I laughed with my best friend. Joey had slipped by stepping on a puddle of water. He rubbed the back of his head and smiled a cheeky grin. We were having fun. We were best friends since we were like one.
We were still laughing, but the scene changed. I wasn't laughing anymore. Only Joey was laughing. And he was laughing with his new friends. I was left behind. I was crying now.
"Why?" I found myself asking. "Why did you do it, Joey?"
"Who are you?" Joey asked, no recognition in his eyes. He had abandoned me. He forgot me.
I jerked awake and found my pillow wet. Did I cry in my sleep? Ugh. I sighed and wiped my face. This dream wasn't new. I had it frequently, but with different scenes. Joey was my best friend since we were in diapers.
Note the word "was". You would think that something like falling in love with him broke our friendship or something cliché like that, but sad reality is that he ditched me, his best friend of fifteen years, for hanging out with a group of four other boys in ninth grade.
I was hurt, of course, but Joey had changed so much. He barely talked to me in school. I got over it, but it took two long years, and I still had nightmares about it.
I sleepily looked at my clock. 6:43. Sighing, I lay back down on my pillow. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, so I left the warmth of my bed and took a long shower. When I was done, it was 7:05. I dried my hair and got ready for school. It was near the end of September so the weather was getting a bit chilly.
I put on a black jacket on top of my long-sleeved white shirt, and wore skinny jeans. Once that was done, I went downstairs. Mom wasn't up yet, so I made a simple peanut butter sandwich. I never liked jam, so I only covered the toast with peanut butter. I downed milk with that.
I was putting my cup in the dishwasher when my mom woke up.
"You're up early," she said. Her voice croaked from just waking up.
"I have school," I told her. We had a long weekend when we had school off on Thursday. Mom must have gotten used to me sleeping in.
"Of course," she yawned and walked over to the fridge, her slippers scraping on the floor. I packed two sandwiches for lunch along with some milk and an apple.
"I'll see you later, Mom," I waved before closing the door behind me. Taking a deep breath, I let the fresh morning air into my lungs. It was wonderful. I got my bike and slung my bag over my shoulders. I liked to ride a bike to school. The air was refreshing and it didn't take too long to get there.
Joey never understood. He was lazy. He always wanted to take a car even though the school was only a fifteen minute walk away--five if you rode on a bike. I let the wind blow my long auburn hair. It needed to dry a bit more anyway, since it was still a bit damp. I didn't know if the cold wind would really help, though.
A car passed me, but it slowed down to match my speed. I looked over at the car, wondering who it was. The window opened and I saw Joey's smug smile.
"Hiya, Nick," he waved.
"You're allowed to drive?" I asked. His dad loved his car and never allowed Joey to take it out for even a simple drive.
"Early birthday present," he said simply, patting the side of the car. I slowed down and stopped. Joey's birthday was in January. He had a really early birthday present.
"I'm not sure Mr. Gordon would give up his car so easily, even if it was your birthday," I said skeptically.
"Well, see you in school!" Joey stated and ignored my comment before rolling up the windows and driving away. I shook my head wistfully. If Joey and I still had a healthy-best-friend relationship, he probably would have asked me to ride with him. I missed the old days. The days when Joey didn't constantly think about what was cool and what was lame. The days when he didn't care about girls. The days when I was the only one he ever played with.
I missed him. Ever since he started to hang out with his now-best-friends he distanced himself from me. It felt like he was throwing me away. I felt like leftovers. Unwanted. At least he still talked to me from time to time. He was still somewhat of a friend--just not my best friend.
When I made it to school, I locked my bike and ran in. The school was packed. Students filled the halls. Teachers yelled for them to get to class. I found Maggie and Emma by our lockers.
They were my best friends now. After Joey left, I got my own new besties.
"Nicole!" Maggie waved me over. I smiled and walked towards them.
"Hey, Nikki," Emma smiled.
"Hi, Em. Maggie, what are you doing?"
Maggie was pulling on my arm and pointing toward the end of the hall like a child tugging at their parents and pointing towards a toy they desperately wanted. Only, Maggie was pointing at five boys, not a toy.
The most popular boys in school. Joey was one of them. With him, were Roger, his closest friend; Alex, the football player; Eric, the laid back and cool one; and Sam, the nicest one of the bunch. They were still big jerks, but popular due to their looks and cool attitudes...supposedly.
I never liked them. I mean, yeah, I was like other girls once. I swooned over them and had a crush on every single one of them (including Joey, but that was like in third grade). But once Joey chose them over me, I guess I got jealous. They weren't my favorite people anymore.
