“Love?” she asked her voice almost a whisper, staring at the paper as she asked. Love, I didn’t know, my family but when, how and what was a good example?
“I guess June because she’s always there for me, and even if we fight, I know if something happens she would still be there for me because that’s what families do. Whenever something happens, she always has my back and takes my side, she always looks out for me.” I answered, not giving much detail or specifics but Mickey didn’t notice, she was still too caught up in her memories of her family.
“Next?” she asked uncertain. I looked at her list: hate. I didn’t want to get into this now, she was already so sad and I didn’t want to make matters worse.
“How about I go again and we do two each before changing turns?” I proposed, she nodded and read the next one.
“Betrayal,” she said looking at me with no clue on her face, which made me mad.
“I guess it was revenge for being so mean to you and I am at fault for most of it but still you were my best friend and you got me arrested, you betrayed me.” I told her, looking at her confused little face. It felt good to finally say it to her and get it off my chest. Her confused face just caught me off-guard though, she was really good at acting but I had put her into shock.
“What? What are you talking about James?” she asked, her voice utterly confused and genuine.
“That’s why I’ve hated you, not only did I get my licence taken away for two years, I had to pay a huge fine and go to jail for a couple hours until my parents paid the bail and on top of that, it all went on my record, so when colleges look at my application it will show,” I said, getting angrier and angrier by the look on her face. She had to know how much her little action had cost me.
“I never called the cops on you, James,” she said simply, her voice firm, no longer confused or scared or anything other than strong and sincere.
The bell rang and she left, leaving me alone to think. What if she didn’t call the cops? It was a scary thought after everything that had happened. But then who did? Had I hated her and treated her terribly for no reason at all? I felt like I was going to puke. I remembered that night so well, I was finally popular and I had just got a car that mom and dad had bought me for my birthday, a black Honda Civic. I’d had my permit for four months and I decided to drive the guys: Brad, Chuck, Neil and Anthony to Frank’s party. From there on everything got a little fuzzy. Tiff gave me a beer and then so did the guys and some other people and then we had a beer chugging contest, after that we were all hammered. I’d never drunk more than half of a beer before that, so I didn’t know the effects, I didn’t even like beer that much. What I remember all came back in flashes. I saw Mr. Lesage’s car drive-by but Mickey was driving, which I thought was weird because she hated cars and driving ever since the accident. I remembered having a hard time driving and being very dizzy and having a major headrush and through the window, the look of horror on Mickey’s face, as she picked up her cell phone and dialed something, or at least that’s what it looked like, and then about ten minutes later, the police came with their sirens and lights flashing and pulled us over. That’s when everything went to shit.
June arrived seven minutes after I was put into the jail cell and then my parents shortly after, I knew this because I stared at my watch and counted every second of it, thinking what now? What should I do? How they already knew I was there when it took thirty minutes to get to the station from my house was impossible, unless Mickey had phoned them too or someone else did. I remember the look mom and dad gave me, the disappointment was beyond belief, they grounded me for seven months and there was no going out at all. They weren’t that hard on me though, they blamed the fight I had with Mickey as the reason I drove drunk and my grades started dropping and my complete change in fashion sense. I suddenly cared about my looks and I started working out more. I guess that in some ways, our not being friends did make me change but it was all my choice. My head spun with confusion, knowing this changed everything.
Cody grabbed my arm. “We’re going to be late,” he said pulling me up. I got up and went to history feeling like a robot. I was doing everything but not feeling anything. I couldn’t look at Mickey at all for the rest of the day or really anyone. I was so angry, I’d never felt this angry before. Not at Mickey when I thought she was the one who called the cops, not at Gert when she made me say those things to Mickey in order for me to join the popular crowd. Not when my granddad passed away from a heart attack, never. I had thought my best friend betrayed me in one of the worst ways, no second thoughts, I had just accused her. I didn’t even ask her about it. She had all the right to betray me, what I did was still worse and now knowing she had never betrayed me after everything
