How I Let Go (GirlxGirl)

Chapter 3: Reliving the Past

In middle school there's usually two types of people: the bullies and the bullied. I've been both. I sadly think that my fourth and fifth grade years were the prime of my life. In middle school, I was the head bitch. I had a new boyfriend every week and all the boys practically fell in love with me. Although I'd throw out the word "love" just as much as Ellen throws out large sums of cash to her audience, I never really knew what it meant. Through email exchanges with my then-boyfriend Alex, we would email each other back and forth of how madly in love we were. I didn't even know his last name.

I had one steady best friend up until middle school. We did everything together-we would even lick each other's food to share the same DNA(cause that's how it works, right?)-until I met Anna and Sophie. Together we formed "The Three Amigas," a clique everyone wanted to be apart of but no one could. I had always been a nice person; I was polite and respectful, and hated leaving people out. But when I was with them, something changed. It's like they brought out the side of my I didn't even know I had. The side that could destroy a girl's confidence in one look and didn't think anything of it.

"Are you really still hanging out with her? You know they call her mop-head." Sophie told me with a concerning look.

I sighed. "She won't leave me alone. It also doesn't help that our moms are friends so we have to see each other basically every weekend." This was true. While I skyrocketed in popularity, my friend did not. I gained in interest in the "cool" things like feathers in my hair or skipping class, while she refused to even put up her hair or brush it for that matter.

"All I'm saying is that Brian gave you a weird look when he saw you talking to her." Anna said. Brian was the next victim I had my eyes on. He had curly blonde hair and different colored-eyes, one brown and one green. He was a little on the chunky side, but eyes were my weakness.

Sophie and Anna stared at me waiting for a response. I chewed on my bottom lip and thought for a couple of seconds.

"Fine." I said. "I'll talk to her."

The weekend finally came around, which meant the afternoons were spent roaming around the neighborhood looking for something to do. I sighed as I opened my front door, awaiting for the same green minivan that pulled into my driveway at 11am every Saturday.

"Why don't you ever put your hair up?" I asked Mop-Head as we walked down the sidewalk.

"My mom says I shouldn't hide my curls, so I don't." She replied.

"Well, if your mom told you to jump off a bridge would you do it?" I snorted.

"Unlike you, I actually listen to what people tell me, so yeah I probably would."

"And look where that's gotten you." I said under my breath.

She stopped abruptly. "You know Sophie and Anna aren't even really your friends. You don't even hang out with them on the weekends."

"Because my mom makes me hang out with you!" I replied, voice raised slightly.

"Shut up, you know you like hanging out with me. You just don't want them to know because I'm not "cool" enough." She emphasized air quotes on the word "cool."

"Why would I want to hang out with someone called mop-head?" I angrily replied.

She looked at me, her dark eyes fuming. "I heard you came up with that. Is it true?"

I kicked a rock and sent it flying across the street. It hit a car tire and fell to the ground.
"It was just a joke." I replied, eyes glued to the spot where the rock lay.

"Wow. You know I stick up for you when everyone talks about you three. It's nice to know that they were right, you guys really do only care about yourselves. Maybe they should call you the Three Putas." She shook her head as she turned around and headed back to the driveway where the rear of the minivan could be seen.

Shit. My mom's going to kill me. And where did she learn Spanish?

"Lily!" I yelled out to her, watching her curls bounce with every furious step she took.