The Convict

The Smart One

If there is anyone who has literally been by my side since day one it's my best friend Lesly Baker. Our friendship started when I was about three, maybe four? When I was young my family was going through hard times and we had to move in with my grandma to get by for a few years. But before that happened, we lived in this cute little suburban home on the same street as Lesly Baker and her family.

Lesly comes from a family of very responsible and reasonable people. When we had moved into that neighborhood her parents were the first to come and greet my family and welcome us to the neighborhood. Lesly's dad was part of the neighborhood watch, and her mom was one of those moms who always scheduled play dates and had a detailed list of her kid's allergies and diet preferences. While my parents worked, Lesly's mom didn't mind watching after me and my brother. She was a stay-at-home mom.

So that's how Lesly and I met. She lived two houses down from my house and her mom babysat me all the time. My brother and Lesly's brother got along well, and of course, Lesly and I being the same age it was only natural that we became best friends. We did everything together. Had sleepovers, dress-up parties, and tea parties. We would go to the park together, wear the same clothes. You couldn't find me without my best friend Lesly.

When I was about seven, eight maybe, that's when hardship struck our family. That's when my mom was first diagnosed with cancer and we had to move into my grandma's house to afford her chemo treatments. Those were hard years of my life. I had to start over at a new school in a new town, while it wasn't that far from my old town, maybe half an hour tops, it still sucked. Kids bullied me all the time. Would pick on me for just about anything. What I wore, who I talked to, and the fact that my family never came to school events. Anything they could think of.

There was this one girl in particular who was like my arch-rival. She followed me all through middle school. We had the same classes. She made a name for herself by putting others down to make herself seem so much better than everyone else. Her favorite target to pick on was me. I tried not to let it bother me, I had a lot of fake friends back then. Not any real friends like Lesly.

And even though Lesly and I lived in different towns and went to different schools we still kept in constant contact, we still had sleepovers, and would go to the movies together and always hang out on the weekends. Her mom never minded me coming over.

Lesly was there for me in the hardest years of my life. I would cry to her on the phone and tell her how awful my school was and how awful the people there were. All the while my mom was battling cancer. She beat it once and we all celebrated. Things had started to calm down and my mom thought about going back to work and getting out of my grandma's house. That's when I convinced her to let me go to Lesly's school for the new year and not back to my awful old school. Lesly's mom agreed that I could ride the bus with Lesly and stay at her house until my family could come to pick me up.

So that's how Lesly and I started high school together, as best friends. Well... there was an awkward moment when I wanted us to be more than friends. You see toward the end of junior high before high school I had started dating a lot of people. All guys. But that didn't mean I wasn't curious about girls. I had convinced Lesly to be my first kiss with another girl, she was so shy and awkward back then. Basically the nerdiest girl in the school. She didn't have many friends other than me.

Both of our families brought us up in a strict religious household so back then kissing another girl was pretty taboo and risky. But after much pushing Lesly agreed to let me try it out, out of curiosity. She was the first girl I kissed. It was just a simple sweet kiss at first, I tried to get more out of her but she was pretty uncomfortable about the whole thing so I didn't push it. Fast forward to high school and while moving schools was about getting away from bullies, it was also about getting closer to Lesly. The hormones were strong back then and I would basically kiss anything anyone put in front of me, and I really wanted to kiss Lesly again. I thought it was because I was in love with her, but in hindsight, it was because I was really into girls and wanted to experiment on her.