Untold Stories Of The Unkown

A New Leaf

I thought back to my past lesson. I remembered that important lesson in my life, and I could never forget it. I was at school one day, and I saw my best friend hanging around with people, he used to hate. He was wearing a shirt that has a picture of Biggie Smalls, baggy jeans that look loose, and a hat that has black and white designs, which is more of a pimp hat. My friend, Jose, never liked the guys, who are always irresponsible and roam around the halls. Now Jose hangs around with them. Lately, Jose has been ditching his classes and has stopped talking to me, ever since we were done with sophomore year, in high school. Now this is junior year, and things were different.

Without even thinking for a second, I decided to go over to my --now acquaintance --and get answers from him. I grabbed him by the shoulder and asked, "Jose, what's wrong with you?"

"Ay! It's Niki, everybody," Jose exclaimed, in a cocky way. His friends were laughing. Either they're laughing at a girl, who wear tomboyish clothes, or Jose's new buddies are laughing behind his back. "How's it going girl? We never talk to each other, much."

"That's because we never did," I said, gritting through my teeth and giving an edge of irritation. My cheeks were burning all because of the way my friend was acting. "Now what the fuck is your problem?!"

"Nothing, geez!" Jose raised his arms in defense, after I blew a fuse. "Don't be hatin' on me. I've been doing a lot of changes over the summer, and look at me now."

Jose turned to his friend, and gave them a slap on the hand while laughing. Then, he turned to me. "Besides, I got my new fam, and they'll be lookin' out for me."

"For you," I echoed. "For you?! Are you insane? You're better than this, Jose. That is not like you, at all."

"Chill, Niki." He puts his hand in front of me, as if he was trying to calm our conversation down. Though, that was blatantly rude. "You don't know what it's like to be me."

"I already know what you've been through," I yelled at Jose. I remembered during freshmen and sophomore year, Jose has been dealing with a lot of drama. Jose's girlfriend, Timber, had cheated on him, whenever he's not with her. Then, two of his friends transferred into different schools, because one of them thought our school was racist. And believe me, he's too high alert about racism and he would get angry, at an instant. Jose's other friend had a deal with another school that has the best football team, ever. Both Jose and his friend play football, in our high school football team. When his friend got discovered by the greatest football team in high school, he decided to transfer there, leaving Jose in the pit.

What made it even worse was when Jose and Timber were trying to be friends, as possible. Though, things didn't go so well, because Timber was so clingy to him. Worst of all, they've been fighting, as if they're already a married couple. Finally, they stopped talking each other when Timber dropped the bomb on him. One day, Jose was just talking to his friends; how Timber was so clingy to him. Apparently, she heard Jose's conversation, and started spreading rumors around school, just by twisting and turning Jose's words around. Jose would always tell me everything, before he changed.

So here I am, standing there and staring straight at Jose, feeling angered by his attitude. "I've already seen your pain, Jose," I finally, said. "You know that I stuck up for you, and helped you a lot. Now you just don't wanna be mister nice guy, and get rid of your old friends for new ones?"

Jose licks his own lips, trying to get rid of that dry feeling of pain and guilt. "Listen," he said. "High school has changed me a lot, and I can no longer deal with my past. The past is long gone, and it's time for me to move on."

With innocent eyes, I approached to Jose. "Does that mean you wanna get rid of the friends, who have been sticking up to you, for the longest?"

Jose was a bit hesitant now. It looks like he has nothing to say. Instead, Jose said, "Look, I gotta go."

And just like that, Jose walks a bit faster, just to get away from me. His friends followed him behind while snickering passed me. So looking back now, I realized that high school can change a lot of people, in different ways. It's either for the better or for the worse. But most of the time, high school changes people for the worse. It even splits friendship, in the blink of an eye. It doesn't matter to me, anymore. All I know is that I have to stick up for myself, and that's that. More importantly, I have to keep my heart shielded from negative influences, so I wouldn't end up like my once best friend. All I gotta do is walk away...