The Red Brick Road

The rest of the day went by quickly. I ended up just hiding out in the computer lab for lunch, because I didn’t want to run into Justin in the cafeteria. I also didn’t want to sit with Eliza and Jen, because I knew Jen was still crying over that dude she went out with, and I knew that Eliza would just get on my nerves the entire time. Her constant coddling, and mother like nonsense when it came to Jen. Everything else afterwards was a blur.

The school bell rang, and next thing I knew, I was walking out the school with the rest of the no life zombies that went there. I walked towards the alley I had run out of earlier this morning, thanks to Justin and his childish antics. Just then I saw right on the sidewalk, Jen talking to Justin. She was laughing and drawing attention to her crappy hair. I started to not really care or worry, until I noticed...Justin was laughing and smiling a little too hard. My blood began to boil. Oh she definitely made the wrong move there! I walked over to them quickly, I just knew I had to stop this, whatever it was that was going on.

“Hey Justin, are you free to walk me home?” I interrupted loudly. I made sure to get in the way of Jen, so Justin would realize the mistake he was clearly making. “Oh, hey ‘Brina.” He said nonchalantly. Excuse me? Did he just “hey ‘Brina” me? I stared at him wide eyed. I even blinked twice, waiting for him to pep it the hell on up! “Um, yeah I’m not sure. Jen had just asked me to walk her home, and I was just about to do that.” He started that bullcrap sentence loudly, but once he saw my “killer face”, as Justin liked to call it, he was barely above a whisper. “Oh, really? Jen, you need someone to walk you home today?” I turned to look at her slowly. She was not serious. Jen definitely knew better, so I have no idea what possessed her to ask MY Justin to walk HER home.

“Ye-yeah. I had thought to just ask since w-we have to walk the s-s-s-same way. It wasn’t meant to be anything, I swear ‘Brina.” Jen struggled to get out. That was the thing about Jen, she never called “‘Brina'' unless she did something wrong, or if she knew I was about to blow my top. “Oh wow, really?” I asked, my voice slowly getting louder with each word. “So you just thought to ask, and I’m supposed to think that it’s, what’d you call it?” I began making a whole scene so everyone would notice. Eliza randomly popped up next to Jen. I heard her ask what was going on, but I ignored her. I continued on, “I think you called it “wasn’t meant to be anything?” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Hey, Sabrina, chill out. It’s not that serious. We have to walk that same way so she was just going to end up walking with me anyway!” Justin pleaded. He noticed that everyone was watching at this point. I kept going, I knew at this point I had to hurt Jen’s feelings. “Wow Jen, despite it being my boyfriend, you move on pretty quick!” All three of them gasped. Eliza looked like she was ready to punch me. Jen’s eyes began to water, I knew at that point, I hit that spot. I knew this last blow would teach her the lesson she knew she had to learn.

Just before I was about to throw my last hit out, Josh, the idiot Jen went out with and cried over the whole day, popped right out of the school. He noticed the commotion I was putting on for everyone, that’s how I knew I was going to the point of no return. But you know what? I didn’t care at that moment. Maybe, had I’d known my life was going to be cut short in some magical world, I would've been much, much nicer.

“I would’ve thought after all that crying you did for Josh today, you would’ve tried to find him and beg him to walk you home. But then again, I could see why You’d move on to Justin. I mean, you have had a crush on him since like, forever; right Jen?” Eliza’s face grew hot, and her hand flew up quickly like lightning. My eyes stayed wide open, but somehow missed Jen’s hand come up and stop Eliza’s incoming slap. I let out a small gasp. Surprisingly Jusin didn’t move one inch. “Don’t. Don’t do it, Li.” Jen said quietly. The entire school was quiet, not one person moved. Jen’s face was tear stained, she couldn’t hold back those tears she was desperately trying to hold back. “It’s not worth it. I just-” She started. Jen looked up, and saw Josh. Her eyes widened in embarrassment. She then seemed to remember that Justin was right behind me. Her face grew pale, she looked around, trying to find a way to escape. She must’ve found it, because she ran quicker than I’ve ever seen her run in my life.

Eliza turned to look at me in disbelief. At that moment, I thought I was really going to get slapped. Instead, she just matched my voice. “You know what? She is absolutely right, it isn’t worth it. But you know, you are the BIGGEST bitch I have ever met in my life. No wonder why everyone here hates you. Just disappear, Sabrina! Just disappear!” she ran off to catch up with Jen. I chuckled to myself and turned to face Justin. That was probably the worst idea ever, because his face was red with anger. He looked furious. “You really just embarrassed your best friend, Sabrina!” He yelled. Somehow, in that moment, he sounded louder than me. “She’s not exactly my best friend. I mean, she’s too whiny to be my best friend, I just tolerate her.” I said jokingly. Wrong move, again. Justin’s eyes grew wide. “Eliza’s right, you really are a bitch. I always knew it, I just thought there was some good in there somewhere. But no, there isn’t any.” He paced back and forth. He was definitely angry. I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off.

