The Best Is Yet to Come

My fingers curled in the beautifully warm sand beneath me. My body moulded against it in the most relaxing position, nothing but a thin comfy pink towel between the beach and my body. I inhaled deeply taking in the salt smell that accompanied the sounds of the loud crashing waves. The scent of sun cream lingered in my nose and on my skin. Seagulls cried overhead, the loud laughter and talking of people around us almost drowned out the sound of my blasting headphones. The sounds of ‘The Curse Of Curves’ by Cute Is What We Aim For was loud enough to distract me from the talking right next to me.

“Jasey?” I heard Matt shouting at me. I pulled my left headphone out and snapped my eyes open.

“What?” I called back irritably and sat up. Josh and Matt had returned with our ice-creams.

“Oooh!” I squealed and got up onto my knees to take the dripping one Josh was offering to me. Matt handed over his other one to Max next to me. We were having a personal day out. Alex had been busy with a driving lesson. Erin had refused the beach. Elissa had a gig tonight. Selfishly I hadn’t invited Katie at the news of the others not coming because I wanted to spend a day with just my boys.

“Thank you,” I said when Josh sat down next to me. He picked up my iPod and ran his thumb over the dial to light up the screen. He squinted in the blaring sunlight.

“Cute Is What We Aim For?” he asked dubiously.

“Yes,” I said with a mouthful of ice-cream. “It’s good.”

“Do you guys start back next week too?” I asked openly the group of boys sat next to and opposite me. Chris was perched on a rock we were situated next to. Max was flat out on his back next to me and Joe was leaning on his front opposite.

“Yeah,” Max moaned suddenly. I thought he’d been asleep.

“Nice to know you’re alive Max,” Matt called over at him. Max stuck his two fingers up blindly at his friend. We all laughed.

“Results as well isn’- Josh what are you doing? No! Get off my iPod. I don’t want to listen to you.” I snatched my iPod off him. New Jersey blasted through my headphones.

“This is what you should be listening to!" Josh teased me. I pulled my glasses down my nose to frown at him.

“No, it’s not summery enough! Make a pumpy song and I’ll stick it on. Until then, it’s…” I scrolled through my iPod. “Paramore.”

“Who?” Chris asked. I shoved my large paned sunglasses back up my nose to hide my roll of the eyes. I shook my head and sank down on my elbow to eat my ice-cream.

“You should get to know some of these bands. You’ll all be friends with them one day…”

Chris suggested a game of football after we’d all finished our ices but I refused. I watched from the sidelines as the boys ran around our bare patch kicking the blue ball back and for. Sand kicked up into the air several times and the ball often lost it’s course. I settled down back into my relaxing position and turned up my iPod as ‘Your Song’ by Mayday Parade tuned in. That’s why I didn’t hear them coming. My iPod was snatched from me, hands grabbed under my knees and under my arms, and I was hoisted into the air with loud cries of outrage.

“Put me down!” I squealed between fits of giggles as I was carried rapidly towards the water. “Oh! Don’t you dare! Don’t you fucking dare!”

They didn’t listen to my protests and as we got closer towards the waves I started to kick and thrash. I was dropped carefully into the shallow part of the shore, just before the water retreated back down the bank. I screamed when my feet hit the icy water, shortly followed by the rest of my body. The pores on my bare, sun heated skin screamed in protest. Salt water splashed into the air and I screamed. A wave crashed against the side of me as I scrambled to my feet to kill them. Chris, Joe Josh, Matt and Max were all laughing, some even retreating when I got to my feet. Matt and Josh being the closest I guessed it was them who’d dumped me in the water. I couldn’t resist the smile that was craving to take over my expression.

“You fucking bastards!” I laughed and kicked water at the pair of them. They raised their hands over their heads, I watched with satisfaction as they cried and shivered as the cold water hit their bare chests. They made their way forwards looking dangerous. I retreated back into the water and when they got close enough kicked more water at them. Max stepped in and splashed some water at all three of us. We all turned and simultaneously kicked water high into the air. The water rained down on him and he took it with a screwed up face. His hair flattened.

