On a Sunday, she was at home and she loved it. Mondays meant that she was in school and she despised school more than anything. She never had a problem with her studies or even with her teachers. In school, it was like she was invisible. No one bullied her or made fun of her. It was as if no one knew she existed.

Astoria had a few friends, but then they got bored with her. She always knew she was different. She wasn’t into the newest music or the trendy clothes and didn’t like parties or social events instead, she liked being in nature and being in silence. She wanted someone to understand her and not judge her for the way she was.

She was sitting in class, tapping her pencil on her desk while looking out of the window. Astoria always wished she was like her older sister Freya. She always was surrounded by a bunch of friends and came home late from parties. Freya fit in perfectly, unlike Astoria. After school that day, she decided to go to the beach. It was her favourite place in the entire world. The sky was a deep shade of light purple and dark pink. Far ahead, she could see cubic miles of the ocean churning with power and mystery.

She sat down on the soft golden sand and kept her eyes fixed on the ocean, but she wanted to cry. Her wavy light brown hair flew in the icy cool winds. It felt like she was the only one in the world and there was no one to help her. Her heart longed for a company other than her family.

Astoria thought she was the only one on the beach until she saw a girl her age sitting a few feet away from her. The girl had short blonde hair and her hazel eyes were red and blotchy. It looked as if she had been crying. Under normal circumstances, Astoria would have ignored the girl, but she knew she had to make an effort to talk to someone.

Astoria talked to the girl and it turned out that she was lonely too and had no friends. She never noticed that other people were lonely too because she so was focused on her own loneliness. Astoria soon became friends with Amberly. She understood Astoria on a different level and they both were very similar. Astoria felt content. It didn’t matter if she only had one or a hundred friends; it mattered that her friend was true.

Amberly told her a quote that she heard a few years ago, if you’re ever feeling lonely, just look at the moon; someone somewhere is looking at it too.’ She had never agreed with a quote more.

Contributor: Kavya Mehta

About our Writing Program Student
Kavya Mehta is a 13-year-old girl 7th grader from Mumbai who loves reading, writing stories and listening to music. She also loves learning new languages and knowing about the countries of the world. Kavya takes a keen interest in reading about mental health, she plays the violin and enjoys spending time with cats and dogs!