Friendship Beyond Barbie

Xu Hanglu, this name sounds masculine no matter how you listen to it. In order to add a little tenderness to this girl, the name Lulu came into being. This girl is my best friend, the kind that is inseparable from her.

Even after high school, when we were divided into arts and science, I became an artistic young woman, and she evolved into a science expert with a test tube and microscope in hand, our friendship remained...

But sometimes, it is true that the people with whom we have the most conflicts are often those closest to us.

"It's you"

"Not me"

I put my hands on my hips and glared at Lulu. She glared back at me. The two of us were in a stalemate and ended up parting on bad terms.

The story began two days ago. My aunt brought me a Barbie doll from Beijing as my birthday present. In that era when only building blocks and plush toys were popular, this exquisite Barbie was really a rare thing. I loved it so much that I even hugged it when I slept and made a small bed for it using my mother's shoe box.

But when I woke up this morning, she was gone, along with her "little bed". But I clearly remember putting her on the coffee table outside yesterday, so how could she be gone when I woke up?

The first person I suspected was Lulu, who had been hanging around at my house yesterday and saying Barbie was cute. But if it was Lulu, when did she take it away?

I was sitting on the bed biting my nails in confusion. At this moment, my mother poked her head out, saw that I was awake, and came in to fold the quilt. “Lulu came to see you this morning, but when she saw you were still sleeping, she went back.” This is what it means to wake someone up from their dream with a single word.

I jumped up and said, "I'm going to find Lulu." I ran out without even changing my slippers, not caring about my mother shouting "Shoes! Change your shoes!"

The knock on the door was a bit heavy, and I heard the sound of slippers slipping inside the room. Then the door was opened, and Lulu was holding a spoon, blinking her big eyes, looking at me.

I didn't have time to care about her expression. I rushed into the house and started looking around.

"What are you doing?" She glared at my movements as she sat back down at the dining table, a bowl of oatmeal in front of her.

My search yielded no results. I turned and glared at her. "You took my Barbie?" She paused as she lifted a spoonful of oatmeal and asked, "What?"

Because I was certain in my heart that it was Lulu who took the Barbie, even though her face was full of surprise, I thought it was a cover-up for her guilty conscience.

"You took my Barbie!" If the previous sentence is a question, then this one is definitely an affirmative sentence.

Her hand holding the spoon dropped down, and the spoon and bowl made a crisp "clang" sound.

"I didn't!" She stood up and looked at me at eye level.

"It must be you! I left her on the coffee table last night and she disappeared this morning."

She had an expression of disbelief on her face, “I didn’t take it!”

"You were the only one who came to my house this morning, so it must have been you!"

“I really didn’t take it.”

"Then show me the evidence." She was speechless for a moment, her brows furrowed so tightly that they could kill a fly.

At that time, I always thought I was Sherlock Holmes and that the conclusions I came to were always correct.

Seeing she didn't say anything, I became more confident and even spoke louder. "Look, you can't even produce any evidence! You're a thief, give Barbie back to me!"

Aunt Zhou, startled by my voice, came over and asked, "What's wrong? What happened? You're quarreling so early in the morning." Aunt Zhou's big eyes, the same as Lulu's, scanned back and forth between us.

"Auntie Zhou, Lulu stole my Barbie," I complained hurriedly.

"I didn't!" Lulu immediately retorted loudly.

"You have!"

Aunt Zhou finally understood what we were saying and her expression gradually became stern. "Lulu, did you take someone's reading material? Give it back to them! What did your mother tell you?"

"I didn't take it!" Lulu has never been a delicate girl. She didn't shed tears, but I clearly saw her aggrieved expression. At that moment, I felt guilty.

"How can you be so ignorant, kid..."

I left because I didn't want to listen to Aunt Zhou criticizing her.

I curled up on the sofa, staring at the TV with lifeless eyes. I tried to convince myself that I should be criticized if I did something wrong, but her stubborn look and red eyes kept replaying in my mind.

"Niannian, are we really not going to play with Lulu?" Ye Zhixia tugged at my sleeve cautiously.

I glanced at Lulu, who had been giving me a cold shoulder the whole day, and snorted in frustration.

"She's a thief! Of course you can't play with a thief!" I said loudly on purpose. I could clearly see Lulu pause, but she turned and walked away without a word. I felt even more depressed.

"Lulu is not a thief!" Little Cheng Yu'an couldn't stand it anymore, frowned and ran to chase Lulu.

"A thief's follower!" I was unhappy and shouted at Cheng Yu'an's back.

"Niannian! How can you talk like that!" Jiang Yuanzhou, who had been facing me, also frowned and said to me.

I looked at the hesitant expressions of the people around me and curled my lips in grievance, "You all help Lulu! I don't want to pay attention to you anymore." I pushed them away and ran home.

"Niannian, what's wrong with you?" I lazily curled up on the sofa. "What are you doing?" I yelled impatiently.

"Your Aunt Zhou just told me that Lulu stole your things?" The mother, who had just got off work, frowned.

"Lulu is just a thief..."

"Lin Nian! You have no basis for saying that. What gives you the right to say that?" My mother's stern tone suddenly brought out tears for some reason.

"It's obviously Lulu's fault! It's obviously her fault! Why do you blame me? She stole my Barbie! It's her!!" Tears flowed down her cheeks and tasted salty in her mouth.

"Barbie? Are you talking about the doll your aunt gave you?" I nodded with tears in my eyes.

"You little girl! I put the doll in your closet this morning when I was tidying up the coffee table! How could Lulu have stolen it?"

“…”

Mom sighed and went into the inner room. Soon she came out with my Barbie and put it in my hand.

Barbie was wearing the gorgeous dress I had put on her last night, and she still had a warm smile on her face.

"You, go apologize to Lulu now."

I held the doll in my arms blankly, tears hanging on my eyelashes, I was too stunned to let them fall.

How should I put it...

I walked back and forth in front of Lulu's door many times, but I didn't dare to knock. I stared at the tightly closed, cold door. Whatever! I'll take responsibility for my actions! I took a deep breath and took a step forward. Before I could knock, the door was yanked open from the inside.

My hand, which wanted to knock on the door, was just raised awkwardly.

"You've been walking back and forth in front of my house for more than ten minutes, making so much noise," Lulu said, her hands on her hips, looking quite unhappy. I then realized I had my hand raised, and quickly lowered it.

"Ahem~that" Looking at Lulu's cold expression, I suddenly couldn't say anything. "Nothing, nothing" I waved my hand and turned to walk out.

"Hey!" Lulu called me. I lowered my head and remained silent for a moment, then turned my head and asked, "Do you want to come to my house to watch TV?"

Lulu's expression was strange. I blinked, unable to understand whether she wanted to go or not. Just as I was about to ask, she suddenly couldn't hold it together and laughed softly.

Awkward...awkward...with a dry cough, I turned around and ran home.

"Hey! You're so pretentious! You can't even say sorry!" I heard her smiling voice behind me, and the depression of the day suddenly disappeared.

I know that our personalities are not so compatible. I am always rash, and she is younger than me, but much calmer than me.

But I believe that similar people are meant to laugh together, and complementary people are meant to grow old together. It seems we'll have to grow old together.

"Hey, if I really take this Barbie away one day, what are you going to do?" Lulu held my Barbie in her hands and couldn't let it go.

I chuckled, "Then I'll give it to you."

Lulu turned her head to look at me, as if trying to determine whether what I said was true or not.

"Why? Don't you believe me?" I grabbed the Barbie and stuffed it directly into her hands. "I said I would give it to you, how could it be fake?"

She looked at me and smiled, her eyes sparkling, very beautiful.