Jenna and Natalie were actually best friends, although, almost complete opposites. Jenna was more the “Barbie girl” type. Natalie, on the other hand, enjoyed surfing and animals. They were both outgoing, but Natalie was usually more open with things than Jenna would even think to be. Everyone in school knew them, and only knew them as being the best friends that they were, until he came along.

It was their freshman year of high school. They were glad to finally say that too. They had heard so much from the upperclassman, and their older siblings, that once you get to high school, everyone changes, but they didn’t think anything could get in between their friendship, and thought nothing of it, ever.

Jenna had always been confident, knowing she was gorgeous and could have any boy she wanted. She projected that attitude very well too. Natalie didn’t care much to be with a boy. She was more of the independent one who would rather be off doing her own thing, then trying to deal with some idiotic boy who would never get to her level of maturity. She was mostly just friends with all of them, even if they wanted more. Natalie found it funny to play games and flirt, rather than get serious. Jenna was entertained by it too, but it just wasn’t what she preferred to do.

It was October, about their third month into the school year. Jenna and Natalie were joined with their clique, eating lunch by the auditorium as usual. Ten minutes into lunch, Lacey approaches the area where they were sitting with a boy, of which none of us had met before. His name was Jeff. He wasn’t to completely die for, or anything to break your neck looking back at. He was cute, in his own way though, not meaning he was hideous nor gorgeous, just cute, in his own unique, way. He didn’t talk much. He gave a slight smile here and there at some of the outrageous things Natalie would say, to grasp everyone’s attention, as always. There was something about him that Jenna liked though. She observed him, trying not to make it too obvious that she was watching him. They caught each other’s stares a few times. From what she did notice, while closely picking him apart, was that she wasn’t the only one who was interested.

