Lacey and June had been best friends since kindergarten. Lacey was painfully shy, and did not go out of her way to interact with the other children, whereas June was the complete opposite. In fact, June was extroverted almost to a fault.

“I like your braids! I wish I had hair as long as yours!” June had exclaimed after crawling on the ground to get to Lacey, who was kneeling on the ground under a table, hidden away from the rest of the class, the rest of her world, appearing to shrink into the wall as though she were trying to make herself into a tiny bug. Lacey stared back tearfully, and began to chew on one of her long, blonde braids. “What are you doing hiding down here? You want to go color with me? I love coloring! My mama got me a new coloring set for my birthday! My birthday is in June, that’s how my mama got my name! When is your birthday?” June grabbed Lacey’s arms to help pull her up off the floor and to bring her out of her shell and out into the world and from then on they were inseparable.

Lacey and June came from very different upbringings. June’s parents were very happy to see June had made a friend so quickly, and allowed her to have Lacey over as much as possible, inviting her to birthday parties, sleep overs, and letting June go out to play with Lacey at the small playground at their school, which was about a block away from June’s house. Conveniently, this was also the halfway point between Lacey’s house, so the girls would meet up as often as possible.

Lacey’s parents didn’t seem to be around very much. June was not ever allowed over for sleep overs, and Lacey never had birthday parties or occasions where June was invited over. Lacey was also not permitted to call June or give out her phone number, which June thought was weird but she didn’t mind, her and Lacey would see each other every day they could. As they got older, they began to exchange notes in spiral one subject notebooks, so they could pass them between classes and continue writing notes to each other without raising too much suspicion from their teachers. June would wait for Lacey after every class, and the two would walk together, eat lunch together, spend recess together. It was as if there was no one else for either of them.

On the year they entered ninth grade, everything changed. June became enamored with a boy, and suddenly her whole world became all about Daniel. The notebooks they had written were all about Daniel, and lately, June had not been waiting for Lacey after her classes or meeting her to hang out. June wasn’t even at their lunch table, choosing to sit with Daniel. Lacey watched them, watched June hang on Daniel’s every word, and gaze lovingly at him. Lacey was happy for June, but she wanted her friend back.

One sunny Friday after the last bell of the day had rung to set the school free for the weekend, after a whole week of June pretty much ignoring Lacey in a state of Dan-ial (a joke Lacey had made to herself as a play on denial, using Daniel’s name, since June seemed oblivious to anything else), Lacey had decided she had had enough, and she went to talk to her friend.

“Hey Junebug, want to meet at the playground later? We can hang out and catch up? I feel like you’ve been avoiding me all week?” Lacey had said, calling out to June as June walked past her, holding Daniel’s hand.

“Yeah, sure! Later!” June said, not turning back even once to look at her friend.

“Okay, I’ll be … up there… at 6” mumbled Lacey to herself, watching her friend walk away.

Lacey sat on the swingset of the small, empty playground, watching the sunset on the wooden mulch. The school that had housed the playground had been closed permanently for at least the last few years, but the playground stood, still a hang out for kids and teenagers alike. As the sun sank further in the sky and the shadows grew long over the grass and the cold of the evening set in, it dawned on Lacey that her friend wasn’t coming. Lacey got up from her spot on the swings to sit at the picnic table, and told herself she would wait a couple of minutes and rest her eyes and then head for home.

Lacey’s head bolted upright when she heard a girl’s giggling followed by a shush from another voice.

“June?” Lacey asked, groggy and confused. How long had she been there? The figure of two people in the shadows united and split, leaning against the wall of the dark, abandoned school.

“June, is that you?” No answer, just more giggling and moaning noises.

“Do you hear something?” A voice suddenly asked. Male. Couldn’t have been older than 14 or 15.

“No, I didn’t hear anything, Danny, now come back here.” A girl’s voice responded. That wasn’t June. Lacey squinted in the darkness to get a better view at the girl, but Daniel had obstructed her view.

“Let’s get out of here, Rachel, this place is giving me the creeps.” Daniel said, pulling away long enough to seperate from the girl and grabbing her by the hand, and the two took off past the dark expanse of the small playground.

Lacey knew what she had to do, she had to go and tell her friend what was going on. No matter how cast aside she felt at the moment, June was her best friend in the world; she deserved to know what the boy who she thought hung the moon was up to. She set off toward June’s house. Lacey ran as fast as her legs would carry her. Finally, she reached June’s house, and knocked on the door. A minute or so later, June appeared in her weiner dogs in hot dog bun pajamas.

“What are you doing here, Lacey? Get inside, we need to talk.” June said, opening the door so Lacey could come in.

“You’re right we need to talk, I waited at the park for you for hours-“Lacey started, her temper flaring.

