The Red Brick Road

I was determined to scream as loud as I could to attract attention. Just then I heard a familiar laugh. I looked up to see my stupid boyfriend, Justin, laughing at me.

“If I had known that you were going to do all this, I wouldn’t have attempted to scare you.” He said, trying to catch his breath. My face grew hot with anger. “Are you serious? Justin, you almost gave me a heart attack!” I yelled. I started hitting him furiously. “Calm down, it was just a joke Sabrina!” He said blocking every punch I threw. “Calm down? Seriously? Do you not know what type of morning I had? I sometimes try to figure out why I even agreed to date you!” I said angrily. His face changed from amused to hurt quickly. “Wow Sabrina, I didn’t even know you felt like that.” He said sadly. “You shouldn’t have scared me. That’s your fault.” I said. “Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it, Sabrina. Please forgive me. You know how much I love you.” He begged. That was the thing about Justin. He loved me so much he was willing to say and do anything to keep me with him. It was always kinda pathetic if you ask me. But he sure was cute, with his long dark brown hair and brown eyes to match. He went from being this preppy nerd, to being this super hot rocker guy! He was always such a sweetheart to me, but I always seemed to take advantage of him simply because I knew I could and that he wasn’t going anywhere. If I had known now that I was going to end up dying so soon, I might’ve treated him the way a true boyfriend is supposed to be treated.

“Okay Justin, it’s fine. Just walk with me the rest of the way to school, walk me to my class, and sit with me at lunch and we’ll be even.” I ordered. “Okay, I’ll do all of those. But the last part I might not be able to. Today I’m supposed to be meeting up with the other yearbook editors. I can’t afford to miss another day.” He said. “Really, so you’re choosing some meeting over me? I thought you loved me!” I said. I was doing my usual “I’m going to get what I want, or you’ll be sorry” act. I knew it would work because it always did. “I do love you!” he cried. “But this is just something I can’t miss. I missed the last two days because you wanted me to sit with you. Being in this committee means everything to me, not saying you don’t mean everything to me because you know you do, it’s just that I can’t afford to miss this day. Please try to understand.” He pleaded. That was the first time my plan hadn’t worked out. “Well then you can’t miss any more meetings, can you?” I asked quietly. “No, I can’t. I’m so glad you understand!” He said happily. He reached over to hug and kiss me, but I moved away. “I don’t understand. Did I do something wrong?” He asked. I could tell he was genuinely confused. The poor thing looked like a small child looking at me the way he did. “You made your choice, that’s all. I told you to sit with me for lunch and you chose your meeting over me. So there, I made your future choices easier.” I said coldly. “No wait, Sabrina don’t do that.” He pleaded. “I don’t want you to go. You know how I feel about you. I’ve felt this way for a very long time! You know this! Don’t just leave me like that.” I looked at him with a straight face. I didn’t want him to know that I was feeling sorry for him, or that I really wanted to take him back as well. He looked like he was about to cry. I couldn’t bear to look at him any further so I walked off. I stopped and turned around “I’ll see you around Justin.” His face was too painful to look at so I hurried away.

I hurried to school, hoping he wasn’t chasing after me. I have no idea why I had broken up with him. I actually really liked him just as much as he liked me. But of course, because of my need to get what I want, I left him. I can’t believe I did that. I had the best boyfriend and I let him go, all because he chose his responsibilities over sitting with me.

