She has a beauty that radiates from the inside out. Everything about her feels like golden rays of sunshine. She can instantly make me feel better with very few words. Her smile makes me feel safe and loved. I cannot imagine a life without her. And I don't want to. I can talk to her about anything and she will listen, no matter what. She has the looks that draw you in and the bubbly personality that makes you stay. She deserves only the greatest success and happiness. I can talk to her for hours upon hours and never get sick of her. Who am I describing, you may ask? My best friend who I love with my whole heart and more. Everyone deserves to have a Betsy in their life. If you don't, go out and find one.

I've always loved writing but over the past few years the love has grown more intense and became a way for me to escape reality. I find myself to be a huge perfectionist, but writing is one of the only things where I really let myself go and not care about perfectionism. Whenever I get in a fight with someone or am upset about something, I often turn to writing to cure myself of the anger or sadness. Writing just brings so much joy to my life and I hope I can turn it into my career at some point.

How could you say you care if you never ask how my day was?

How coud you say you care if you never ask to hang out with me?

Why am I always the one to initiate the conversations?

Why am I always the one to initiate making plans?

Who gave you the audacity to just cast me aside like an old, moldy piece of food that no one wants anymore?

I’m so sick of this one-sided friendship.

The first three years of being friends with you were great.

However, you became a real bitch once we got to high school.

I wish there was a way to miss all the fun times we shared, but not miss you.

Eight years ago, you painted me yellow.

However, that vibrant shade has slowly faded

To a dark gray over the years.

I once was so happy,

But now I cry myself to sleep every night.

Popularity changed you

And I don't want to be around you anymore.

So, goodbye.

I'm done with you.

I might be sad all the time,

But it's okay.

I love you.

Those three simple words

Can make someone so happy

When they come from the right person.

I’ve waited and waited

For you to say

Those three simple words

To me.

But you haven’t.

It’s okay, though.

I love you.

You don’t have to say it back.

Her beauty made all others diminish.

It was hard to believe someone like her existed.

She was like a painting, I could have stared at her for hours.

It wasn't until the colors from her makeup were gone when I saw her true beauty.

How could someone this flawless breathe the same air as me?

You know, I have to confess something.

It’s been on my chest for a while now.

Please don’t say anything until I’m done.

I just need to get it all out.

Okay, here we go.

I’ve never been one of the popular kids.

Hell, I’ve never even been one of liked kids.

Sure, there are some people who think I’m cool, or whatever, and become friends with me.

They always end up ignoring me and leaving me, though.

Do you know how many true friends I’ve had in the past four years? Not many.

Do you know how many “friends” I’ve had in the past four years? Too many.

And honestly? I’m sick of it.

How you all treated me shaped me to be insecure and never feel like I’m good enough for anyone.

I used to hate all of you for making me feel this way.

I used to hate all of you for acting like nothing was wrong.

I’ve come to terms with this now, though, and I’m learning to accept myself.

I still don’t really feel like I’m good enough for anyone, but I’m getting there.

I’ve been forced to be alone a lot throughout the eight years you all chose to ignore me.

I had a lot of time to think and I realized it’s just not worth it to get caught up on this.

I devoted my time to not worrying about what others think and to finding something I truly loved.

That’s when I discovered my passion for writing and decided to give it my all.

When I’m famous and well-known for my best-selling novel, you all will rue the day you made me feel like a worthless piece of shit.

You said we would be friends for as long as we live.

You said when we get to high school and have almost no classes together, we would still be friends.

You said we would be friends, no matter what.

So why, all of a sudden, are you breaking all of those promises?

Is it because you got “bored” after spending time with me like best friends are supposed to do?

Or maybe it’s because you’re “busy” and “don’t have time” to hang out with me anymore.

If that’s the case, why do you have time to hang out with your other friends?

Are you ignoring me now just because I made new friends and want to spend time to get to know them?

Is it really such a crime to make new friends outside of our friend group?

Is it really such a crime to be friends with my ex, even though we’re on good terms?

You do it, so why can’t I?

I’m so sick of you acting like you can control me.

If I knew you were going to act like this, I wouldn’t have wasted these past four years on you.

You know, ten year old me was right; you are a bitch.

GULP! Many exclamations of shock filled the room as...Wait a minute. Let’s start this story at the beginning.

It was a pretty typical summer day for me; wake up, take a shower, and just relax. But today I decided I needed to do something fun. I texted my friends to see if they wanted to hang out. Of course, they all said yes. My friends and I decided to hang out at an animal shelter so we met up at our usual meeting spot and rode down there together. After about 20 minutes or so, we arrived at the animal shelter. It was always one of our favorite places to go to, as we all love animals so, so much.

“Look how cute this dog is!”

“Awww, look at this adorable cat!”

“This bunny is so soft and fluffy!” Our days with animals were filled with statements such as those. Our favorite hang out days always involved the animals. Sure, playing Mario Kart and swimming are fun but we just love being around those exciting little creatures. We just couldn’t get enough.

