Elijah's bestfriend

~1~the best of friends and the forgotten

5yrs old

" eliiii!!!" I shout as my pig tales dangle as I make my way to the dirt pile that Eli has built. " your such a stinky!" He laughs as he play with his cars in the dirt. I grab my barbies and throw them at him and he gets up and says
" marisol promise me we will always be the best of friends!" I get up form the Dirt and I say 
" let's pinky promise" ....

***
17yrs later
***
Hi I'm Marisol, Mari as some of my friends call me. I'm 17 years old and I'm a junior, not in college but in high school. I live in a small town called Amerson, there's really nothing here. If we wanna go out and do fun things like shop at the mall or go to the movies we'd have to drive an hour away. all we have here is a grocery store, well a small one and basically anything that a small town would have. Nothing. Besides the grocery store there's the high school and the other schools and the lot. The lot is where all the popular high school kids go and party, hangout, hook up or just talk. Then there's Kate Peterson's house, the three story house that's beautifully evil! She's throws party's there 25/8 and your lucky if you get invited. Of course I never have to Kate's house, it's exclusive only. So I hear.

I wait outside for my friend Amanda to pick me up. She's usually my ride every day for school. I reach for my phone in the back of my pocket and scroll through my Instagram feed and see his picture.

Elijah's picture of course. I stare at it feeling angry yet happy all at the same time. He doesn't even know I exist. Aww what the heck I double tap it and like it. When I see that Kate comments on it saying

Dayum my mf beffie💕🤩

As if I wanted to see that. He doesn't even care if I like his picture. Once I requested to follow him and he accepted and then months later un-followed me. Until a few months again he requested to follow me and I'm glad he did I felt special. But now off to school and I guess I'll see what today brings for me.

***
" so you mean there's a party at her house Saturday?" I ask Amanda as we walk into the school. " yes B!!! We need to go! And this could be your chance to talk to Eli!" I stare at her and laugh. " your funny... really..." I stop smiling and stop at my locker.

" oh come onnn Mari, don't be a scaredy-cat!"
Amanda says suddenly making her eyes wide as if she'd seen a ghost. " what? What is it" I say as she points her finger behind me. " eye candy 8 o'clock!". That's when my body freezes and I don't move. Amanda smiles and acts cool while she moves her eyes towards Elijah.

" he's looking this way" she whispers gritting her teeth trying to pretend like she's smiling. I suddenly get a cool breeze causing me to get chills down my body.

Elijah passes by me with his crew. His friends. Andrew, Josh , Tristen. I turn my body slowly and face them smiling and trying to be cute. Elijah's eyes meet mine as he passes by. He smiles at me widely. It's like it was all in slow motion.

" did you see that?! Bitch he just smiled at you!" Amanda says excitedly. I roll my eyes trying to deny it and say " no he was looking at the girl that was behind me" Amanda rolls her eyes. " seriously Marisol, you just don't want to admit that he totally did his fuck boy smile to youuu!!!" She sequels.

Maybe Amanda was right. Maybe I'm just to afraid to let my feelings get to me.

***
After the long day of learning about doing nothing in any do my classes and listening to Amanda talk about Kate's party this Saturday, I come home to an empty house. Mom usually works out of town with her business career as I stay home. She calls to check up on me every day. But I'm fine home alone, I can cook some things not all and I can wash my clothes without her help. And for money well I work at Amersons only coffee/ ice cream/ mini pie/ snow cone shop/. Basically it's called Amersons chill Zone. I barley got the job there this past July. I don't work only on Thursdays to Fridays.

I go to my cabinet and find some toaster stroodles and pop two in the microwave. Once the pop out I sigh and stare at my empty living room.

Ting

My phone goes off a text message from Amanda saying

Girlll come to the ACZ  ( Amerson chill Zone) NOW!!

I look at my phone biting my bottom lip. I wander what it could be this time.

***
I park my bike with neon glittery streamers on the side of the handles infront of the ACZ and feel a little embarrassed looking at my bike. I'm not 10 anymore.

I walk in the ACZ and see Amanda in a booth. She calls me over waving her hand.

" what's going on ?" I ask her as I take a seat in front of her. " Elijah is here alone!" Her eye who wide with excitement. I stare at her sighing. " really? That's all you called me here for? I drove my bike here for that?!" I say a little annoyed. Amanda rolls her eyes. " that's not the point!" The point is that you go over and talk to him!" She says. I don't even look up at her, instead I say

" I'm just gonna go get a drink" and get up from the booth and head to the counter.
Carla my boss approaches-me with a huge smile. " hey Carla!" I say as she bends over the counter a little and whispers " is that the boy you've been crushing on since lint?" She says looking at Elijah. " Carla! Shhh!" I say hitting her arm playfully. I look back and see Elijah sipping on a milkshake. Finally Carla says.

" I have an idea!" Her eyes go wide. I know that look. It's Carla's look of the craziness she gets when she has a bold plan.

***

I walk to Elijah's table fixing my red apron and pretend like it's my work shift. Carla's bold idea. " hey, is everything okay? Do you need anything?" I ask as nicely as I can be without throwing up because I'm nervous as hell. Elijah suddenly turns to look at me. Once again it's like it's in slow motion.

He flashes his smile and says " oh no it's okay, but thank you". I smile and start turning around to walk away when he says " hey, I didn't know that you worked here". I stop as my eyes widen and turn around slowly.
" oh um yeah, I uh actually got the job here last month in July." Elijah smiles some more and says " i remember wanting to apply here, but when I came back to see if they still had openings they said someone took the last spot. I'm guessing that was you" he says as he laughs a little. I smile. And say awkwardly
"Yeah that was me".  Elijah picks at his milkshake with his straw  and says. " well that's okay, the guys thought that this job was lame anyway but I thought it was cool." I smile again.

" yeah, it's actually pretty nice." He smiles. If this couldn't get any awkwarder for me. " yeah. Well I guess I'll let you go so you can work the rest of your shift. I don't wanna keep you from your job." He says as he gets up from his booth. He smiles once again at me flashing it somehow even cuter then usual and makes his way out the door. I stand there looking out the door he just walked out through and sigh. I begin grabbing his glass cup of his half way finished chocolate milkshake and clean the table.

" so how did it go?!" Carla asks as Amanda joins in the conversation. I stare at them both and sigh. " guys it no use, he barley even talked to me. He just said he didn't know I worked here and that he wanted to apply here but obviously I took the spot. And plus he said that his friends thought this place was lame, but that he thought it was cool.then he left and said he didn't wanna keep me from working." I roll my eyes and look down at the table. Carla begins to sound butt hurt and says

" what? This place isn't lame, and girl it'll be fine I promise Mari, just keep trying and he'll come around." Amanda puts a hand in my shoulder and says " yeah, plus there's that party on Saturday we can go to." I roll my eyes.
" I though it was exclusively only. How are we gonna get in?" I ask. Amanda raises her eyebrows and says " I have a friend."

***