The Unexpected: A True Story

The Unexpected

It seemed as if life was perfect. My friends were an important part of my life. Our seventh grade year was midway through and it could not get any better. That's what I thought. Things were fixing to change though.

It was sometime in mid February, we all had tons of things going on. We were having an untucked day at our school. The day was tense as it is, for a reason I could not understand. Then Jessica made a comment that made the edges of my world start cracking. They stung into as if I had been whipped with a cat of nine tails.

"My God Kari you look like a snobby slut why dont you go put some clothes on." She said in a disgusted voice.

No one liked here little out burst, nor appreciated it, but they seemed to be waiting for me to react. I would not let myself be angry though. The anger would be a wasted emotion.

In the next few weeks I let the whole incident roll off my back as if I didn't care. We tiptoed around each other until May. Soon after I became shocked when I found out she had an online relationship with a seventeen year old. At the time I did not know that they were talking on the phone everyday. I knew if she gave him to much information he may pose a hazard to her safety. She lied about knowing what he looked like. She had even sent him pictures of herself that became posted on MySpace.

"Jess, what are you thinking? Your twelve he's technically a felon." I yelled at her unable to conceal the anger in my voice.

"Why do you even care Kari, it's none of your business either way." The infliction on the word your made me angrier instead of blowing up though I simply replied.

"I don't know maybe I'm a bad person because I care about how safe you are. I don't know how to get it through your head that your making a mistake." I turned then and walked away from her before my head exploded from the steam that had to have been boiling inside my skull. She eventually ended things with him, but they continued to talk but the pictures disappeared at least.

The tense atmosphere was still palpable in the air as things spun out of control even more than usual. She started using profane language as if it were normal. Other changes took longer to notice; how she could not be around me without a crowd or Allie.

Months passed and the behavior was even more atypical. We were all going to a friend’s birthday party during the summer, where she again would not leave her side. The point became profound when Krista started inviting us all to sleepover at her house.

“I can’t stay if Allie doesn’t I just don’t want too be alone with all of you.” This angered me for more than one reason. She now was not comfortable being around her friend without one. We all started heading home soon after.

To no ones surprise I did not talk to her for the rest of the summer. School started and my gut feeling that things would only get worse intensified. Unlike the feeling she seemed to have forgotten everything that happened. That turned out to be a grace period though. The unusual person seemed to take back over, but nothing ever reverted back to those past incidents.

Instead she was talking in plurals, inviting Alex to our plans and comparing things as if she were better.

“Yeah Allie knows everything about me there’s no one closer than me and her. We were together all summer…” She repeated herself many times over the weeks that we were at school together each time adding to the strain on our relation ship.

Finally one day I got fed up with having to hear that nothing could compare to her and Allie and that we basically did not matter to her anymore . I told her everything.

"I'm tired of you comparing everything. We have to hear everything...about you and her well...yeah I'm glad you have a friend that close to you...Newsflash: the world doesn't revolve around you...yeah I've thought about this and you know what I don't care... Do we even matter anymore? Until you can figure that out leave me out of your life completely."


She didn't have anything to say when I finished my tirade. We didn't speak to each other for awhile after that. A month or so passed and my friends were finding it harder to be friends with the both of us, they also seemed to think that I was joking around. After the initial blow-up she started cleaning up her act. After she apologized we made amends.

We still are not back to the old days of being on the phone for hours or going on a shopping trip because we want. Still there are many things that this unexpected experience taught me. I learned that if I believe strongly in something I can follow through and succeed. It also taught me to follow my instincts and go with my gut. Many times I wondered how I could have gone about a situation differently, but now I know you can't change the past and even if you try you can not change it. I do not have a clue what is coming but I know I can face anything.