"Look, Nic," Maggie jumped up and down like a little kid. "The Big Five!"
Yeah. They were named after animals. Majestic African mammals, to be specific. A nice match, if you ask me. The lion, the elephant, the buffalo, the rhino, and the leopard. It was their personalities that matched with those animals, not appearances, just to clarify. It goes something like this:
Joey Gordon: The lion. He was the natural leader. The one that usually came up with the ideas. He was occasionally lazy, but he was still quite athletic.
Alex Northwood: The buffalo. He tried his best at what he did (football) and he was pretty strong. He also tended to be lazy and categorized things as just bad or good. No in-betweens.
Roger Pickles: The rhino. He usually took charge. He was usually really eager and he did have a short temper. He could be aggressive sometimes, but girls love that. But he is one heck of an artist. He took art with me and I had to admit, he had talent.
Sam Fisher: The elephant. As I said before, Sam was the friendly guy. He was easy-going and sweet. He may be a bit overprotective when it came to his personal space, but flirting really came naturally to him. He had a nice smile and didn't exactly have a bad boy image.
Eric Parker: The leopard. He liked to keep to himself. He was the one that was laid back and cold. He was the definition of a bad boy, and he kind of scared me. He even had an air of mystery about him.
Yeah. I'll bet it sounds cliché, but I'm not the one who made the name. Besides, they got the name, then someone pointed out their relation with the animals.
And you know what they all had in common? Good looks and popularity. Cute or hot, or dare I say, sexy, they had it all. Boys envied them, girls flocked them, and I hated them.
They say "hate" is a strong word, but I just couldn't stand the fact that they stole my best friend. Petty, I know, but they were the reason Joey threw our friendship out the window, and it was pretty hard to cope with.
I sighed. No one knew about Joey and me. Joey's dad and my mom worked in the same company, so they were transferred together. I was excited because I thought of all the new memories Joey and I would make here, but moving ruined our friendship. He wanted to keep our relationship a secret. I didn't know why until he left me for the Big Five. It was then that I knew it was so he could be mysterious.
"Nicole!" Maggie said excitedly. "They're coming over here!"
"Really, Maggie," I rolled my eyes. "You act like their walking is amazing."
"It is!" Maggie replied. "They are just so hot!"
"Yeah, yeah," I watched them, and I had to admit, they were pretty hot. I knew why they were so popular. But that didn't hinder me. I was a stubborn girl, you know.
"Come on," Emma said while holding Maggie like they were in elementary. "We should go talk to them!"
"You guys go ahead," I declared. "I'm going to class."
By this time, they didn't care. They flocked to the boys like all the other girls. I used to be like that. Disliking them helped me stop from being a lovestruck idiot, and part of me was actually thankful that they stole Joey from me. I would have to snap Emma and Maggie out of it later. For now, I'll just let them enjoy the company of handsome men.
I put in the combination of my lock and swung open my locker. Chemistry was my first class, so I grabbed my Chemistry textbook and made my way to the classroom.
I took my seat near the front since the front helped me concentrate. The class started to crowd as the students came to class. It especially got stuffy when more than a couple of girls who weren't in this class followed Alex into the room.
I had Chemistry with him, and, as much as I would have loved to fawn over him, he was constantly at the center of attention, disrupting class one way or another. Even if he wasn't the one to disrupt class, he was usually the cause.
Like that one time when a boy went over and punched him because Alex stole his girlfriend. Or that one time when a girl fainted because she was paired up with him. It was like he was a magnet for drama.
By the time Dr. Smith walked in, Alex had flirted with at least three girls, told off one of the other boys, copied homework from the guy sitting next to him, and managed to send poor John to the nurse. He was a handful, and I sat right in front of him. It was so distracting.
"Alex," Dr. Smith warned. "I will give you a written warning for now, but if this happens again, I will send you to the principal's office." He handed Alex a note. I muttered thanks to him. Alex needed to know how much he was annoying others. Though, I bet it was just me and maybe a couple of other boys.
Dr. Smith started his lecture on ions and isotopes. They were difficult to grasp for me, so I needed to pay extra attention. Unfortunately, Alex wasn't up for learning about cations and anions. He wanted to shoot baskets with crumpled balls of paper.
He got at least five warnings until Dr. Smith couldn't take it. He was sent to the principal. Thank goodness. I was starting to get irritated at him for having fun while some of us diligent students were actually trying to have a promising future.
