The Best Days Of Our Lives?

The Best Days of Our Lives?

They say that high school days are the best days of your life. Well… If they are… If the big bad world really is worse than school… AHHHH! You probably won’t understand. Here is just one story that happened to me in the terrifying soap opera that is Mc Olsen High School.

“Being grown up, isn’t half as fun as growing up.
These are the best days of our lives.”
-In this diary – The Ataris

~~~

I sat in class; the teacher was going off on one of his usual tangents that made history… well, bearable. I looked across the room, and there, on the other side, sat the most beautiful girl in school. “She,” said my friend Lilly, who grabbed my shoulder and turned me to face her, “is out of your league.” I turned back to stare once more. “I still can hope.”

“I don’t like what you’re thinking,” she replied.
“What?”
“Bobby, the semi-formal is next month.” She looked at her and then back at me. “I just know you will ask her to go with you and I just don’t want to see you get heart broken.”

The bell rang and I watched her pack up her books and float gracefully out of the room. Lilly whacked me over the back of my head. I was standing right in front of her and she had no way of getting around me. “Move!” she grunted. I snapped out of my trance and walked out of the room, Lilly and I, the last two out.

As we walked to our favourite shady area, Lilly passed me, giving me the same look that she gave her ex-boyfriend just before he broke it off with her. It pretty much said, ‘Don’t you dare do it! Do it, and I’ll kill you!’ I shuddered. We sat down with my friends. Lilly talked quickly to the other two girls who we sat with, I looked up and saw her lips move to say ‘help him’.

“Lemme guess, Jade, right?” my friend Alex asked as he sat down next to me.
“Yeah, Lilly hates the idea that I like her.” I had a talent of pointing out the obvious.
“That’s ‘cause she wants to ask you to the semi.” He says a lot of obvious things too.
“I only see Lilly as a friend.” I looked at him puzzled.
“I know how you feel. Remember when I stayed with her for a month? I…”
“Almost kissed her, but she felt like a sister to you. I’ve heard it before.” He always used that story even when it had nothing to do with anything we’d be talking about. Some of us think that it’s his way of reminding us that he was the closest (in our school) to hooking up with Lilly, which was a challenge almost every guy in school couldn’t achieve. She isn’t really that bad, I mean if Jade didn’t exist, Lilly would be the hottest girl in the school. Guys envy me, the way she looks at me. But I’m stupid. I take her for granted. She is my friend, nothing more. I think…

Maths, a subject I love to hate. The last lesson of the day. The only good thing about this class was… “Jade Carlisle?” the teacher called.
I braced myself to hear the world’s most heavenly voice. “Here.” Her voice was soft, light and melodic. The voice an angel would have. It was just another sign that I really… “Bobby!” I snapped out of my trance once more. “Oh. Here, sir. Sorry sir.”
“Every lesson Bobby, no more daydreaming!”
Lilly giggled next to me. “One day you’ll be hit by a car because you were staring at her.” She whispered.
“Didn’t I tell you about Saturday? I saw her at the mall. I was hit by some old hag and her shopping trolley.” I showed her the scar. Her look said it all. ‘I wish you felt the same about me’.

Look I care about Lilly, I really do but, Jade was the girl I wanted to be with. So I made up my mind. I had to. I would wait for the bell to ring and I’ll ask Jade to the semi…
                                                           …Longest maths class of my life. The bell finally rang, good thing to because my stomach started eating itself, I was so nervous. The ringing drew out, it went on and on. For a ten second bell it took a long time. Everything moved slowly. Then it hit me. The class stampeded out of the room, with me in front. Everyone was pushing and shoving, eager to get home. I wanted something more than getting home. I wanted Jade.

She floated out of the room after the rabble. Now was my chance. Lilly gave me a ‘what the hell do you think you are doing’ look and watched.
“Hi, Jade.” She turned to see my face and smiled.
“Hi, Bobby.” I smiled back. It was going well so far. Will it go further?
”I uhh…” No! I lost it. Crap.
“Can I ask you something Bobby?” she asked in that angelic voice with that cute way she says the ‘y’ at the end of Bobby.
“Uhh, sure.” I said surprised.
“Are you going to the semi with Lilly?” she asked. I stood there amazed. Was this really happening?
“Oh, no, no me and Lilly are just friends.” I looked up and saw Lilly poking her head around from behind a wall. Her face had tears running down. She was so upset after hearing that. I felt terrible but I had to keep going… I was so close.

“Why’s that, Jade?” I was getting ready to say, ‘I sure would go to the semi formal with you’.
“Ok,” she smiled, pausing for dramatic effect. But the drama was killing me.
“Well I wanted to know if you would like to go with my friend Chloe Andrews. You know her?” Know her… Do I know Chloe Andrews? Chloe was the first girl I kissed, ever. Strange thing was we sort of lost contact when we got to high school. Even thought we were at the same school. I guess we just started hanging out with separate groups of friends.

But I really was horrified. I didn’t show it but I was. I looked up and saw Lilly’s face she was smiling, while wiping the tears away. Cheeky girl. I was thinking, do I say yes and go with Chloe? Or do I tell Jade how I really feel? I came up with the best option. “Well actually,” her face dropped she was obviously upset that she had let her friend down. I had let Chloe down. I felt bad again but I pushed on. “I was wondering if you wanted to go with me.”