“I don’t even know why you were getting so angry in the first place. You broke up with me today! It wasn’t until you heard about the concert, you even entertained the idea of us getting back together!” He bellowed out. All the students were still standing around. This was the first time anyone had heard Justin speak to me like this. Shoot, that was the first time I heard him speak to me like that! I had hoped he was finished, but he kept going. “Then you disappeared during lunch! You were probably in the computer lab, like Liza said. But you know what? I didn’t even care to chase after you, like I always do.” He was right. I didn’t notice till now, I did have a quiet lunch. Not even Jen came to whine until I gave in. “Do you know why I didn’t bother to get you this time?” he asked. I waited. I wasn’t sure if he wanted me to answer or not.

“I’m waiting. Do you know why?” He asked, his voice getting lower. I felt like everyone took two steps closer, just so they could get every word. Just so they could get every last sentence, so they had something to gossip about later. I took a deep breath. “Can we talk about this away from everyone?” I asked quietly. My voice escaped me, I could only really whisper. “No, we can’t! You’re always yelling at me in front of everyone, they’ve heard it all so many times! Now it’s your turn!” he said coldly. This was a side I had never seen before, and I was speechless. “Well since you don’t want to answer, I’m just going to tell you. I didn’t care where you were sulking, because I was too busy enjoying an awesome conversation with Jen the entire time.” he said proudly. My heart sunk to the pit of my stomach. Did he really just admit that so proudly? He definitely did, because the crowd started murmuring to themselves. One random girl whispered to her friend “that’s true, they were sitting kinda close too!” I held back tears.

“Yeah, that’s right. I was talking to Jen, and I had a good time. We talked about my yearbook meeting, which I got out of early, and wanted to surprise you. But, of course, you weren’t there.” he looked all too excited to tell me this, like he wanted to show me how it felt to be hurt. I mouthed for him to stop, but he ignored me. He had just one more thing left for me. But it was probably my fault. It’s that little thing called pride. I had to save some kind of face. So, I sealed my doom. “Well, since you had such a great time with little miss ‘homie hopper’, because I could’ve sworn you and Josh were friends, or maybe I’m wrong. But since you’re okay with sharing so much, why don’t you take her to see Melanie Martinez instead?” I sniffled and crossed my arms firmly. I don’t know why I said that. He laughed, I think he was waiting for me to make a remark like that. “Wow, no remorse. Ok.” Justin looked fed up. “Wait, where was Eliza during all this?” I asked. It just dawned on me, because Eliza would’ve tried to stop Jen from making that mistake. Knowing that I was going to act out to the max if I found out.

Eliza came out of the school confused, so clearly she wasn’t there in the cafeteria with them. So I wanted to know just where she was. That would explain why Jen felt so bold. “Eliza had to have a tutor session during lunch with her history teacher. So she was with Mrs. Benton the whole time. Jen and I had the whole lunch period to ourselves.” Justin explained calmly. “I thought you were going to apologize, or at least realize that you went too far with Jen. But you didn’t; you just made a joke, and tried to run, because you were embarrassed. He said solemnly. I lowered my eyes to the ground. I refused to look him in the eye, because I knew I’d cry if I looked at him. I just decided to let him finish, he was on a roll, and I deserved it too. “Had you showed some remorse, I would've looked past this. But you’re right, I should take Jen to the concert instead. I think she’d appreciate it more anyway.” he looked me up and down. “See you around, Sabrina.” He rolled his eyes, scoffed, and walked off in the same direction Jen and Eliza disappeared off to.

I stood there, in shock. I didn’t know how to react. A part of me wanted to catch up to him and slap him. Another part of me wanted to burst into tears, and run straight home. But I had a rep to protect, and it was already looking shaky because of what had just happened. So that was out. So I just stood there. The crowd seemed to have dispersed quickly, most of them followed Justin. Most of them being the guys, probably to tell him how awesome he was; and how it was about time he stood up to “that bitch”. Yeah, I was definitely being called “that bitch”, and not in a good way. I looked around and realized I was alone. I finally did it. I managed to get rid of every last person I had in my life. I didn’t think it’d happen that soon. I thought I had at least until the end of senior year to cut ties with everyone, and then I would run off to my dream college and never look back. But I reached my goal a little too early. I started to slowly walk back home. The lonely walk home.

To Be Continued. . .