While We're Young (Marianas Trench)

Prologue

Vancouver Island, BC, 2016

Libbey sits across from me at Jules' Diner, scrolling through her Instagram feed absently. "Come on, Lex, It'll be fun!" she pleads, giving me no other option but to slump my shoulders forward and pretend to collapse, dead, against the table. This makes the old couple sitting beside us give me a weird look, which I disregard. "Don't be so overdramatic, all you have to do is pretend that you like Davis while Adam and I go on a date. Actually, you don't even have to do that, just sit there and ignore us all. My parents still won't let me go on a real date, and I'm almost 20, this is the best I can do."

"Why don't you just lie? Say you're staying at my apartment, then I can help you get ready, and Adam can pick you up there." I suggest, sitting back up and taking a sip of my coke.

"That's a good idea, but they still don't trust you. Ever since you moved out on your own . . . I dunno, they're freaking crazy." Damn right, her parents are crazy! At twenty years old you should be trying to figure out what you're doing with your life, not avoiding being married off by your parents to some forty-year-old man.

"Tell them my parents are staying too." I offer. "They love my mom," Libbey smiles and shakes her head, looking back down at her phone screen. I know she's trying to decide if it's worth it, and it is; it's always worth it.

"You are amazing, Alexis. I don't know what I'd do without you." She sighs, making a decision and standing up. I stand too and give her a hug goodbye.

"You'd be lost, that's for sure . . ." I whisper into her ear. She laughs and pulls away, grabbing her purse and rushing out of the restaurant, probably meeting her parents for yet another meal. I make a mental note of how many that is today: one small breakfast, one lunch with Adam, one with me, one with her parents. She'll then have two suppers and, more than likely, a midnight snack when she finds out that Adam is going to break up with her. That's seven.

I hate keeping secrets from Libbey, I really do. She's my best friend, and I'm not a cruel person. It's driving me crazy that I can't tell her what Davis told me. He made me promise to convince Libbey to go out with Adam alone. Then Adam could let her down gently without Davis and I being in the way. He's been trying to break up with her for about a week, but it takes time to plan these things. I feel horrible, but somebody has to set things in motion, and I never really liked Adam anyway.

****

"Can you believe it?" Libbey sniffles into my shoulder after her 'date' with Adam. "After a year, a year, he decides to break up with me. What did I do wrong, Lex? Was I a bad girlfriend?" I rub her back in small gentle circles, trying to put together a sentence that doesn't make her situation the fault of the break-up. It's hard, considering that is the sole reason that Adam did it.

"Oh, honey, Adam is a dick. He doesn't know the first thing about how to treat you. You're better off without him," This is a well-rehearsed script, I've practiced it in my head since Libbey's first boyfriend in tenth grade. It seems like a century ago, although it's only been five years since Frank Fermick broke her fragile little heart.

"I'll never love again, you'll have to do it for me. I'll live vicariously through you, can relationships work that way?" At least she's attempting a joke, it means she's not too hurt by the break-up.

"I don't think so, sweetie," I chuckle lightly, stroking her hair gently.

"I guess I'll just have to live with dream Josh Ramsay being with me." She giggles, her tears subsiding leaving only sticky trails behind. I hold her shoulders at arm's length and roll my eyes.

"Dream Josh is probably less likely to be a complete asshole than real Josh. As long as you leave real Josh alone, I say go ahead."