Tell us your memories of teenage friendships to win £100 ELEMIS voucher and a copy of WATCHING EDIE! Post by 21 September

[SorchaMumsnet]

Watching Edie by Camilla Way is a suspenseful psychological thriller which tells the story of a fateful friendship...

Before: Edie is the friend that Heather has always craved. But one night, it goes terrifyingly wrong. And what started as an innocent friendship ends in two lives being destroyed.

After: Sixteen years later, Edie is still rebuilding her life. But Heather isn’t ready to let her forget so easily. It’s no coincidence that she shows up when Edie needs her most.

Now: Someone has to pay for what happened, but who will it be? Heather or Edie?

Share your best (and worst!) memories of teenage friendships for a chance to win a copy of Watching Edie PLUS a £100 voucher from luxury skincare brand ELEMIS. Three runners-up will also win copies of the book.

This discussion is sponsored by HarperCollins Publishers and will end on 21 September

Books T&Cs apply

Too many.

Spending all day at school together then 2 hour phone call conversations the second you walked in through the door.

Going on the bus to the local shopping centre every Saturday

Sleepovers

Tears too though!

Worse - a birthday party going horribly wrong - too many girls, too many cats for the cream and I got locked in the garage, for fun!!!!!
OMG! My fear of being locked in anywhere has been with me since then!!

Before boys came along - chatting on the phone for hours (wrath of mum and a lock on the phone) Happy memories!
After boys - being dumped and never invited out as I hadn't got a boyfriend then going on holiday abroad and best friend meeting a guy and I never saw her for a week (spent it on my own or with her Mum and dad and little sister)
Being teased for my spots

Best - wonderful caravan holiday in the 1960s where best friend, me, and my little sister squeezed into a folding bed and giggled the night away. Worst - two years later, same friend sitting staring ahead, side by side in the school cloakroom, as she told me her mother had left the family and wasn't ever coming back. I didn't know what to say, and girls didn't hug in those days, so I just sat there saying nothing. If I could go back, I would have said and done so much more.

Fond memories - girly chats & giggles, hanging out on the park, sleepovers with midnight feasts, collecting exam results together. Best memory ever - our first holiday away without parents when we went to Ibiza together...

So, so many.

I had a fierce friendship, almost verging on first love (but non-romantic/platonic)

We went through so much together for such young teens.

She was fighting against authoritative, highly religious parents one of whom was violent . I was lucky, I had a 'normal', stable family.

I suffered a life threatening illness, I collapsed at her feet. She watched as I all but died in front of her. This was the day before our GCSE's started. I survived, I got to use my mock results and had passed them all. The exam board refused to allow her the same luxury and she failed all (having previously been predicted to pass)

All that was the tough stuff. There were amazing moments too (to us anyway).

The reems of paper we used sending messages to each other, some essay length. Each detailing how unfair our parents were, the latest crush, what happened on tele last night, the excitement of the looming FA cup final, who we hated in school complete with detailed plans to put them in their place (never happened, pure fantasy!).

We spent summer holidays lounging on the grassy banks of our local canal, making plans for when we were older. We were going to fall in love, each would be the other's bridesmaid. We'd have children , knew their names, their hair and eye colour.

We made detailed plans for our 18th birthdays, down to the minute. Side notes included gems such as "...*if we have boyfriends they can meet us at X pub at 12.45pm"

We chose to walk the 3 miles home, rather than take the 15 minute bus journey. That was so we could practice our duets - usually Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson, sometimes Abba. We sounded amazing we didn't . Our shared love of Queen, The Kinks and Meatloaf spurned the tempting eyecandy of early Take That, they couldn't compete with REAL MUSIC!

We fancied Roger Taylor, Anthony Hopkins and Rik Mayall! (I was finally lured into the 90's by the beauty of Damon Albarn)

We recited Blackadder scripts, shouted hilarious Life of Brian quotes at the most inappropriate moments (usually a boring maths class) and spent many a break time in detention as a result!

We lived for each other, nothing was done as an individual, nobody could break our bond. We were friends for life.

Then real life took over, I went off round the world and she got busy carving out her career. We fell in love, had children, got mortgages, paid bills. We lost touch.

I saw her recently, 20 years had passed since we lost touch aged 18. We were in a club, both a bit tipsy. We shunned our separate friends, danced the night away and hugged lots and reminisced. It was a great night.

We made plans to see each other again. They never transpired.

So it's the memories I'm left with, of an amazing friendship that saw me through the hardest and also the most fun times.

A friendship I will take with me to the grave.

I'm so sorry, got completely carried away!!! Hadn't meant to write an essay

Cheaper than therapy though and now off to do the cleaning accompanied by Bat Out of Hell

School disco's and holidays to Butlins - we were so sophisticated !! Read Adrian Mole and Judy Blume books , I thought we were inseparable but sadly lost touch

I went youth hosteling in the Forest of Dean with 3 of my friends post 'O' levels. The first night we stayed in a youth hostel in a castle, it was incredibly atmospheric. I went back to the Forest of Dean with my family last week for the first time since. The castle is still a youth hostel and just how I remember it. The other places we stayed appear to have gone though. The funniest incident was being chased by cows along a footpath. Despite our backpacks we put on a fair turn of speed. I would be more circumspect these days but we were young and self confident and nothing was going to hurt us.

Overnight stays and a memorable holiday with my friends family with 7 of us in a camper van and a small tent, long days by the lochs swimming and exploring and laughter filled evenings, eating a meal make from tinned food and falling to sleep under star filled skies. We always parked up in the m middle of nowhere except for the odd night in a campsite so we could shower etc. It was so much fun and we have been life long friends even though we see each other rarely but we are as close as ever and I will never forget those wonderful days of discovery.

