A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP

WE WERE THREE

BY J. MINAYA

In the beginning, there was one.

Me!

Peter Reed.

I wasn’t your typical ten-year-old boy. I didn’t run around, played sports, climbed trees, or collected insects. Actually, I was pretty quiet… And clean, and organized, and dorky, and shy. So most of the fourth grade, I spent it by myself because everyone else thought I was weird. Then on a clear sunny day when I least expected it, something strange happened.

“Hi! I’m Ivy.”

The sweet yet annoying voice I heard didn’t ring a bell. So I looked up and found a brown hair, dark eyes, overalls wearing girl looking back at me… A GIRL! And she was talking to me.

“I was over there.” She pointed at the large oak tree across the yard. “And I was alone, and I saw you here, and you were alone too. So I thought that maybe we could be friends.”

“No!” I shouted and shook my head. “I don’t wanna be friends with you.”

“But… Why not?”

“Because didn’t anybody tell you? You’re a girl! And boys don’t play with girls!”

Lowering her head, she gives me a small shrug as she says, “Okay… Sorry, I asked. I just really wanted to make a friend today because it’s my birthday, but I guess I’ll leave you alone.”

Turning around, she headed towards the oak tree in the middle of the yard and sat on the grass with her arms wrapped around her bent knees. Her lips were now pouty; her eyes, sad and wet, and all I could think of was, “OH NO! I made a girl sad! Mom wouldn’t like that very much. She always tells me to be polite and nice to every girl because one day, I’ll grow up to be a gentleman, and a gentleman never makes a girl cry.”

Rolling my eyes, I reluctantly stood up from the bench where I normally sat during recess and walked over to her. “Don’t cry,” I said. “I don’t have a birthday present, but I could give you half of my sandwich.”

“If I take it, would you sit here and eat it with me?”

“On the grass!” I exclaim. “No! I can’t! I’ll get my clothes dirty, and I’m never dirty. So why don’t we go sit somewhere else where it’s clean?”

“You’ll be fine! Just sit down!” Taking a hard hold of my hand, she pulled me down and forced me to sit on the grass next to her.

And at that moment, I learned three valuable lessons.

One, sitting on the grass is not as bad as I thought. Actually, it’s quite nice once you look past the fact that you’re on the ground, butt on the dirt, and ants are crawling all over you.

Two, girls are way too bossy! No wonder I’ve never liked them before.

And Three, being friends with Ivy Romano is A-OK even if she is a girl.

Past that day, Ivy and I were the inseparable duo. We went everywhere, did everything, and shared whatever Ivy wanted because she was the boss between the two. Still, I never complained about my lack of power since Ivy wasn’t just my friend. She was the up to my down. The in to my out. The heat to my cold. The thrill-seeking devil to my calm and angelic life. She pushed me into coming out of my shell and try things I would’ve never done on my own, like going away for three weeks to camp Okeechobee and swimming in a snake-infested lake. That day I was terrified of getting eaten by a python, but I did it anyway because I always did whatever Ivy said. It was in my nature. She bossed, and I obeyed.

So let’s just say that Ivy—my Ivy—turned out to be pretty amazing. Then Chloe just had to mess it up by pointing down at Ivy’s shirt and saying, “Cute top!”

Ivy could barely contain her excitement as the famous Chloe Harrison was not only addressing her, she was complimenting her clothes. I mean, I get it. Chloe is the stereotypical mean girl. The one with the golden hair and cool, new clothes. The one who wore makeup and high heels before all the other girls in school. The one who got her boobs before anybody else did. And yes! I noticed! And so did the rest of eighth grade. That’s why everyone loved Chloe. The boys wanted to kiss her. The girls wanted to be her, and Ivy wasn’t any different. All Chloe had to do was say the magic words…

“We should hang out sometime.”

And just like that, Ivy was more interested in spending time with other girls than hanging out with me. Now, I was back down to one. Just one, but not for long. Thanks to Ivy, the kids in the class didn’t think I was weird anymore, and I, too, found a couple of friends of my own.

Dexter and Leo.

Mr. Bad-boy and Mr. Cuteness… Or at least that’s what Ivy called them whenever they weren’t around. And again, who can blame her for calling them names when Chloe was the one who gave them the nicknames.

Go figure.

Now that I think about it, I wonder what nickname Chloe gave me.

Mr. Sweet guy. Mr. Charming. Mr. Perfect… I bet it was something along that line. It better have been because those are the only nicknames that could describe me.

So, Dexter, aka Mr. Bad boy, was the mastermind out of the three of us. He always came up with the best plans, which usually ended in a great laugh or with the three of us grounded for days. Like when he invited us over to his house and showed us the magazine collection his stepdad kept in the back of the closet. I knew looking at them was wrong, but there wasn’t enough blood on my brain for me to think straight. Those ladies were naked… NAKED! So what was I supposed to do? Look away?

