3 Times (n.r)

14

It was hard being 14.

I was an awkward, gawky teenager with a passion for musical theatre and pink hair. Nick was hitting puberty, with his chubby cheeks slowly disappearing and he started to fill out in nice places. He could find a girlfriend easily, especially since we were starting high school. On the other hand, I still repelled boys like it was my job.

I hung out in the library too much, I didn't go to enough parties, there wasn't enough makeup. I had made peace with it, though. I wanted to go to law school, and that meant I needed good grades and a stellar record. And I don't think the drugs and drinking were going to help.

So, I focused on school and drama, and was pretty content with myself. I was happy, and that's all that mattered.

Until Nick met the dreaded Mandy.

Mandy, to put it nicely, was the actual devil in reincarnation. She was a perky blonde cheerleader with a perkier attitude to match. She smiled way too often, but would stab you in the back if you got in the way of what she wanted. The perfect grades, the perfect party life. She had the world under thumb, controlling everyone. Including Nick.

Mandy's first rule in their relationship was that he couldn't see me. At all. At one point, I was pretty sure that my number was deleted from his phone. No more friendship between Nick and
Sadie, and it was tearing me apart. Nick was like my rock. I needed him, he kept me strong. He held me when our parents fought, and made me laugh when I was down. I thought as myself as independent, but you don't realize how much you need something until it's gone.

So then came the drought. No calls, no texts, no home visits. He treated me like a stranger in the halls and his family talked to me more than he did. He seemed to doing fine. Better, actually. He was the king of the school, making everyone falling at his knees and kissing his feet. It was disgusting, how the school was treating him. I knew how he really got to that position, by crushing the little people.

I, on the other hand, was a disaster. Falling apart at the seams. I slunk farther and farther back into oblivion, and ignored the rest of my friends. They didn't understand why I wasn't talking to Nick anymore, and I wasn't going to explain to them. It was too hard to force the words out of my mouth that he had chosen a girl who was prettier and had a better status over his best friend of nine years. I was shrinking, and I couldn't stop it.

The first mistake happened the night I fell asleep in the library. I had been studying for a test, and I hadn't gotten a great night's sleep before, and I guess I had just drifted off. I was in the very back, and no one noticed me because of the huge stacks of books piled in front of me. We had a very lazy librarian.

I woke up in a panic. I had the surreal moment where I didn't know where I was, and then I realised.

I'm in the library.

I groaned and rolled my eyes, and grabbed my phone, illuminating the small area. Only then did I realize that I was alone in a dark library. I was locked in. I took a deep breath and shined my flashlight on the floor. This had happened to me many a time, because of our aforementioned librarian and the fact that I was a nervous student, so I studied until I couldn't anymore. I tiptoed around the stacks, hoping the night watch guy didn't find me, and found my way to the office doors. I walked into the teachers lounge and through the back door. It was never locked, because not many people knew it was there. Again, this had happened to me many times.

I walked outside, breathing in the cool night air and stopping in my tracks. Usually there was a parent to call and come pick me up, but now I had no one. Both of my parents were on vacation in France, and they couldn't just come and pick me up. I was an abnormally self-sufficient teenager, so I hadn't had a problem with this until now. I sighed and scrolled through my almost dead phone, trying to find someone who would pick me up at 8:30 at night. My finger paused when I saw Mrs. Robinson's name. I knew that I was on Nick's blacklist, but all I needed was a ride home. He didn't have to talk to me, he didn't even need to come. So, I clicked on her name.