Best Friends I think what Laurie Halse Anderson is trying to say about best friends in Speak, is that your best friends won’t always be there for you and sometimes you have to fend for yourself. To begin with, every single one of Melinda’s friends hated her, and throughout the book she had to deal with Andy because of the party incident. Nobody asked her what was the problem, her friends weren't there for her when she was attacked. Even Melinda’s best friends hate her for calling the cops, and if her friends were there it would be different. Next, Melinda’s friend Heather asked her for things all the time, for example the posters. Melinda helped with the posters for a friend, and Heather could count on her as a scapegoat when it went bad.
