Four Doors Down(2)

“She’s showing people that?”

“Just me, and only ‘cause I asked. She knows we’re friends. Pretty amazing, Becca. Like seriously.”

I allow a small smile to slip free. Jake doesn’t bullshit and it was nice of him to ask to see it. “Thanks.”

“Jake, come on!” Bianca’s irritated voice calls from the group behind. He turns to look at her. “We’re going back to my house to chill by the pool.”

I look up and must admit I get a small, satisfied feeling watching her. She’s clearly annoyed that Jake is talking to me and not her. Ryan’s watching us too, probably incredibly confused as to why Jake would waste his time on me.

Jake turns to me. “Wanna come too, Becca?” I nearly laugh out loud at the look of horror on Bianca’s face. I’m clearly not on the guest list.

“Nah. Thanks to your buddy Ryan over there, I’ve got detention with Henderson,” I tell him. Jake looks at Ryan and then back at me while shaking his head with an amused smile on his face. “Although, otherwise, obviously I’d be there.” I finish grabbing my things and closing my locker. “Don’t let yourself be dumbed down too much by the masses,” I say, and Jake laughs as I walk away.

I try not to think about the fact that school’s over and I’ve got at least another hour here.




I arrive home from school and I’m annoyed. Henderson couldn’t give me a full hour’s detention, so he decided to give me a morning detention instead. I have to get there at the crack of dawn tomorrow and in his words, “show a drastic improvement in my attitude,” as I am currently “wasting all my potential.” God, he’s annoying. All I did was not know the answer to his stupid question. This is all Ryan’s fault.

Stupid, stupid, Ryan. Always there to annoy me. Ryan and I have known each other since we were babies. We were inseparable when we were children, our moms were always together so we were always together. We used to play soccer together, go to parties together, and do homework together. To be honest, we were pretty cliquey, never really bothering with anyone else. It was just Ryan and me. I mean, we were friends with Jake too and hung around with him at school, but it was Ryan who was my best friend and I was his.

Then we started middle school and at first, everything was great. We walked to school together every morning, spent all our breaks and lunches with one another and walked home side by side at night. But we weren’t in the same homerooms, and when Ryan made the basketball and football teams, I started noticing that a lot of his friends from the teams would all of a sudden be eating lunch with us and some of their friends from their grade schools. Suddenly, it wasn’t just Ryan and me anymore. Other girls would be around too, girls that weren’t like me. Girls that were interested in boys and wore makeup to school (I mean come on, we were twelve!). Anyway, I got the impression that Ryan’s new friends, especially the girls, didn’t really like me. I soon realized that our table was the popular table at school and these kids were the most popular kids in our grade. Somehow, Ryan had become their ringleader. I told myself I was just being stupid, but things were definitely changing, and even when Jake was there and laughing and joking with everyone, I still didn’t feel comfortable.

Then one Monday I left my house to walk to school and just had a feeling something was off. I hadn’t seen Ryan all weekend, which was the first time that had happened in a long time. I was surprised when I got to his house and he wasn’t there waiting for me as usual. I stood there for maybe ten minutes before knocking on his door, and his mom told me that he’d already left and she didn’t know why he hadn’t waited for me. I could tell Mrs. Jackson felt sorry for me and was trying to make me feel better by saying that Ryan probably thought I’d gone ahead, but I knew he just decided to go without me that day.

I didn’t see him all morning and I got to lunch late. I stood in line with the rest of the kids and when I turned to find Ryan and our table, I saw that it was already full. I almost just went and sat down somewhere else, and I really wish that I had, but I told myself I was being stupid. Ryan was my best friend and we’d always eaten lunch together, so I walked over to his (our?) table. The table fell quiet when I got there, only Jake smiled at me and started looking around to grab an extra chair. The rest of the table were all looking at Ryan with small smiles on their faces. Ryan looked slightly flushed, but when I placed my tray on the table, he looked me straight in the eye. “Maybe you should go and sit somewhere else today, Rebecca.” Yeah, he actually used my full name, like he didn’t know me at all. “And from now on,” he had continued.

I remember going bright red and feeling humiliated with tears welling in my eyes. I remember how the cafeteria suddenly seemed really quiet and realized that most people had probably heard what he said to me. Now that Ryan was so popular, I guess what he did was newsworthy. I remember Jake’s head snapping to Ryan in shock.

I just nodded as my mouth started trembling. I quickly walked across the cafeteria and sat at an empty table in the corner. I could feel people looking at me, but I refused to look up. I knew if I did, the tears would start to fall. A tray was put down across from me and I glanced up to see that Jake had come to sit with me, shaking his head in annoyance like he couldn’t believe what had happened. We just sat there in silence, but I’ll always remember how Jake stood by me that day and didn’t let me sit there on my own, being whispered about and gawked at. I’m pretty certain that day is one of the main reasons I now hate being the center of attention.