Joe and Chris ran forwards from their safe positions behind Max and pulled him down into the water. I bent over clutching my stomach because I was laughing so hard. I scooped up a palm of water and tipped over a distracted Josh’s head.

“Oi!” He shouted and leant forwards to shake the water off. I’d been too distracted by this to notice Matt sneak up behind me and do the same to me. I screamed when the cold water dripped down my bare back and my back arched. I spun around flicking water at the boy. He laughed and turned to run. The water touched only up to half way up my calves as we ran through the crashing waves. I caught him up and jumped onto his back. I wrapped my legs around his waist and arms around his neck as he hitched my up into a piggy back. With one hand I ruffled his hair with my wet hand as a form of payback for ruining mine. His longish dark hair stuck up in all directions as high as it could go. We both turned back to the others.

Max and Josh were taking each other to the ground as the waves crashed over their bodies. I laughed when they both fell into the rise of water. Chris knocked Matt and we both crashed into the sea. My scream was drowned out as I was submerged in water. I stood up spluttering water the filled my mouth with a rich salty taste – not nice. I glared, dripping wet, at Chris who retreated with raised hands as if to say ‘I’m sorry’. I smirked and bit my lip. I ran after him but was sidetracked my Max who’d snatched me around the waist and spun me around.

“Max!” I cried out in laughter. Josh snatched my feet again and the pair swung me into the sea. I submerged in it again and was actually rather happily irritated to be dripping wet. I glared at Josh and Max, stuck my nose up in the air and stalked back past them to my towel. I collapsed onto it and let the sun dry me off.

“Spoil sport,” Josh panted and collapsed next to me. I shielded my hand over my eyes so I could look at him.

“No I’m just a bit more mature.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He used his finger to draw something random in the sand. Max returned, shaking his head like a dog and shaking the partly dried Josh and I.

Josh scooped up a handful of sand and threw it at him. I gasped when the tiny particles backfired and landed all over me.

“Maxwell! Joshua! Stop it!” I shouted before Max could retaliate. Surprisingly they listened to
me and shied away like two guilty children who’d been scolded. I smiled satisfied and closed my eyes to settle back down in the glorious heat of the sun.

***

I was able to enjoy a few more days of my freedom and luckily enough it stayed sunny. We were strolling through a field in the direction of the park when an idea struck.

“Stay there!” I shouted and pulled my camera from my pocket. “Face me.”

The band all turned around, Katie and Alex stopped dead next to me.

“Eww!” I laughed when Max more or less buried his face into his. “Max!”
The rest of the boys just coated their lips in the creamy slush, uneaten flakes sticking out randomly. All three of us behind the camera laughed as we snapped the shot.

“There, I’ll stick that on you MySpace later. Keep the fans interested,” I taunted with a wink, sliding my camera back into my pocket. Out of no where, ice-cream was suddenly on the end of my nose. Alex grinned at me and licked his half destroyed ice-cream that had the perfect indent of the tip of my nose.

The next week, we all returned to our studies – Joe, Josh and I all into our GCSE year. Given this, school was much harder when we returned, turning our backs on the brilliant sunshine and heads down into books. The boys still kept up with their band, playing every week, travelling for away on weekends to play. They practiced almost every day after school as much as they could without it getting too much in the way of their school work. Essay demands rained down upon us when we settled into the month of October.

Socially, things remained how they were except Josh and Joe were back on our side of the line. I couldn’t help but notice the continued amount of female attention for them from both sides. I just sucked it up and ignored the continuous flirting that happened around me. I wasn’t going to ban the boys from dating – they just had to be the right people. Nia had pissed me off so bad because she was such a bad person, a slag who was using Josh for the wrong reasons.

