Isabella Estrada

Storer
English 3 Honors Block 4
2 April 2020
Run!
“Ok, you’re free to go. Have a good summer,” the teacher said as I walked out of the
music room after taking my biology exam freshman year. Never in my life had I wanted to
disappear more than I did right then. I wanted to run away and never look back, but I knew there
was something I had to do first. I had to talk to her before it was too late.
In my first attempt to find her, I went to my locker. Our lockers were right next to each
other because of our last names so I thought I would go there first and try and find her. As I
discovered she wasn’t there, I walked away from the back of the Sienna building towards the
music room. As I made my journey there, everything seemed like a daze. When people stopped
me to talk to them about how finals went and what were my summer plans, my responses were
highly formed so I could get out of the conversion as quickly as possible because there was only
one person that I really wanted to talk to.
I made my way over to the music room and sat down next to the back entrance of the
theater. I texted her to see where she was. I told her I had to talk to her and made sure to
emphasize that it was nothing serious even though I was going to tell her my deepest, darkest
secret. As I sat there anxiously waiting for her response, I put down my phone and got up off the
floor. I started pacing back and forth in front of the art room. My strides kept in rhythm with the
gentle summer breeze on my body. Since it was about fifteen minutes after finals had ended, the
rowdy teenage voices had dissipated and only the chirps of birds filled the air. A resounding
*ding* broke that silence and I ran to my phone to check the message. She told me she was at the
swing set by the senior lawn. I made my way to the senior lawn. I felt like there was no one in
sight for miles and that I was the only one there. However, I looked across the field to the swing
sets and saw her sitting there. She was gently swing up and down. Her back was faced to me, so
she didn’t notice me. I kept walking forward, but every step seemed to get harder to do. It’s one
foot in front of the other Bella. It’s not that hard, just go!
At that moment, I froze. Everything seemed to stop, and I couldn’t move. My physical
body was paralyzed but my mind was yelling at me.
Run!
I could see her from the middle of the field; her gorgeously indescribable eyes, her
infectious smile, and her warm, gentle arms. All I wanted to do was walk over there and lie in
her arms, but I knew I couldn’t go through with it. I couldn’t go through with it because she was
perfect. My mind started racing with thoughts. I was the person who I had been running away
from her the entire year. I was the person who betrayed her. I was the person who loved her so
much yet hurt so bad. I was the person who was selfish, disgusting, shameful and broken inside.
I was the person who didn’t deserve to be forgiven. I was the lying best friend who had fallen in
love with her boyfriend.
Run!
The thought kept pulsing in my head like an omen. The thought to abandon her before
summer. What I didn’t know at the time as that she would be changing schools next year so this
really was my last interaction with her. If you knew that this was the last time you were going to
see someone, would you risk it all and tell them everything? Or would you run and move on?
Run!
 I never thought I would be the person to run away from their fears, but I that’s exactly
what I did. I ran and ran without any shame. I ran to a part of the school where no one goes and
sat and bawled my eyes out. In my head I hoped no one would find me but, in my heart, I wished
that anyone would save me.
The drive home that day felt like walking through a dust storm. I couldn’t really see or
hear anything. I sat there and gave my autopilot answers to my dad when he asked me about my
day. It didn’t seem like a good time to tell him that my friendship with my best friend of thirteen
years had ended so I sat there quietly in the back seat.
Rather than make up a lie to wrap up this story like they do in cheesy young adult novels,
the truth is that I have never told my old best friend why I stopped being friends with her. I was
too afraid to face myself and what I had done to talk to her. Even though we lived about five
blocks away, I could never muster up the courage to look her in the eyes. After she left the
school, we didn’t really keep in touch. I’d see her on the weekends at mass, but I never talked to
her because I still felt so guilty. It took my about three years and a lot of crying to forgive myself
and other than following me back on Instagram, she’s moved on from it too and is having a
wonderful high school experience at her performing arts school.

Explanations
1. Emotional Truth:
o Emotional Truth: My emotional truth is that running from your problems won’t
solve anything. As a freshman, I was a very different person than I am now. I
thought that my best friend would have cast me out and that my life would have
fallen apart when in reality, when I told her the truth, she was completely
forgiving. The point of my story is that running from something you know you
have to do will not make things feel better. If anything, it will only make you feel
worse because not only will you live with the guilt of what you did, but you will
also have to live with the regret of not telling the truth when you had the chance.
It’s easy to think that burying the problem will fix it but only by facing your fear
will you be able to accept other people’s forgiveness and forgive yourself.
2. Story Arc:
a. Exposition: It was the last day of finals before school is over and I was leaving the
classroom where I was taking my biology final. Wanting to run away
b. Inciting Incident: I realized I couldn’t leave without talking to her (what about, I
have not disclosed yet)
c. Rising Action: Trying to find her at my locker/waiting for response in the back of
the theater/ walking towards her on the Senior Lawn/My mind racing with
thoughts about who I am (for falling in love with my best friend’s boyfriend) and
who she was/The thought of running away becoming more and more prevalent
d. Crisis/Climax: Running away
e. Falling Action: Sitting and crying/Driving home
f. Resolution: Never telling her the truth/Growing apart over time/Her moving to a
new school/Her following me on Instagram