“A Moment’s Pause,” by Bradee Traverse, 17, of West Rutland Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwrit ersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at [email protected]; (802) 324-9538. Can we be friends? Abigail Ulager, 16, Hinesburg Why don’t we become friends? We can carry one another through storms, and catch each other when we fall. The only thing is: I’m weak, and no matter how much I want to lift you up, I don’t think I can. Never mind that, we can still be friends. We can shine lights when the clouds hide the sun, and show each other that the shadows aren’t all that scary after all. I’m scared of your shadows too, and I don’t know how to light up the darkness. Maybe we can’t be friends…  because what’s the point of doing something if it’s not going to be any good? But she, with brown hair, twinkled her bright eyes.   I don’t remember what she said as she gently took my hand; all I know is that she smiled  like we would never die. So maybe I can’t carry you across the raging ocean,  or make the blackness white – you’ll need someone else for that. I’m no doctor,  and I don’t know how to make your wounds hurt less. But I will be here with open ears and open arms, because I don’t know how to make it better but I have a shoulder on which you can cry and a heart that yearns to laugh. So, can we be friends? I don’t have much to offer, and will probably mess up a billion times. But I really want to stand here, my hands holding on to yours  and yours resting in mine. Read the story on VTDigger here: Young Writers Project: ‘Can we be friends?’. ...read more read less