She looked at me. Her crystal blue eyes, so sincere when she said. “I’d love to…” That’s a yes! I was on top of the world. I couldn’t be happier! “… But.” There was a ‘but’ I should have know, I should have seen it coming. “I’m not sure if I can, I mean, I want to but, Chloe. Chloe would hate me.” ‘Girl code’. I think Lilly told me about it once, ‘girls don’t date the guys their friends like’.

“I’ll ask her though.” She put her hands around my neck and pulled me down a bit, she stood on her toes and she kissed me. I know it wasn’t definant at the moment but it could have gone a lot worse. The ended and I stared in to her eyes once more, I was filled with happiness. Then it all flushed away down a drain. I looked up to see Lilly running away, her arm covering her face. She was crying. I had made her cry, it was may fault.

“I have to go.” I said.
“Ok, I’ll give you an answer tomorrow.” She lifted herself again and kissed me on the cheek.
“Kay.” Kay? That’s all I could say? Hopeless, I am absolutely hopeless. She did her usual graceful exit and I ran clumsily after Lilly.

As I ran I was thinking about what I would say to her. Could I justify what I did? But it’s not like I cheated on her. We aren’t even together. It really didn’t make any sense but I felt like I should apologize anyway. I made it to see Lilly sitting down, waiting for the bus with Josie and Sasha comforting her. Sash looked up and glared at me and signalled me to go over to them.

“She’d better have been a good kisser Bobby.” I had never seen sash so angry before.
“Lilly, I…”
“I don’t want to hear it Bobby. You’ve hurt me too much.” She sobbed. I thought for a moment, did I actually do anything to hurt her? Kissing Jade, was that all?
“Lilly you know I like her.” I paused. She looked up at me, her eyes were red and watery. I felt like a monster. “It was bound to happen sometime.”
“Gotta catch my bus.” She said as she slowly got to her feet. She walked past me, not even looking at me. I had never felt so bad.

Because of that whole thing happening. I missed my bus so I walked home. It was easier to think that way anyway. On one hand, I could have a date to the semi-formal with Jade. On the other hand I could have lost my best friend. That night I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking that Lily was at home throwing darts at a picture of me. I had to make it up to her, even if I did lose Jade.

The next day, I had made up my mind. If Jade said yes… I’d say no, absolutely crushing any chance of having any relationship with her. And I’d ask Lilly to the semi. The plan worked out great in my head. I could only hope it did in real life. I walked into the school grounds and sure enough Jade was there with… Oh god, with Chloe.

“Hey!” she called out to me. I walked over to the girls.
“Hi, Bobby.” Chloe said in her little voice. She was shy and short but very pretty.
“Chloe,” I said, “How are you?” How do you think she was? Her friend asked her if she could go with me to the semi instead of her.
“Alright.” She said
“Chloe said I could go with you!” Jade seemed very excited. That made it worse.
“Really?” I tried to match the excitement… didn’t work.
“Yeah, I really don’t mind. We probably don’t have much in common anymore anyway.” Jade probably didn’t see it but I did. The look in Chloe’s eyes, she didn’t want to say yes to Jade but she did, because she was her friend.

“Great… Jade, can I talk to you for a sec?” this was it. It had to be done. She nodded and we walked to a private spot.
“Jade, I really like you.” Her face changed suddenly… she could tell what was coming next.
“You don’t want to go.” She sighed.
“Let me explain. When we kissed. Lilly was watching. Lilly really likes me, and she got really upset. She wanted me to ask her. Now… uhhh… you don’t have to say yes and I completely understand if you don’t but I’d really like to go out with you… Just not to the semi. Because I don’t want to lose my friend. I really care about her.”

She looked at me, her eyes were so innocent, trying to make sense of it all. “Well, I understand, I don’t mind I guess. I want to be your girlfriend. And we don’t have to go to the semi together.” Wow. It worked. I really didn’t see it coming.
“Really? Thanks Jade.” I held her as she kissed me.
“Lilly is so lucky to have a friend like you.”

***

The day was almost over and I hadn’t seen Lilly anywhere. Was I the reason she wasn’t here? But then, right on cue. She came running at me she jumped in to my arms and hugged me. “I’m so sorry about yesterday Bobby. I over reacted.”
“It’s ok I have some good news.” I hugged her too, she was unnaturally warm.
“Chloe said yes and your going with Jade?”
“Well, yes and no.”
“Huh?”
“Chloe said yes, but I talked to Jade.” Lilly looked at me puzzled but willing to wait to hear what happened. “I told her about your reaction to the kiss and well… long story short, I was wondering if you would go to the semi-formal with me.” Her eyes lit up. She hugged me tighter, if that was possible.

“Yes.” She answered, “but what about Jade? Don’t you like her any more?”
“Yeah, that’s the other thing. I am going out with her, just not to the semi.
“Oh so you get the best of both worlds huh? Cheeky.”
“Yeah.” I chuckled.
“I’m proud of you Bobby. You really do care about me.”
I nodded, scooped her up and carried her to out last class, history. When we got there, Jade ran over to us.
“Take it you said yes?” she asked Lilly
“Are you kidding?” she put her head to my chest. “How could I say no?”


***


One month later, the semi was awesome. Lilly looked fantastic in her beautiful royal blue dress. Jade went with her friend, Adrian, she looked perfect as usual and to my, ad Lilly’s surprise, I could dance. Anyway I had a great night, Lilly had a great night, Jade looked at me all night (poor Adrian). The whole of our grade had the best night of year eleven. Everyone started leaving around midnight. “Bobby.” I turned to see Lilly tapping me on the shoulder. “Bobby, I, I love you.” She kissed me. I held her close, was I in love with her? I wasn’t sure. Eventually we left. Lilly and I, the last two out.
~~~