* * * *

I spent the first two periods thinking about the horrible and incredibly stupid decision I had made this morning. I really couldn't believe that I broke up with the most amazing person ever. Even though I knew I made this careless mistake, I couldn't let anyone else know that I regretted this decision. I had enough time to suppress all signs of regret from my face before my friends saw me. I walked down the hallway to my locker, where my friends, Jen and Eliza, were waiting for me. "Oh my gosh, Sabrina we've got a serious dilemma!" Eliza screamed out as soon as she saw me. I wasn't really in the mood to deal with any of Jen's "boy problems'', for I knew that's what Eliza was going to tell me about; but being the godlike friend I thought I was at the time, I decided to listen anyway. "Remember that guy that we told her not to go out with, you know, Josh?" Eliza quickly explained. "Yeah, I remember. The stupid one that can't tell the difference between a female and a piece of meat? Yes, go on." I said sarcastically. Jen opened her mouth to protest but soon closed her yap shut when she saw the "don't even argue because you know I'm right" look I always seemed to give her when it involved a guy. "Yeah, him. Well she went on one date with him, just one simple first date, and he tried to get to third base! He wasn't even on first base!" Eliza explained. "In his defense. . .'' Jen started. I cut her off, "no Jen, there is no 'in his defense'! He's a slime ball and he's a jerk and I told you not to bother with him. I had explained to you that brainless jocks like Josh only want one thing, and that's to get to that third base. You were dumb for even giving him the time of day.". "Seriously, Sabrina?" Eliza said in disbelief. "That was a little too harsh. She made a mistake, not everyone can be so damn perfect like you and your boyfriend!" she yelled. "No, it's okay Liza. She's right, I shouldn't have been so stupid. You guys always try to tell me who's bad news and who isn't , but I never listen. It's fine. I'm OK." Jen said quietly.

Jen was always the follower, no moxie having, little princess out of all of us. I had first met her in elementary school. She was small, blonde, and perky; I hated her. She always had her eyes on Justin but never made a move, plus he was always so into me he didn't give not one damn about her. It wasn't until eighth grade and that puberty came in at full swing that I had decided to go out with Justin because he started noticing her, plus he got cute out of nowhere! I know she still likes him, so she thinks that if she dresses and looks a little more like me, then she'll get him to notice her. By ninth grade, she had changed her look and she changed her hair and dyed it to match mine exactly. The only thing she couldn't change? That personality and her innocence. The girl is such a prude, we can't even say the word "sex" around her (hence why we use the term "third base" with her). She has to excuse herself from all the sex ed classes every year because of how squeamish she gets. And yet, she wants to be just like me. She constantly goes out with all these guys, thinking she's gonna find another Justin, but all these guys are really trying to do is see who can score first. It's sad really. Then you've got Eliza, who we met that ninth grade year, who's always coming to poor defenseless Jen's rescue. She's not as much of a goody two shoes as Jen, she's a whole lot tougher. When she got here all the guys tried to get with her, but she wasn't having any of it. She's cool and I tolerate her, but sometimes she's got too much nerve and I don't like that because we go toe to toe from time to time. She believes in all that "soulmate" bull because she sees that her parents are true soulmates, so that's why she always gets annoyed with me when I'm harsh with Jen about these boys. Whatever.

I looked at Jen and then at Eliza. One was trying so hard not to cry in front of me, the other was trying so hard not to lunge at my throat. "Well then!" I said to end the silence, "Time to get to class! Come on girls!" I turned and started my way to English class. They looked at each other and followed behind me. "Are you sure you're okay, Jen?" Eliza asked sweetly. "She's fine Liza! stop making such a big deal about it. She's a big girl and can handle herself! She doesn't need you babying her all the time, her parents do enough of that!" I said nonchalantly. "I don't think I was talking to you Sabrina." Eliza shot back at me. "Like you said, Jen is a big girl, so she can speak for herself." I looked back at Eliza with disgust. I hated when she had an attitude with me. "Fine then! Baby her, treat her like a child. She'll never grow any backbone that way!" I exclaimed. "Can you just stop being so insensitive all the damn time?" Eliza yelled. "Your friend is sad and still a little shaken up about last night. Instead of acting like a jerk, why don't you try something like actually being a true friend?!" Eliza grabbed Jen and walked to the girls bathroom. I didn't follow them. I wasn't in much of a mood for Jens annoying sobbing and wishing she had never gone out with whatever jerk of the week it was she was interested in. I was being a true friend, or at least I had thought I was. I always thought you were supposed to be brutally honest with people, I guess not that honest.