Josh had seemed to have learnt from this and was picking his ladies very carefully. For the first month of school, people just pointed and stared as we walked through the corridors – news of the holidays had obviously spread. The school was prone to rumour spreading.
I couldn’t help but smile every time I walked past Nia, standing tall with my best friend at my side. Katie had gained from friends from the other side of the line and flittered between the two groups. . I didn’t like it. She was changing.

“You’re going to fail food tech,” I said, a faint tone of amusement in my voice, as I searched through my bag for my phone. It wasn’t the best idea, we were in a busy corridor where everyone was trying to make it to their next class, but I needed to text my Alex about this evening.

“I know,” Josh contemplated with a sigh.

“You’ll be fine, that class is full of thick shits, you’ll be like… top,” Katie commented rather rudely. Josh glanced at her sidewards and then at me. I shrugged and handed him several of my books.

“Thanks,” Josh muttered, to who I wasn’t sure. With the amount of resentment in the tone - I was guessing Katie. I couldn’t find anything in this bag!

“Jase, can you wait there a moment?” Katie asked me.

“Yeah sure,” I responded not actually listening to what she was saying, unthinkingly I carried on, leaving her behind me. “Josh, hold this as well.”

I handed over my screwed up hoody to him. The final bell for next lesson sounded and Josh dragged me towards a clearer corridor before I got mauled. I grunted and continued my search through my bag as we headed to Maths. I found it in the front pocket. Great.

“Where’s Katie?” I asked and actually spun around on the spot looking for her.

“I dunno,” Josh shrugged and opened the door for me.

“Thanks,” I said, thoughts of Katie rushing out of my mind as we walked into class and our usual seats.

***

“Where is she?” I asked Josh and Joe one freezing cold November afternoon. We were stood outside the English block, rain pouring down overhead as the rest of the school let out.

“No idea,” Joe muttered agitatedly. The boys were getting wet. They were too damn full of pride to stand under my flowery pink umbrella. Josh pulled his hood up further over his head. The front of his hair was doused so heavily in water it was dripping down his face.
We left when no one else walked out of the building.

“She always walks with me,” I mused as we crossed the road, I couldn’t keep the tone of disappointment from me.

I sent her several texts that evening, a little disgruntled myself that she’d abandoned us, to check she was alright. No reply. Hmmm…

***

“You’re a fucking twat, aye,” I hissed with a shake of my head. I stared longingly and sadly down at my half drunken milkshake that was scattered across the rain drenched floor. Pink liquid mixed with water and ran towards the nearest gutter. “You owe me a milkshake.”

“It was an accident Jase!” Matt apologised with a laugh. I glowered at the cup in his hand.

“Whatever.”

Max had bumped into Matt but it seemed a bit too deliberate.

I leaped over the mess Matt had made of my drink and looked at the damp wooden bench available. Damn it. There was no way I going to get my arse wet. How could boys do that? Chris and Josh had settled on the wall just behind it both slurping the remains of their drink. Max collapsed onto the wet bench next to Joe and Matt. Joe and Max were finishing off their fries.

Matt picked up on something in my expression, rolled his eyes and pulled me onto his lap.

“There, I’m saving your arse from getting wet as an apology.” He laughed and ribbed my side. I glanced up at the sky and glowered at it. I absolutely hated Britain. We had the shittest weather – especially at this time of year. It was cold, wet and windy. I hated it. I pulled my hood up over my head when the ominous clouds rolled forwards.

A squeal distracted me from the conversation the boys struck up and I turned to watch the miserable shoppers leave and enter the big centre opposite us. A group of girls, inappropriately dressed for the weather. The hems of their jeans were soaked along with their flimsy dolly shoes and fake Ugg boots. They were all clutching bright colourful umbrellas as they walked towards the doors. My mouth fell open at one girl when she turned to put down her brolly. It was Katie.

I jumped to my feet impulsively and stepped forwards into my milkshake.

“Isn’t that Katie?” Max asked when he recognised her too. I soon picked up on other familiar faces from our school before they turned into the large shopping centre. They were on the other side of the social line – the bitches. I recognised one, she’d helped Nia attack and throw me into the pool. Irritation sparked through me when she turned away giggling. Everything about her suited the group of people she was with. I mentally crossed my fingers her personality didn’t match.

