The 5 Lies They Tell You About High School

An Unlikely Friendship

#5: You’ll make new friends.

I met a girl toward the end of my sophomore year. Her name was Alena Jade Chavez. She liked the smell of cigarettes and blared Billy Idol in her rucid jeep. Her favorite movie was The Breakfast Club, and black was her favorite color.

I liked the smell of mornings after a thunderstorm, and I listened to acoustic versions of mainstream songs. My favorite movie was Cinderella, and pink was my favorite color. We couldn’t be any more different, but somehow that brought us together.

In our history class, we were paired for a project. The assignment was to make a poster of the history to anything we wanted, whether it’d be the history of art or the history of shoes. It was Alena’s idea to do the history of music because she was a music junky. When it came to her creative ideas like how to format the poster and color scheming, her ideas scared me. We split up the project. She did the research and paper writing, I did the presentation.

Whoever had the best poster board, got a homework pass good for a month. At first, my aim was to get that homework pass. But homework related conversations and acknowledging looks in the hallway turned into lunch dates and sleepovers. It was one of those friendships where we didn’t need a contract, assigning each other to one another.

We just were.

The day we had to present our poster board was one of the easiest things I had to do in my life. Some people take presenting a project in front of the whole class nerve-wrecking. In a way, it kind of was. But I was next to my best friend, and I didn’t need anyone else’s approval, but hers. I pointed to the pictures of the first rock band, to the first season of American Idol, and to the first headlining tour. I regurgitated facts off the index cards Alena gave to me.

I kept looking to Alena as a I spoke, but not because I was nervous and needed her nod of encouragement. But because as I glanced at the poster board, directing the class’s attention to the timeline I painted on it, I thought of the late nights we spent, giggling and eating over this assignment.

Long story short, we won the free homework pass. Our poster board won a spot on the back of the history class’s wall. I always admired that piece of art each time I walked into that class. Even when Alena and I drifted apart, I still admired it. On days I came to school hungover and held tighter to my pride than to Alena’s friendship, I looked to the poster board and felt better.

It was two weeks after Jason broke up with me. It hit me that he was really not coming back. When we passed by each other in the hallways in the beginning of my senior year, he couldn’t even look at me. I cringed when I saw a girl twirling her hair and flirtatiously looking at him. It became too much to bare any longer, so I went to Alena.

Alena was that type of friend who didn’t grow bitter. She was an immortalized fruit. I noticed, after we drifted apart, she still smiled and waved at me in the hallways, which had always made me think of how much I missed her. Anyone still able to recognize you after the two of you have drifted apart, is a good friend. Because unlike Alexia, I still meant something to Alena. How could I just let that go?

I walked three miles in the middle of the night to Alena’s house. I knew I’d wake her parents if I rang the doorbell, so I knocked on her window. Her curtains were wide open, her lamp let the room. She was laying on her bed, reading Lord of the Flies for maybe the hundredth time. When she gazed up at me, I smiled and waved.

Without hesitation, Alena helped me climb into her house through her window. She made me hot lemon tea and let me cry into her silk pillows. She didn’t speak. Instead she held my head in her lap and stroked my nose. It calmed me down somehow. I thought of Tamera while I cried to Alena. Tamera was alone, hurt, and afraid with only me to hold her. Now I was her, but I had Alena. The thought of not being alone while all these emotions punched me in the stomach gave me enough energy to speak.

“I miss him,” I sniffled.

“I know,” she whispered.

“How do I get him back?”

“If it’s meant to be, it will be.” She said softly. Those weren’t the words I wanted to hear, but they were what I needed to hear. “It’s not the end of the world, there will be more.”

For the rest of the night, Alena let me cry and vent out my feelings, patiently listening. I talked about the first day I met Jason, what we did on our first date, what our first kiss was like. I laughed thinking of when Jason had got icing in his nose when I shoved a cupcake in his face on his birthday. I cried when I remembered how happy I was with him, and how stupid I was for taking him for granted.

“Just let it be a learning lesson, Brooke.” Alena said. “That’s really the most positive way to look at it.”

It wasn’t fair. It hurt. I didn’t think I’d ever get over it. But what I needed to accept was that there would be more heart breaks to face in my future. I couldn’t let one stop me forever. I found comfort in the fact that this was only the first of many heart breaks because I knew at some point there was going to be one that didn’t break my heart. And what if the hurt was worth it once I got there?

I would have never thought she’d become such a close friend of mine, but I’m happy fate had paired us up that one day in history class. And even though she may not remain in my life forever, she was a great friend while she was a part of it.