A load of us used to all cycle to a beach that was a half way point for us all, bring a packed lunch that always got squashed (the original sandwich thins of the 90's lol) and then end up spending all our pocket money in the beach shop. I moved half way round the world only to come home and end up happily married to one of those friends!

I went all of the way through school without a single friend, it has since been found out that I have Asperger's, but at the time, being bullied and picked on for being different was hell, I wouldn't go back to that time for the world!

I can remember going to my friend Julie's house after school. Her Mum worked and always left out cream crackers, margarine and jam for a snack. It tasted great!!!

Wearing ridiculously short skirts. Dancing with friends with our handbags in the middle at the local youth club, while the boys walked around the edge. Saturdays listening to music in booths sharing headphones at the local music shop. Talking to my best friend for hours and hours on the phone.

Best - no need for sleep😀 You stayed up late, chatting about boys and love and sex, and still woke up looking fresh and feeling fine.
Worst - the cliques and the insecurity. Teenage girls are their own worst, most merciless critics.

Imagine long before social media....just reading Smash Hits together, trying out simple hairstyles and the latest flavour of lip gloss. Oh yeah and a bit of shoplifting! Eek.

Your teenage best friend I think shapes who you are, having someone help cover for you when the local police spot you making out with a new boyfriend, and they all know your mom as she's on the town council (small rural community) my best friend ran interference for months every time they came round to drop off the monthly committee meeting minutes.

I still have the mug she gave me 20 years ago when I left the country.

As teenagers, my friend and I were inseparable and we shared many laughs and sometimes tears together. Once the local funfair came to town and we went on the twister together, I was laughing so hard I actually wet myself and we both had wet backsides because we were sat in at. Needless to say, we didn't impress any boys that evening and had to cut the night short but she forgave me and years on we still laugh about it! .

I have a 17 year old DD and who is part of a close group of girl friends and despite the fact that she cannot possibly fathom this concept , or that I was once her age with similar life issues going on, I watch the dynamics of that friendship (or the parts that I get to be privy to!) and it’s like going back in time, so strong is the sense of déjà vous at times. Those who have boyfriends, veer off onto other paths before (usually) returning, with or without bf, when they realise how much their friends mean to them. When all but one has a boyfriend (my DD’s current predicament), there are then feelings of isolation that everyone is “moving on” without you. Then there are the dilemmas over The Future and What To Do About School/College/Sixth Form/University (not not, depending on the dreaded exams and results thereof).
I see so much of myself in DD (although she doesn’t!! ) and remember the age she is at now so clearly.. and of teetering on the brink of adulthood while still clinging to elements of childhood. The main difference is that by 17, I was “madly in love” with the boy I married at 19. That didn’t last long! I have no regrets as he is my oldest DS’s dad and for that reason I would change nothing.. but I wouldn’t want to see DD go down the same path!

Going on a camping trip with 3 friends aged 15.

We stayed in a lovely little camp site in the countryside and spent our time listening to The Cranberries and Smashing Pumpkins while eating cake and drinking cider and feeling incredibly mature.

Entirely agree with the pp who said teenage friendships are claustrophobic and insanely dramatic. I was best friends with a girl from the age of 10-15. It was always us and occasionally a third girl, who was not always the same girl but kind of there to just change the dynamic, but the two of us were definitely best friends.

Things started to change in the last year of school when I realised this wasn't particularly helpful or healthy and I started to make a wider friendship group for myself and started going out shopping etc as part of other groups but still very close to bf. I remember going to see Titanic in the cinema with a couple of other girls, not bf although she was aware I was going and showed no interest. I went in to school on Monday, she blanked me and never spoke to me again. 5 years of friendship gone without discussion. It still makes me sad as she went through an awful time a while after she stopped talking to me and I didn't feel like I could help her through it as we weren't close anymore.

I met my best friend when I was 11... 39 years ago.

We craved the set up in each other's home. Her parents didn't care what time she came in; what she ate and drank; who she hung out with...

My parents were into healthy eating; strict curfews; helping with homework; still read with me and played board games...

It was only years later that I realised why she liked being at my house so much, or having me stay over at hers. She was safe and could relax at mine... and her father was less likely to beat her mum if I was there at hers.

I can't believe now that I was envious of her freedom. I've apologised, as an adult, for the fact that I didn't 'get' how distressing her childhood was. She said that me being in it made it better.

She's always there with brilliant advice and support for her many friends, and her children ... someone who can always be counted on despite suffering from crippling anxiety.

I love her dearly and have since the day we met...39 years ago.

Me and my friend Emma forming a band. It was just the two of us, we were truly awful, played no instruments, but used to record ourselves singing terribly on to tape. Fortunately this was way before the xfactor, so no one outside our families had to suffer.

I met J at 8 and we've been inseparable ever since. Our teenage years were filled with angst, her showing me how to put on makeup and deal with periods (!) nobody got between us. In late teenage years she discussed abuse, hers from her stepdad and her BF at the time. In later years she helped me 'leave' my abusive ex. I truly love this woman, she told me that she hopes her DD finds a friend like me at school

We're both 49 now and are still there, and always will be, when needed.

My worst time? When my DM told me to stop seeing her - she came from a council estate...I don't have a great relationship with DM now.

When we were 15 my friend and I started going out with two boys. I told my mother I was going to my friend's house and she told her mother she was coming to my house, then we all four went out together. We lived several miles apart and our mothers only met very rarely. However, we both arrived back at my house one evening to find them both sitting there asking where we had been. We told them what had been going on and they, surprisingly, agreed we could continue to go out provided we all four stayed together.