The Plans We Make

Prologue

Prologue

They’ve been best friends since, more or less, the seventh grade.

Ashley, Maria and Jessica all attended the same high school and it was just a matter of time before they befriended each other.  It started out with Ashley, a shy but once opened, bubbly girl with dark blonde waves and big blue eyes. She liked to think of herself as hilariously crazy, but in reality, she was just plain cheesy. She met Jessica, the sweetest and most gentle person the planet. Jessica was graced with the prettiest long brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. And last, but certain not least, Maria. The loudest and most absolutely not innocent granted they were all no longer innocent but, Maria was obviously the most open about topics referring to sex. She had shoulder length, curly, dark brown hair, brown eyes and naturally tanned skin. They were all in the same math class; it started as Jessica needing a pencil and Maria obsessively playing with Ashley’s hair during the teachers boring lectures to then sitting together at lunch which blossomed into such a unique friendship. 

The trio did almost everything together. They made it a routine to spend Friday nights and Sunday afternoons together. Passing their time together by shopping, eating, watching a couple movies or even just planting their butts on the couches of whoever’s house they’d end up at, the bond the three girls shared was gradually becoming unbreakable.

However, the pairing was a tad uneven. It always seemed as if the girls were never really complete. There were often complaints of one feeling as if she were a “third wheel”. The three ladies loved each other to the ends of the Earth, but there was nothing they could do except reassure each other that this trio would never become a duo.

Instead, it became a quartet.

It was similar to a gift from God, an answer to their prayers. Jessica and Ashley were roaming the aisles of the local bookshop looking for their lost friend. Maria had gone on a hunt, looking for a particular book and didn’t bother to tell the other two she was going off on her own.

While scanning the paperback section, they could hear the infamous shouting of their beloved companion. Knowing that was never a good sign, Jessica and Ashley rushed to their friend’s side. They found her in one of the very last aisles of the book store, clutching on for dear life to the end of book. Attempting to pry the book away from another girl, she shouted, “I saw it first! Let go of it!”

“I’ve been waiting for months for this book and I’ll be damned if I let you have it!” The girl shouted back. She stood a foot shorter than Maria, her feet wide apart, anchoring her weight to give her more strength. Her hair was long, dark and shiny, and with a matching pair of brown eyes, this girl was utterly gorgeous.

“Maria! You run off on us and start picking fights with other girls? This is not how to make new friends!” Jessica scolded, as she intervened between the two and pulled the book away from the prying arms.

As it turns out, that was the perfect way to make a new friend. The two fighters came to an agreement on splitting the cost in half and then sharing the book between them. They exchanged numbers in order to be able to contact one another once Maria was finished reading it.

A week later, the three made plans to meet up with the girl, whose name they learned was Beth, at a coffee shop near the book store. Once they all sat down with their coffee and Maria handed over the book, the four began talking and talking for hours.

And that’s how the trio became a quartet. Fully feeling complete now, the four girls became inseparable. Despite the fact that Beth attended a different school, they still saw each other every weekend.

Someone once said, “There are four things to success: work and pray, think and believe.” This described the four girls perfectly. Ashley was the work; she was the planner and the organizer. She made sure that the girls were always together and that none of them fell apart. Beth was the pray; being the one who attended Church the most, she was the faith in the group. When things seemed dark and down, they would turn to Beth to give them a different perspective and restore their positivity. Jessica was the think; she was the rational one of the group and made sure the girls thought through everything before acting. Lastly, Maria was the believer; she believed in each and every one of them and supported them through everything. This is why the four of them were so perfect for each other, because of their different roles they played in this friendship, they would never fail.