English came after Chemistry. I sighed. English was the best subject for me. I got effortless A's in that class(not bragging here), so I normally got bored. At least I had some leisure and since I had English with Maggie, it was okay.
Next was Math. To be specific, it was Calculus. Joey and I had the same math class. Eric also took math with me, and I went out of my way to avoid him. He intimidated me. He was kind of scary, to be honest.
Physical Education was right before lunch. Emma and Maggie took it with me, so even though I hated working out, it was my favorite class since it was the only one all three of us took together.
"Finally!" I stretched while leaving the gym. "Lunch!"
Maggie and Emma laughed. We took a seat near the entrance of the cafeteria, as usual. I was chewing on my sandwich when Maggie joined me with her school-bought lunch.
"You know, Nic," she said. "You should be like me and Emma. Why aren't you head over heels in love with any of the Big Five? You're really strange for it. It's human nature to drool all over them, you know."
I sighed. Maggie always talked about my dislike for the Big Five. I couldn't explain it to her since Joey forbade me from talking about anything about him from before we moved. I couldn't explain it to her, but I did improvise.
"Well, I can't deny that they are the hottest guys I'll probably ever meet," I said carefully. "But they take girls as a joke. They won't ever be serious about girls."
"You never know," Maggie said stubbornly.
"Yeah, maybe not, but I'll still be content with someone who doesn't look half as good, but acts ten times better."
"They aren't that bad," Emma joined in.
"Guys--girls. I'm trying to snap you out of it. I get it. You want your moment, but what if one of you get hurt? I wouldn't be able to stand it if you were heartbroken." And I spoke from experience. I remembered Paul, the boy I used to be in love with from junior high. He played with me, judging and criticizing how I looked one moment, then complimenting me the next.
He used to be my boyfriend, but he broke up with me when I refused to kiss him. And it hurt. I realized he only used me to fill his sexual needs. At least my brother taught him a lesson. But now he was in college. No protection could be provided from him until he came back.
"Aww," Maggie put her arm around my shoulder. "I never knew you'd think about us like that."
I smiled. I couldn't let anything like that happen to these guys. "Of course I would. You guys are my best friends."
"But still," Maggie continued. "If you could get one of them, who would it be?"
I thought about her question. They were all cute in their own ways, but I knew Joey the best. If I had to pick from those five, it would be my former best friend. At least then I would be able to have him back.
Sam wasn't so bad either. He was the nicest one of the bunch.
"If I had to pick...." I still didn't know if it was wise to answer. What would I say if Maggie asked for the reason?
"Yeah?" Both Maggie and Emma leaned in with peaked interest.
I couldn't help it. They were so eager. "I would pick...."
"Come on," Emma elbowed me. "Spit it out."
"Hmm, let me think...." I smiled when I saw their annoyance.
"Nicole," they both said.
"Fine. I would pick....someone," I almost burst out laughing when I saw their frustration.
"Come on," they were in perfect unison. "Spit it out!"
I couldn't hold it in anymore. Maggie and Emma were like twins. I burst out laughing, failing when I tried to stop.
"What?" They said. This only caused me to laugh even harder.
I finally stopped when I gasped for breath. "Okay....okay," I took a deep breath. "I'll tell you. But, tell me, are you two twins?"
"What the heck, Nic?" Maggie said impatiently. "That's what you were laughing about?"
I nodded. "You guys had the same everything. The same voice, the same expression...."
"Well, who would you pick?" Emma asked insistently.
"All right," I sighed. "If I had to pick, I would say Joey."
"Joey?" Again, they both asked.
I nodded.
Maggie gave me a puzzled look. "But I thought you hated him. You said so yourself. In freshmen year."
I would have slapped myself if it didn't give it away. Ugh. Why was I always so stupid? Joey? I remembered constantly complaining about him for the whole ninth grade. Emma and Maggie both knew(or at least thought) I hated him. I had to pick him of all people. And it was only because I wanted him back. I felt guilty for keeping this from them, but I still didn't want to betray Joey. He practically begged me to not tell.
"Uh, I was just joking," I faked a laugh. "Honestly, I would pick...." and I stupidly said the first name that came to mind: "Eric."
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Hey! I'm honestly not sure where this book will go to, but I'll go with the flow. Tell me what you think. Is it too cliché? Or is it okay?
I don't know, but I hope it'll turn out well. I'm still making up a plot, so don't worry if I update it a bit late.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading. Please do remember to vote and comment. I really would love it if you do. :)
See you next time!
~Fere.