Uhhh… No thanks!

Before we knew it, three hours had gone by, and Dexter’s mom was now getting home from work. We tried stuffing everything back in the closet before she walked through the door, but we weren’t quick enough. Needless to say, Mrs. Cooper wasn’t happy with what she found. She phoned our parents faster than we could start begging, and that evening, I got the talk of my life. Mom was pissed, dad was quiet, and I felt like a big disappointment. It wasn’t until later that night that things got all cleared out when dad snuck into my room and made me feel all good about myself once again. That’s was what he always did. He snuck behind mom’s back whenever he wanted to go against one of her crazy rules. I mean, let’s face it… Mom is a girl too, and she is the queen of bossiness. So that night, dad told me it was normal for me to be interested in that kind of thing and even gave me a magazine with girls in bikinis.

Best gift ever!

Then there was Leo, or better yet, Mr. Cuteness. The guy every girl waved and winked at. The one every girl wanted to date. The only boy that could make cool, little miss Chloe melt into a puddle of sweat.

“She can’t help it,” Ivy always told me. “Chloe is in love, and we should help her out.”

“What do you mean ‘we’?”

“Come on!” She rolled her eyes at me. “Leo is your friend, not mine. So go put in a good word for her. Convince Leo to be Chloe’s boyfriend.”

The idea of playing match-maker did not interest me much. So, I shook my head at Ivy and said, “No! No way! I’m not getting involved in this because if something goes wrong, Chloe is gonna come after me, not you.”

“No, she won’t!” Ivy insisted. “I’ll make sure she knows you had nothing to do with it. So can you please… Just do it for me?” She smiled, and it was a great smile. The kind that made her look a little pretty and got me to do whatever she wanted because I’m a sucker for Ivy, and I can’t seem to be able to say no to her.

“Fine!” I shouted. “I’ll talk to him, but I hope you know I’m not doing this for Chloe. I’m doing it for you.”

And I was at first, but then I saw Chloe crying behind the school gym one day, and my motivations suddenly changed. I mean, I am a gentleman, for God’s sake, and if a girl is sad or crying, I have to make her feel better. So I rolled my eyes, cursed myself, and went over to see if she was okay.

“Do I look okay to you?” She backed right back. Long streaks of liner were running down her pink cheeks as Chloe wasn’t just weeping. She was sobbing her eyes out.

“Want me to get Ivy?” I asked and tried to walk away, but Chloe grabbed my shirt and pulled me down next to her.

“No! I just want you to sit down!” She ordered, and I obeyed. I obey because one, she’s so much bossier than Ivy, and two, I’m kind of scared of her. That’s why I sat in silence at her side and looked around me.

The grass of the empty field behind the school was now overgrown, there was a family of raccoons raiding a nearby trash can, and a cool breeze was blowing in the winter air while I wasted my time sitting next to a girl I could barely stand.

What are the odds?

“Do you at least wanna talk about it?” I asked as I didn’t know what else to do. “Believe it or not, I’m a good listener.”

“It’s Leo, okay!” She cried out. “I really thought he liked me, but he turned out to be a jerk.”

“Wait…” I frowned. “What did he do? You know he’s my friend. So, if you want, I can go talk to him. I’m sure he’ll listen to me.”

“He told everyone that I had sex with him when all we did was kiss. Now, ‘Chloe’s a whore’ is written all over the girl’s restroom, and no one wants to talk to me.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s a jerk!” She fired back. “For him, this is a win because now he’s the only boy in middle school who got to have sex, or at least that’s what everyone thinks. But for me… My whole reputation is ruined! Now, I’m gonna have to change town because I won’t be able to show my face around here ever again!”

“I see…” My brows snapped together as I thought about what she said. Leo can be a bit of a liar sometimes, but this time he took this whole thing a bit too far. Coming to my feet, I looked back at Chloe and said, “Can you give me one second?” then set out walking away from her.

“Where are you going?” She shouted, but I didn’t answer. I just kept going, pushed open the double doors to the gym, walked up to Leo, and punched him in the face. Leo stumbled back and fell right on his ass as he looked up at me with big eyes and a hand to his jaw.

“Don’t you dare make up another lie about Chloe ever again!” I yelled. Everyone in the gymnasium was instantly frozen as they all watched and listened. “She never had sex with you, you big fat liar! You two only kissed, and that’s all you’ll ever get because everyone in school is gonna find out what a piece of shit you really are!”

That day, I was suspended, grounded, and nearly killed by my mother. And I say nearly killed because she hated that I got into a fight, but she also loved that I stood up for a girl. It made her proud because I was the gentleman she wanted me to be.

And as for Chloe… She didn’t move away or cried over Leo ever again. As a matter of fact, we became good friends. So much so that Ivy, Chloe, and I became inseparable past that day.

So we weren’t two anymore.

Now, we were three.