Third block had gone by as slow as it possibly could, but by the time break came around, Jenna was relieved. She met up with Natalie and they went and found the rest of their group. Once they had all met up, Lacey pulled Jenna aside. We were all curious, and wondering why we couldn’t know what the secret was too. Natalie knew she would find out anyways, so she was not as nearly interested as the rest of the girls. But as they glanced over, Jenna was smiling. Lacey and Jenna then walked back over to the rest of the girls, giggling at the news, which made the other girls even more curious.
Jenna couldn’t help it. She told them everything, starting off with “Okay, are you ready? I mean, it’s not that big of a deal…” All the girls looked at her in disbelief, knowing any gossip was a huge deal, and all saying “Tell us! Just tell us already! What’s it about?” She smiled again, and looked at Lacey who gave her an approving nod. “Jeff is interested in me!” Jaws dropped, all at the same time. They didn’t want to cause a scene by squealing or jumping up and down like they would if they were at one of their sleepovers, so they all decided to ask as many questions as they could, like “Well what are you going to do?” “Are you interested in him too?” and so on.
The next few days, Jeff had come to lunch with Lacey to sit with the group and also, to see Jenna. Lacey had let Jeff know, with Jenna’s “okay”, that she was also interested. They had slowly started to get to know each other from then on. Jeff even came up with the lame excuse that he needed help with homework so he could get a chance to hang out with her outside of school. Even though he was two years older, and knew exactly what he was doing in his class. Jenna found it adorable.
Jenna had been updating Natalie every night on her and Jeff’s status, like she did with every other boy or any other drama. Natalie was never involved in drama, she always just heard about it from Jenna. As she sat on the phone, listening to Jenna ramble about how great Jeff was, Jenna paused. “Hello?” Natalie said, thinking Jenna hung up. “Yeah, I’m still here. I have a question though.” “Shoot.” Natalie said. “Don’t you think it’d be cool if you and Jeff became best friends too? ‘Cause then we can hang out and stuff and maybe he has a friend for you or something. I don’t know, I just think it’d be cool, ya know?” Jenna said. Natalie sat for a second and kind of giggled about Jenna’s dumb question. “Why do you find everything so funny, Natalie? Is that a no?” “No, Jenna, I wouldn’t mind being friends with him at all. I just didn’t expect you to ask me to be his friend. I thought it would eventually just happen.” Jenna laughed and agreed, but still implied that she wanted them to become great friends. But did she really?
A month had gone by, and Jenna and Jeff were now considered a “fling” around the school. Natalie actually had become better friends with Jeff. He called her sometimes, asking for advice about Jenna, since she was Jenna’s best friend. They three-way called sometimes too. But as time was going by, Natalie was beginning to realize she’d have to find someone else to hang out with every weekend, or at least for the times that Jenna and Jeff had made plans with each other. She felt a change, but she didn’t mind it as much as she thought she might. It’s not like she was going to completely lose her best friend over a boy she had just met.
On the phone one night, the three of them were having a conversation about how far apart all of them lived. Natalie brought up how she wanted a job just for the money, but she would find away about the actual working part, hopefully. Jeff laughed at Natalie’s humor and mentioned that he had a job. It was at a Starbucks that just so happened to be right down the street from Natalie’s house. Jenna was beyond excited, because she knew she’d be able to go in and surprise him every weekend, since she spent them with Natalie. Natalie was a little excited too, more for Jenna than herself.
After a few more weeks, Jenna and Jeff were officially dating. Jenna continuously talked to Natalie about how cute Jeff was and how much she liked him, while Natalie pretended to care by saying “Awe!” more than the average teenage girl should, in reply to everything Jenna said about her boyfriend. Natalie now received more phone calls from Jeff, asking about Jenna. Or as weeks went by and their relationship started to get deeper and deeper, sometimes he was even calling to vent out of little annoyances and then asking Natalie for advice. Jenna did the same thing about Jeff too. Natalie felt like she was their personal couple’s therapist.
It wasn’t long before Jenna started to drift from Natalie. Natalie didn’t mind though. She had started hanging out with a girl she met in her Physical Education class named Jess. They clicked pretty fast, and had a lot in common. Natalie wasn’t used to that, at all. She and Jenna had always been opposites, since they met in the seventh grade. So when Jenna decided she wanted to go on a date with Jeff, Natalie had no problem hanging out with Jess. Once a couple of weekends had gone by, and Natalie had come back each Monday with a new story about how much fun she had with Jess, Jenna grew a little jealous. Jess had also started eating lunch with them, which didn’t help anything either.
Jenna began to hang out with Lacey more often. She realized she was the reason Jeff and her were together, and figured it was only fair. She had also felt a little replaced, and thought she had to show she had other friends too and she didn’t need Natalie, like everyone thought. She was also beginning to realize Natalie was changing. She was still her normal self, but she seemed happier. Jenna thought back to what the upperclassmen had told them, and what their older siblings had told them. She couldn’t believe it was really happening.
Natalie and Jess hung out every weekend now. Oddly enough, they had also become pretty close friends with Jeff. They frequently visited him at his job, since they were always so close. He still called Natalie about Jenna and of course, Jess was there to help when Natalie couldn’t think of what to tell him in a situation. Natalie and Jenna barely even seemed to talk anymore. Jenna was exceedingly jealous. The more Jeff and Natalie talked, the more Jenna thought Natalie liked him. Natalie was far from liking Jeff, though. She wouldn’t do that to Jenna, even if they had drifted.
It was a Friday night, two months later and two days after Jeff and Jenna had broken up. They claimed they had rushed into things before getting to know each other, and that’s why Jenna ended it. Natalie, Jess and Jeff decided they wanted to hang out. They were friends, so there wasn’t anything wrong with that, until Jenna found out.
She was insanely mad at the fact they had all made plans together. Jeff felt horrible, thinking he had done something wrong, when in reality he hadn’t at all. Jenna was at Lacey’s house and because of Jeff’s feelings towards her; he felt it would be the right thing to do if he drove over there to apologize for going behind Jenna’s back. Natalie and Jess were confused at the whole situation; they didn’t see what he had done wrong in the first place. But they let it be, because that’s all they could do.
Natalie and Jess had been listening to music in Jeff’s truck, listening to music in Lacey’s driveway waiting on Jeff to come back from trying to make things right with Jenna. He finally came out and told them he was going to call it a night and let things cool down with Jenna. They agreed and prepared to leave. Not even a minute later, Natalie received a text from Jenna. She was furious. She had said the most derogatory things towards someone she once called her best friend and Natalie knew right there, that their friendship was over.
She went through the rest of the weekend, completely fine with what had happened. She figured Jenna would get herself together and apologize for taking out her anger on her. Natalie and Jess spent the rest of the weekend doing what they usually did, and on the beach. They even spent that Sunday night together, claiming they would go to school the upcoming Monday. It was a good thing they didn’t though, that’s when everything hit the fan, again, but to the worst extent that it could.
Natalie and Jess woke up to threatening text messages and had been told about the vicious rumors that were being spread all morning by Jenna. At first they didn’t mind it, this was high school and they had seen this kind of stuff on TV and heard about it from the upperclassmen of course. But as the morning went on, it continued to get worse. They were in shock, because they literally had done nothing wrong. The names they had been called by Jenna were out of this world. They couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if they would have shown up to school.
The entire week just continued to be full of Jenna being overly dramatic. Natalie and Jess had learned to ignore it, because they knew the weekend would be there shortly, and as long as they were successful in school, they had something to look forward to, and they had each other.
After about two weeks, things had calmed down a little bit. Jenna still hated Natalie and Jess over jealousy, but they didn’t mind. They all just ignored each other. Jenna and Jeff had ended up back together after he had apologized to her day in and day out. Natalie and Jess laughed at him for it, but kept it to themselves. He followed her around like a lost puppy.
It was as clear as can be, that Natalie and Jenna’s friendship was completely over. Of course she missed her at times, but she realized this was life, and she had a new best friend. She was ready for new experiences and hoped that maybe one day, she and Jenna would grow to be good friends again.