“Let’s not talk here, come upstairs.” June led the way to her bedroom, Lacey climbing the stairs silently behind her. June shut the door carefully, and sprawled on her bed.

“What is going on with you, June? You’ve ditched me every single day this week! I waited for you at the playground and you never showed!” Lacey crossed her arms across her chest.

“Look, I’m sorry, I’ve just been busy, it’s just that, we’re not little kids anymore and I have a life, and I have something to tell you.” June said, rising from the bed slowly.

“I have something to tell you, too. June, Daniel was kissing another girl tonight. I saw them at the playground while I was waiting for you.”

“Yeah, right.” June scoffed “I’m sure.”

“You don’t believe me?” Lacey said, hurt. “When have I ever lied to you?”

“You’re just jealous because I’m growing up. And now I have something to tell you.” June stood in front of Lacey, inches from her now. “You’re not real. You know that, right? You’re not real.” June smiled. “I made you up because I was lonely, I was bored, I had nobody. Well I have someone now and I don’t need you anymore.”

“What? June, what are you saying, I’m not real? What are you talking about? Are you out of your mind?” Lacey was crying now, trying to keep her voice from becoming a hysterical shriek.

“We are in HIGH SCHOOL NOW” June yelled, pacing around the room. “I don’t have time for your baby games, for talking to someone who isn’t even there! I have real friends now, Lacey! I don’t need you!”

Suddenly, from downstairs in the kitchen, the voice of June’s mother floated up. “June, is everything okay up there? Who are you talking to?”

“No one mom!” June yelled back, glaring at Lacey. “Literally no one.”

Tears streaming from her eyes, Lacey stormed out of June’s room, and out of her house as quickly and quietly as she could.

She started down the street, wiping her eyes, trying to collect her thoughts and steady her breathing. What had Lacey done to June to make her be so cruel? What did she mean, Lacey didn’t exist? Lacey’s chest began to heave as she sobbed. She couldn’t go home like this. She made a beeline for the playground. She threw herself in the swing and dug at the ground with her shoe.

“I have real friends now, Lacey. I don’t need you!” June’s words echoed in Lacey’s head as she tried to steady her breathing. She suddenly felt as though a weighted blanket enveloped her.

She looked up at the bright moon, looked at the mulch and grass everything around her. She bit her lip, then hopped off the swing. She couldn’t be here all night, she had better go home and sort through this.

As she turned down the street and continued walking, she suddenly stopped, and took note of her surroundings. This wasn’t her street…. Sure enough, 2 houses ahead of her was June’s house. That wasn’t right, how had she winded up here? She turned around, deciding to head for her house. She stopped cold. Suddenly, fear gripped her. She couldn’t remember where she lived…

“That’s okay,” she said out loud to herself, trying to keep her voice steady. “I’m a little confused.” Suddenly it seemed the whole world was closing in on her again. She sat down on the curb to steady herself. She had to get home, surely her parents would be worried about her, wouldn’t they? She tried to focus hard. She couldn’t remember her parents, either. No names, no faces, no voices, no memories. Did she maybe hit her head and she just forgot it? Yeah, that had to be it. June would never say these things to her, and she would never have forgotten her own parents or her house. Maybe the best place to start was to head back to the playground, where she could regain her thoughts. She began the treck back, and found her spot on the bench, and sat with her head in her hands. Tears began to flow until suddenly she found her eyes too heavy to keep open, and she drifted off to sleep again….

16 years later

June is washing dishes at the sink in her kitchen, scrubbing the macaroni off the plates from tonight’s feast. She absentmindedly looks out the window, across the back yard and admires the way the grass looks rippling in the wind in the twilight. She also admires the way the small pink tent looks, set far back enough in the yard that there is some distance but close enough to be safe.

“Mom, are you sure you don’t want to come outside with us?” Came a pleading voice from behind her. June turned around to see her own daughter Micah in pajamas, pouting her lower lip. “There’s room in the tent!”

June chucked and ruffled her daughter’s frizzy short hair. “No, sweetie, I got that princess tent for you and your friends to have your sleepovers in.”

Micah looked crestfallen for a second, and then said “Okay, see you later mama!” and took off outside in a sprint with her arms full of stuffed animals, a blanket and a bag of chips.

June shut the patio door behind her, and heaved a contented sigh as she set off to her kitchen table to browse on her laptop for a little. Luckily, the kitchen table was situated in front of a window overlooking the back yard, so she could crack the window and keep and ear and eye on Micah. She smiled to herself as she heard Micah giggling.

“You’re so funny, let me go inside and ask my mom real quick.”

A couple seconds later, the patio door opened and Micah popped her head in. “Mom, my friend Lacey wants to know if she can stay the night, is that okay?”