Jenny

One.

 The hallways were overflowing with students who shoved me in attempt to get through. I had said a lot of “sorry and “excuse me” just to get to the second floor where I knew Jenny was waiting for me by her locker as usual.

It was about three years ago, the first day of freshman year at this awful high school, when Jenny and I had made a pact. We were walking down this same crowded hallway, bubbly and excited, clinging to each other’s arms, scared out of our minds. After taking almost twenty minutes to even find our lockers, which were exactly seven lockers away from each other, we found them and filled them with our shiny new binders and textbooks. Jenny dropped a stack and I rushed over to help her, and as I helped her pick them up, she sighed deeply and said to me, “Hey, Rowie? Ya think we’ll always be this close of friends?” I shrugged, never having thought of that before. “Cause we got a good thing going on right now, our friendship, and I don’t want high school to separate us, okay?”

“Okay.” I had murmured back. And so we made a pact then that no matter what happens, we won’t ever lose each other no matter what or who happened. And it was good, the pact, and I stayed faithful to it for over three years now. I was always there to drive her home, drunk from parties, to come over to her place with a tub of ice cream when she had her heart broken, to listen to her whenever she needed to vent after a one night stand with some jerk. I was there through it all, everything, and not once did I grow tired of it.

The crowd in front of me started to disperse and I caught a glimpse of Jenny standing next to her locker. Every time I saw her, no matter how long it’s been, my heart skips about three beats. She was easily the most beautiful girl at Wilbur High, and it’s what got her so much attention from idiots who didn’t deserve her. But it was Jenny, so they were constantly let the freedom to do whatever they wanted to do with her because she always thought that it was the best way to make herself feel better alongside with getting knock-out drunk, so she doesn’t have to remember the guys she sleeps with.

Jenny had long brown hair that stretched its way to the middle of her back. She wore cutoff shorts, even though it was the middle of September, and a low-cut shirt that showed more cleavage than the dress code should allow. There was a good-looking guy standing next to her, grabbing her in ways that made me angrier than I should have been. She was captivated in his gaze, twirling her hair around her finger and biting her lip.

She finally caught sight of me and straightened her composure. “Uh, Hey Jen.” I said awkwardly because it was obvious I was interrupting something.

“Hey Rowie!” she said with her usual smile finding its way to her lips.

The guy cleared his throat, “Excuse me who is this?” he said with a sneer look in my direction like I was something he had just found in a New York City gutter.

“Oh yeah hi. Uh, you don’t know who I am?” I asked as he gave me a blank stare. “Rowie.” Nothing came to him. “We’ve been in the same class since kindergarten.” I swear the guy was losing even more brain cells trying to form a coherent thought about what his own name was.

Jenny jumped in awkwardly saying, “Uh, babe, this is my best friend, Rowie. Rowie, this is… Nick.” She had paused before she had sad his name like she had forgotten. “Nick” gave me a death glare.

“Babe, I gotta go but maybe I’ll see ya at the party.” He said after a moment of silence. She gave him a small smile and only after he smacked her butt and planted the sloppiest kiss of all time on her lips did he finally leave. My hands balled into fists inside my sweatshirt pockets. I hated it when guys did this to her, treat her like she’s a toy they can use however they please. It almost makes me sick.

When he was completely gone I said to Jenny, “Nice guy.” Jenny gave me an exasperated look and sighed. “Another party, huh?” I asked her as I reached inside my locker for my books.

“I mean yeah of course.” She replied as if it was obvious.

“And you’re really planning on going… with him.” I asked, not looking at her face.

“Yeah, silly. You should come too,” she said enthusiastically, but her tone quickly changed to sarcasm when she said, “Maybe you can try beer for the first time.”

“Ha-ha. You’re hilarious,” using a more sarcastic tone than she, giving her a glare from the corner of my eye.

She laughed a giggly laugh that made the room go up a thousand degrees, “I know right? But I wasn’t asking. You’re coming. I’m picking you up later, so wear something… good. Okay?” But before I could protest she was already flouncing her way around people to get to first period.