Disclaimer: this is fiction and this is open to healthy critiquing (that means no saying “you suck!” if you think I suck, logically and intelligently tell me what I should improve upon). Also, this is going to have some girly bits for the sake of finding a “real friendship”. Thanks for reading!
After the concert Jamie went to hunt down Tyler, Marie went to talk to some of her guy friends and Danni and I went to the bathroom.
“Is the guy Jamie interested in the dude you ran into,” she asked while washing her hands.
“Yeah. Why,” I pretended to search for lip gloss in my purse.
“Because I saw the way he looked at you. I definitely think he’s interested,” she said calmly. I blushed slightly.
“Really,” I said my eyes wide.
“Yeah but I don’t think you should pursue anything with him,” she shrugged.
“Why not,” I placed a hand on my hip.
“Because Jamie is obviously really interested in him and she’s had such bad luck with guys lately,” she shrugged.
“What are you trying to say,” this time I folded my arms.
“I’m trying to say that you should let Jamie have some fun with a guy that seems really nice for once,” she pleaded. “Come on. She cries a lot because her love life sucks and every time you get into a relationship it’s always with a good guy and so unfair to watch. I get it that sometimes those guys hurt you but they’re still better than what Jamie gets.”
“Haven’t we done enough sacrificing for her already,” I exclaimed. “Marie is so insecure about every guy she meets because they might end up or have already slept with Jamie. That’s not how things should be and that’s not fair.”
“Hey,” she raised her hand. “You don’t have to get defensive. I was just trying to be a good friend unlike you.”
“You three are so stressful! Back off,” I swiftly turned and retreated from the bathroom. My head ached with blind fury. I was so blind that I hit something hard.
“Running into me again,” an amused manly voice said.
“Hi Tyler,” I smiled rubbing my head. “Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”
“No. No, it’s fine,” he laughed. “So my friends and I are going to skip out on that after party but nobody else knows yet.”
“Oh really,” I see his friends, who are also his bandmates and roommates, watching us from a distance.
“Yeah,” he said. “You wanna come?”
He looked expectant and I looked between him and his friends. Did I want to come? I could suddenly heard Danni’s voice in my head again. You should let Jamie have some fun with a guy that seems really nice for once.
“Yeah,” I smiled.
“Cool.”
We ended up at this nice Mexican restaurant chatting about random stuff and sometimes serious things.
“So what are you going to do after college Gia. It’s like your last year right,” Tyler’s friend Bethany asked.
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” I covered my face with my hand and groaned. “I have no idea.”
“You don’t know what you wanna do,” said the guy sitting across from me with wide eyes.
“Sven leave her alone,” his friend Taylor commanded.
“What? She seems so together man,” Sven complained. I felt a bit worse.
“See! Now you’ve got her all upset,” Taylor exclaimed smacking Sven on the shoulder.
“Ow! I’m sorry,” he pouted. She smacked him again.
“What are you interested in at least,” Tyler asked.
“A lot of things,” I answered. “but mainly creative things. I want to create really inspiring and relatable things.”
“Well that explains the film major,” Bethany said. “It’s totally perfect.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “But it doesn’t do me much good.”
Everyone gave me the same quizzical look.
“I mean most of my friends know exactly what they’re going to do and how they’re going to do it and they all have jobs lined up and I’m just over here like ‘I create stuff!’,” I explained suddenly feeling more vulnerable as their faces softened.
“Do your friends know how you feel,” Bethany asked kindly.
“Not really,” I shrugged. “I mean I’ve talked to them but they don’t really recognize me for my skill and stuff as if our goals aren’t equally as important sometimes.”
“Do they at least encourage you or like look at your stuff,” Sven asked. I shook my head and Taylor frowned.
“That’s terrible! Why are you friends with them?” Taylor exclaimed, causing the restaurant to go silent.
“I mean they aren’t bad people. Danni can be really supportive at times whenever she isn’t around Jamie and Marie is really cool whenever Jamie isn’t around,” I said, the words water falling out of my mouth.
“Wait. Jamie?” Sven’s eyes widened. “Jamie Vasquez?”
I nodded.
“Nah man,” Sven shook his head. “That girl is not cool. Her and Taylor used to be besties back in the day and she came out so mean when she got to college. How in the eff did you end up with her?”
I shrugged. I tended to meet terrible people and I felt as if the good people just left me very quickly. It was as if they weren’t interested in being my friend. These people were obviously good people too and it was nice to be in this moment right now.
“Hey,” Tyler whispered. “I know they’re your best friends and you wouldn’t let anyone hurt them but do they do the same for you?”
“Exactly,” Bethany exclaimed. “If they don’t treat you like they care about you then what kind of friendship is that?”
I wondered the same thing sometimes. I put up with a lot of crap and made a ton of excuses for their actions.
Eventually, the conversation moved on to other things but my mind kept drifting back to that conversation. Did my friends really have my best interest at heart? I’ve never actually shown them any of my pieces. I mean they didn’t seem too interested in my stuff so I didn’t bother. Maybe if I showed them my stuff they’d have a reason to be supportive . . . something about that thought felt stupid.
“Hey, you ready to go,” I heard Tyler’s soft voice break my train of thought. I looked up to see all of his friends smiling at me and I nodded.
“So what happened to you last night,” Jamie asked as we sat at our usual lunch place. “You were like with us and then you went off on Danni and then you disappeared.”
“Did Danny tell you why I left,” I asked.
“No but I don’t care about that,” Jamie rolled her neck. “I want to know what you did last night.”
“I hung out with friends,” I shrugged. “No big deal.”
“No big deal!!!” She shrieked. “You were supposed to be hanging out with us!”
“What’s going on,” Marie said as she and Danny joined our table.
“This bitch was out with other people when she was supposed to be out with us,” Jamie genuinely seemed hurt by the fact that I left her last night.
“That’s where you went,” Danni asked, she seemed relieved. Jamie shot her a hurt look.
“So what’s the problem,” Marie asked very confused.
“We were hanging out.” She complains. “We were having a girls’ night and she abandons us for her own little personal rendezvous time as if she doesn’t care about us anymore!”
Oh my gosh! Female! I was done. I had finally come to my breaking point.
“You would’ve left us for a BOY!!!” I yelled. “You would’ve left us if you got the chance to woo him like you wanted. You didn’t give a crap about us having a girls’ night! You just wanted us there for your benefit, to give you attention, so if your tail got rejected you had your ‘friends’ to fall back on.”
She opened her mouth to talk and I raised a hand.
“You. Are so. Selfish!” I waved my arms around. “Like oh my gosh! You threaten people when things don’t go your way. You scream for attention. You get mad when someone tells you the truth about ANYTHING relating to you and whether it’s negative or positive you just have to one up everybody.”
Then I addressed the other two.
“And I love you guys but jeez you either guilt-trip me or put up with so much crap that I don’t know how you don’t get nightmares at night.” I shook my head. “You don’t support me and you ostracize me but you demand so much of my dang time. It makes me want to scream!”
“Well if you don’t want us you can take your sorry life with you,” Jamie said looking away from me. “You know we cared about you! We were your real friends!”
“You’re pitiful,” I shook my head. I was finally ready to let go of terrible people even if they were my closest friends.
A car revved outside of the window and I saw Tyler and his friends waving at me through the window. I motioned to see if I could join them and they all nodded. Taylor jumped out of the front seat next to Tyler and hopped into the back seat. I smiled brightly.
“What’s going on,” Jamie looked between me and the car. “Is that Tyler?!”
“Yep,” I said and waltzed out of the building as she screamed.
Tiara Kikyo Giles 