As the day went on, we wondered if we could ask one of the employees to let us play with a dog. So we asked and the employee happily obliged. She took us back to the dog cages and let the fluffiest and friendliest dog, a male named Rufus, out of his cage. He ran as fast as he could to us, as Rufus had been in the cage so long so he lacked human interaction. I set my bag down and went to my knees as he approached me. My bag somehow plopped open as it was set down. Rufus must have smelled some meat or something in my bag because he avoided me altogether and went straight for my bag. I went over and pulled my bag away. I guess I didn’t pull it away fast enough because when I looked over at Rufus, he had a small purple container in his mouth. It took me too long to realize it was my retainer case. Once it dawned on me, I began chasing Rufus around the room. My friends soon joined me and we were all trying to get him to drop it. We got closer and closer until… GULP! Many exclamations of shock filled the room as Rufus swallowed the case.

“Oh, no! He just swallowed my retainer case!” I exclaimed in disbelief.

“Well, were your retainers in it?” one of my friends asked.

“What do you think? Yes, they were!”

“Oh, no! What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. Is there anything I…”

“BEEP BEEP BEEP!” my alarm screams. I moan as I turn over in my bed to turn the alarm off. It only takes me a few minutes to fully wake up and realize the whole retainer fiasco was just a dream. I didn’t lose them at all. I just put them in a drawer one day and never took them out again. Oh, well.

“Elizabeth, come on! We have to go now if we don’t want to miss out on those sales!” My mom yelled as she started heading out the front door.

“Mom, how many times do I have to tell you? I like being called Lizzy!” I said as I walked down the stairs and headed towards the door.

“Right. Sorry, Lizzy,” she apologized. We headed out the door and to the mall to do some winter clothes shopping. This was one of my favorite things to do. It combined two of my favorite things- winter and shopping!

The drive to the mall went by incredibly fast, even though it’s at least fifty miles away, and we stopped by Starbucks on our way into the mall to get some hot chocolate. Once we got there, we headed separate ways, as we usually do, to cover more ground in less time. I’ll admit, it is kind of stupid for my mom to leave me, a fifteen year old girl, alone for hours in a huge mall. But, this is just how we roll and it works perfectly fine!

After about an hour of shopping, my phone vibrated in my pocket and I picked it up to see a text from my mom. It read, “Hi sweetie! How’s your shopping going? I was thinking we could meet up at the food court to get some lunch. How does that sound?” I quickly answered back saying, “Hi mom! It’s going good. Lunch sounds like a great idea, I’m starving!” I finished up at the store I was in and headed for the food court. It was on a different level than I was on so I used the elevator to help me get there. But when the elevator doors opened, I noticed something was incredibly unusual.

“What the heck happened to the mall?” I think to myself as I step out of the elevator to what appears to be a winter wonderland! I grab my phone to text my mom but, to my astonishment, I had no cell service. I sighed, put my phone away, and started walking towards a faint light I saw about half a mile away.

As I got closer to the light, and what now appeared to be a house, I heard voices and decided to walk toward them to see if they could help me. I soon realized the voices heard weren’t coming from humans, but instead snowmen.

“Um, excuse me? Where am I?” I questioned one of the men of snow.

“Are you joking with me, kid? You’re in Snowville!” He said in a loud, gruff voice.

“Sorry, what’s Snowville?”

“What’s Snowville? What does it look like to you?” He laughed as he turned to his friend and gave a look that said “She has to be messing with us.”

“Sorry, I’m not from here. Do you know a way out of Snowville?” I asked with a confused look on my face.

“Sorry, kid. Once you enter this town, there’s no way out,” he exclaimed with such sorrow.

“What do you mean there’s no way out? I have to get back to my mom!” I gasped. I was really starting to worry now. “There has to be a way out of here. What if I never get back to my mom?” I thought to myself. The snowmen turned away from me, continued their conversation and I got the hint that it was my time to leave. I began walking toward the house again, hoping there would be humans there that could help me.

After what felt like an hour long walk, I arrived at the house. Exhausted, I walked up the porch steps to the door and knocked as I peered inside, just for a second. The door opened and a short, elderly woman appeared before me.

“Oh, dear! You look cold and exhausted, please come in!” she eagerly insisted. As I stepped into her small, quaint home, she wrapped a blanket around my shivering body.

“Thank you so much! I love your house, it’s so homey!” I admired, looking around at her comforting living room.

“Thank you, dear! I’ll get you some hot chocolate and let you get settled in. Now, what brings you here to my neck of the woods?”

“Well, I went into an elevator at the mall to meet up with my mom and it, somehow, took me here instead. As I was walking to your house, I ran into some talking snowmen who told me where I was and that there is no way out of this town. But, that can’t be true, right? There has to be a way back to the mall.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid there is no way out of Snowville. I came into this town, the same way you did, about sixty years ago and haven’t figured out a way out yet,” she sighed. We continued chatting about plotting a way out of this snowy hell for around half an hour before I decided to just give up. I realized I would never be able to escape, no matter how hard I tried. The woman, whose name I soon learned was Mabel, invited me to stay with her for as long as I needed, which would probably be forever. As I delightfully accepted her offer, Mabel started beaming and jumping up and down with joy, as she had not shared her life with anyone since her wife passed away forty years ago.

Seven years later, Mabel had slowly passed away, due to her old age, and now I’m living alone. Yes, I’m sad I haven’t seen my mom, or anyone for that matter, in so long with no way to contact her, but I’m content with my simple life. I’ve made friends with the snowmen and snowwomen who live here in Snowville and we have get-togethers every Friday night to catch up on our lives. I spend the rest of my time hoping someone will end up on my doorstep, the same way I did with Mabel, to chat, laugh, and share all of my days to come with.