I wonder if they know how much damage they caused-

wielding their words like swords.

Did they really think that everything would be fine

after they dropped that atomic bomb,

destroying the innocent along with the guilty?

The only guilty ones were them,

destroyed by the radiation left in their wake.

Does the first know-

that her words, rough like sandpaper, still scrape against my friend's brain.

Causing panic attacks that still linger and nightmares that won't cease?

That she brought forth the destruction of the group she wanted to keep

locked away from the rest of the world?

But how could she think that attacking the innocent,

then playing one herself, would benefit her?

By claiming forgetfulness, she hoped to be free of the blame,

but I wasn't born yesterday.

Does the second know-

that her outburst was a precursor of jabs to come,

hidden under the ruse of friendship?

She thinks she knows me, but she doesn't. No, not at all.

Her words sting-

like salt in a fresh wound, but this wound is not fresh,

it had been healed for years now.

The wound was reopened, cut away by someone I thought I could trust.

With every word out of her mouth, I found another piece of evidence

linking her to the bombing. I had thought she was innocent but now I know

she was guilty too.

I want them to know-

because of them, the group they wanted to keep together

was destroyed in a blast unlike any other, losing some instantly.

For others, it took time for the radiation to take its full effect.

A summer of silence carried off the first.

Yet the second remains-

not by choice,

she is still in my life.

I wonder if she knows-

that this "friendship" has an expiration date?

One whose time cannot come fast enough,

for every second I spend in her presence, the wound festers.

I've done my best to treat it, but there's only so much you can do,

when the person that's causing you pain,

refuses to let you go.