A Friend Indeed

All things considered, I promised myself never to listen to Emily ever again. Seeing as we were seating in a police cell. See, it all began three months ago, Emily, a new girl at school, came over to my table in class and asked to sit next to me and that marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship. She had a mysterious allure about her that made her interesting. After a few days of joining Saint Thompson high in the middle of the year, a rumor went around about how she had been suspended from her school for almost committing arson. However, no one knew the real story behind her expulsion from her previous school. Nobody even knew which school she had transferred from, which only made her more mysterious. When I asked her about this, she dismissed it and said it was all the work of her haters. I too could care less about what people had to say about her because I had once been the center of attention due to a false rumor. It managed to ruin high school reputation; we will get back to that detail soon.

Days after joining the school, Emily and I become besties. Although she was a year older than me, that was never a factor in our friendship. She always seemed to be aware of her surroundings and always had interesting ideas to share. Soon we become inseparable. We always walked home from school together since we booth did not own cars yet, and the school bus made me nauseous. Although it was a long walk home, I always looked forward to them because Emily always had fun ideas on what we could do as we walked home all those days. She never ceased to amaze me. There was this one time that Emily suggested we take a short cut that cuts through a forest in our area. At first, I was not for the idea of us walking through a forest alone, but she managed to convince me as she always does.

I had always heard of stories of people who had taken the short cut before, and I was intrigued. Although I had never seen myself as being one of them since my parents had always warned me about doing so. However, since I met Emily, I felt as though I could do anything that I set my mind to, she always had this way of making me feel special, and as though I belonged. I had always been an outsider before she showed up in school. On this fateful day, we walked through the forest. From a distance, the forest looked scary, but as you get inside, you get to notice how beautiful it is, one can hear the birds and the wind as well. I was amazed at the sight of a deer running past us, who knew we had such beauty in our small town of Lancaster. Soon we came to a stop; I noticed a group of people approaching us. I heard never seen them before. As they got closer, they looked more of my age or a year or so older than I was. Emily was happy to see them; it was as though she was expecting to see them. It was here that I got to meet Jack, Jason, and Hannah.

Emily had always told me stories of her group of friends whom she had been told to keep away from because of the negative influence they had on her. She hugged them, and we got to know each other. I heard Emily ask Jason if he had brought it and he said of course Em. I soon got to realize that the ‘It’ they were referring to was ‘weed’. We found a huge rock and sat there as the four friends caught up on the happenings of their lives and smoked the weed. Seeing as though I did not want to be the odd one out by refusing to smoke, I indulged in whatever they were doing while still reminding Emily that I had to get home early. Before the sun could set, we were done, and we bid our goodbyes and left. I was surprised as to how short the shortcut was. I managed to get home right on time despite all the time wasted in the forest. From that day, I got to know the other side of Emily I had never seen before. I was not sure if I liked this side as much as I liked her without her friends.

I was not in a position to lose a friend just because I did not like her friends. This was because I had none except for her. One weekend Emily invited me over at her place for a sleepover. I was excited to go that I asked my parents for permission, and they agreed. I soon got to find out that she had invited all her other friends. I was somewhat excited because it was a second chance for me to get to know them better and maybe make new friends in the process. Everybody had arrived at around nine and Emily’s parents were not around. Come to think of it I had never really seen her parents before and she never talked about them at all. As far as I was concerned about being invited to my first sleepover was exciting. I did not know what to expect, which excited me more. After dinner, we went over to Emily’s room to chat play games and sleep. I never knew Emily had so many friends, especially girls. We were five girls, Emily, myself, Hannah whom I had met earlier in the week, Alexis, and Sofia. They all seemed nice. After a few conversations and chats, I got to find out that Emily was the queen bee of the group.  She had this vibe about her that made people do as she willed.

As we were playing dress up in her room Emily noticed somebody staring at us in the window. No one saw who this was, but she claimed it was Derrick, a wired boy at school. She got so worked up and angry and decided to come up with a plan to get back at him. The rest of us had no option but to go along with her plans. She got me to bring the matches while Hannah came with the firecrackers. In the middle of the night, we sneaked into Derrick’s parent’s compound, where Emily lit the firecrackers and threw it inside their garage. Little did we know there was someone inside, Aria, his sister. Eventually, the house started burning, and we heard her scream. Before we could escape, one of the neighbors saw us, and we were arrested. That was how we ended up spending the night in jail.

Reference

Rustan, E. (2017). Learning creative writing model based on neuro-linguistic programming. International Journal of Language Education and Culture Review, 3(2), 1329.