Waves

Chapter Thirteen: Only a Friend

Chapter Thirteen: Only a Friend

“A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else.” –Anais Nin 

A friend is someone who will always be there for you no matter what, through the good and the bad. Friends come in and out of your life for a reason. They all teach you valuable and important lessons. Maybe it’s not true, but that’s just how I look at it.

            However, not every friend is a true friend. There will be friends that are jealous of you, friends that will stab you in the back, and friends that won’t stand up for you. Real friends will stand beside you, not in front or in back. True friends are hard to come by.

Not everyone can be your friend. Some people just aren’t meant to be your friend and you must accept it as it is. Some friends will treat you badly and use you. If a friend is willing to do that to you, then they were never really your friend in the first place. Keep these things in mind when you make new friends.

Things were going pretty good for me. I was less stressed now that Rick was gone. He was in jail, where he belonged.

Things weren’t spiraling out of control at school either. People probably still talked about me, but I knew that they wouldn’t stop. That was something that was out of my control.

Cory was my friend now. He didn’t try to kiss me again. There was still some tension but things between us couldn’t be completely normal, I guessed. He still hung out with his football friends and I noticed that they didn’t taunt me anymore. I already knew that Cory had something to do with that. It was sort of a relief. At least I didn’t have to go through it as much anymore.

We hung out twice over the past week. Once at the diner near school, where we ate breakfast and studied for chemistry. And once at the football game. We ended up losing. Cory had said that maybe if he was still playing, the team would’ve won. When I’d asked him if he missed being on the team, he’d said, “A little bit.” Then I felt a little guilty for turning him in to Principal Mathers.

Eliza still didn’t like him and Lucas nearly had a heart attack when he found out. He went on about how it was a bad idea, but I told him the same things I told Eliza. After going back and forth, he accepted it. There was nothing wrong with a second chance. If he screwed this up, I wouldn’t give him a third chance. That, maybe, was too many chances.

The sessions were also going well. Vanessa was really nice and she understood everything. Maybe Lucas got it from her. He understood without me having to say anything. Everyone was nice.

Bianca and I were getting close, which I hadn’t expected. I liked to work with her when we got into groups. She told me about her stepfather and how he touched her on weekends when her mother was working and how he raped her. She told me that now she lived with her grandparents because her mother lost custody of her and that she had never even met her father. I felt bad for her. I was glad that Rick and my mother hadn’t gotten married and that he hadn’t tried to touch me or Hailey. If he had, my father probably would have killed him. My dad was very protective of us—probably because we were girls. I told her a little bit about my family too.

Ryan and I had been texting, too. Since he’d tried to overdose, I felt that I should keep an eye on him. He said that he wasn’t going anywhere, but I was still a little worried. He ended up telling Eliza how he felt about her and that they should take things slowly. I was happy for them and I hoped that someday they’d get together.

On Friday, my car decided not to start. I sucked my teeth, annoyed. After my father took a quick look at it, he said that he’d take it to the repair shop later. Then he said that he’d take me to school, and Lucas too, if that was what I wanted. I agreed and climbed into the backseat with Hailey.