I walked into the classroom and stopped short. Justin was sitting in the seat next to mine, clearly waiting for me to walk in and sit there. I quickly, and desperately, searched for another seat to sit in. As I looked around I noticed that all the available seats were around the weird nerds in the class, definitely not the kind of people I wanted to sit next to. I rolled my eyes and reluctantly walked over to the seat that Justin had waiting just for me. I sat down and looked right ahead of me. I refused to say anything to him and I certainly wasn't going to look at him either. "Hey." he said quietly. I glanced at him quickly, but said nothing. "So you're not going to say hi back? OK, I'll just have to keep pestering you until you speak to me." He said. He smirked, thinking that he was going to get me to speak. The truth? I wanted to, but I couldn't let him win. So I sat there in silence. Justin glanced at me a few times before he decided to speak again. "You know" he started as he ran his fingers through his hair; I always loved his hair and the way he would run his fingers through it. "I was going to ask you if you were free tonight. I have these concert tickets to see your favorite artist, Melanie Martinez. You know, the concert you kept talking about for the past three months?" I turned to look at him, eyes wide with excitement. He smirked; he knew he was getting to me and that he was getting close to his goal. "Now I know we broke up, but I was wondering if you'd like to go with me?" he asked sweetly. I looked at him still in shock from his last words. Justin smiled and his hair fell back down to his face. "I take that as a yes?" he questioned sarcastically. I had finally opened my mouth to speak but was then interrupted by Mr. Gregory, our English teacher.

"Alright class, time to get started!" He said eagerly. Justin looked at me and winked. I knew this conversation wasn't over. I turned to face the front of the class and tried very hard not to smile. I couldn't let him see me smile, because then he'd think everything was alright again and I didn't want that. I tried my best to pay attention to what Mr. Gregory was saying. He always tended to babble on and on during the first few minutes of class about his day and his future plans for later on like as if someone cared. I came back from my thoughts just in time to hear him finish up with his plans.

"So, does anyone else have any plans they'd like to share?" He asked happily. No one raised their hands. "Oh come on you guys! Does no one have plans for today, or at least this weekend?" Mr. Gregory looked around eagerly. Just then, Justin slowly raised his hand up to share his plans. Or rather, our plans. I turned to look at him, hoping he'd quickly put his hand down once he saw me. Needless to say, he didn't. "Ah yes, Mr. Prescott! Would you like to share?" Mr. Gregory said cheerily. "Uhh, yes I would, sir." Justin said. He looked at me and smiled then looked back at our teacher. Just before Justin started to speak, the classroom door opened up. Eliza and Jen walked through and rushed to their seats. Thank god they walked in late. "Ms. Montalvo and Ms. Walker! Are you unaware of what time this class starts?" Mr. Gregory called out to them. Eliza and Jen looked at each other and then back at Mr. Gregory. "Sorry sir." Eliza replied solemnly. "Jen has been having a pretty hard day so far and someone decided that it was okay to make it worse." She said coldly. She glanced over at me. Her stare was as cold as her words, not that it bothered me in the slightest. "Oh well Jen, dear, are you alright?" Mr. Gregory asked. He sounded genuinely concerned, but I mean really, all this was just because Jen is a sad case with no backbone. "Yes sir, I'm fine. Though, I am sorry that I came to class late. Eliza and I didn't mean to interrupt the class." Jen answered quietly. "Well, that's quite alright. As long as you're alright, then that's all that matters." Mr. Gregory said, turning back to Justin. I had hoped he'd forgotten about Justin's plans. “ Well, Justin,” Mr. Gregory started. “Because of these young ladies' tardiness, we’ll have to move on to the lesson. I’m sorry.” Mr. Gregory turned to face the whiteboard and began to write the lesson for the day. I was so relieved, I let out a big sigh. I looked around hoping nobody would notice; hoping Justin wouldn’t notice. I glanced to the side quickly, he didn’t notice. He was too busy listening in to Mr. Gregory’s lesson, while trying to contain his excitement for the “trap concert” he had in store for me. I tried to pay attention, but the thoughts of this whole morning kept replaying in my head. I soon tuned out and tapped out into my own world.

To Be Continued. . .