Crossing The Line

It was one of the most awkward situations I've ever been in. He could not believe what had happened. Neither could anyone in that room. There was a deafening silence. Nobody moved an inch for a few seconds, which seemed to last forever. He was shocked. He didn't know how to react to it. In fact, for starters, he didn't even sense the gravity of it. It took him a moment to get a stock of what had hit him. But we should have seen it coming. I did sense the tone. But should have done better to restrain. The other also was equally perplexed. He just couldn't believe the way he had reacted. Probably he was more hurt of the two, cause he has never done it before. And when he did it, it was on one of his best friends and a person who deserved it the least.

The most difficult part as an observer in such situations is when you have to pick a side. Not that you have to. But the mind sorta goes into a moral quandary. Who crossed the line?

If you ask me, neither did. Or maybe both. You may sit for long and dissect the situation and look for answers, but you'll never find an easy one. That's friendship.
When you are in a long friendship, things are taken for granted. You don't draw lines. Even if you draw one, over the years, it blurs. But when some unexpected incidents happen, the line thickens.
And after that things will never be the same again. You might try like mad to heal it, but just doesn't work. You might still meet and talk, but you'll feel that there is a level of discomfort. Its difficult to see eye to eye. There is something, but that just can't be discussed. You want to, but you just can't. You so wish that it had never happened.

This is one of the tragedies of a great friendship. One minute you have everything and in the next, its all gone. There is no animosity. They still wish each other good things. But that thing that makes a friendship 'great' is lost in a whisker.

As far I see it, earnestly trying not to be schmaltzy, for what its worth, its really not fair to lose it all for something that happened in a moment of madness.