“Yeah,” Chris answered Max. I could hear the frown in his voice.

“Well at least you now know where she is,” Josh encouraged and got down from the wall. He pulled me backwards and I ripped my eyes from the front door, still shocked. “You’re standing in milkshake darling.”

I glanced down at my shoes but I didn’t care about the pink liquid that coated the bottom. Anger and frustration boiled through my system as I contemplated what was happening. Katie was my best friend, is my best friend – I corrected myself.

“Come on.” Matt coaxed and pulled me away from the centre.

“Let’s go catch a film?” Chris suggested as we started to walk away in the opposite direction. We all agreed, but I wasn’t listening as I let them lead me away. I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

‘Hey Katie! Where’ve you been?! :) What’re you up today? Xxx’

Remorse of the text would soon hit me but in my angry state the feeling numbed any sense that tried to control my judgement. I flipped open the phone and closed it over and over again by my side as we headed towards the cinema.
‘Ite? Not much. Grounded :\’

“Lying bitch,” I snarled when we entered the dry lobby.

“What’s up?” Josh peered over my shoulder at the text. “Jasey, what did you do?”

“Asked her what she was doing! She’s ‘grounded’! Fucking lying whore!” I cursed rather loudly.

“Oh Jase, you didn’t…” Matt sighed and took my phone off me to read my text. My best friend was lying to me. What the fuck had I done? Matt closed my phone and handed it back.

“Calm down and forget about it for now yeah? Don’t let it get under your skin,” he soothed and I tried to let his words wash over me. It had no effect. I was still fuming when we entered the theatre. I continued to open and close the phone to give my hands something to do. I just couldn’t get over that Katie was lying to me.

I left the boys later to go and see Alex. When I finally got home that evening I collapsed onto my bed without a word to my mother to ring Katie. She didn’t’ answer. I clambered over my bed and snatched up my laptop. I logged out of the boy’s MySpace and into my own. I worded a message to Katie in my still fuming temper. I knew I was making mistakes – this could only end badly.

‘Katie,
I’m sorry for whatever the fuck I’ve done to you but I’m sorry, there’s no God damn need to lie to me. If you want to go shopping with THEM just say. A reply would be appreciated.
You’re BEST friend, or so I thought, Jasey.’

I hit send and almost broke the mouse in the process. I could start to feel remorse sink in from the moment the screen reloaded to tell me it had sent. Oh fuck. I shut the lid of the laptop and rolled over onto my back to try and relax. I’d fix things. We always fixed things. We’d been best friends for… ever. I went through the routine of getting ready for bed whilst my head buzzed with memories and diluted thoughts. I glanced at my TV once I’d shut my bedroom door. I climbed into bed and pulled my laptop onto my lap. No reply. I sighed and sunk down into my sheets as I closed the lid yet again. I put my laptop on the floor, turned off the TV and lost myself into the world of dreams.

***

“Here's to the fast times; the times we felt alive, to all the nights that we forgot to get back home.

Stay seventeen, the party scene has got the best of me and you, we've got to let this go...,” I sung under my breath, the rest of the words came out into a hum as a subconsciously doodled on the back of my English book.

“What is that?” Josh asked from my right.

“Hmm?” I glanced down at my drawing. “It’s nothing… stars?”

“No I mean the song.” Josh rolled his eyes and laughed.

“Oh… The Party Scene.” I smiled as the song continued to play in my head. Josh just stared at me blankly.

“All Time Low…?”

Josh’s eyebrows puckered, no comprehension washed over him so I just groaned and sank down into my seat.

“You should listen to them,” I muttered and flickered my eyes to the passage we were supposed to be reading when the Mrs James stopped talking.

“Yeah, no wa-”

“Mr Franceschi, what did I just say?”

Josh’s head snapped up to stare at her as blankly as he had to me. I bit my lip to stop the snicker that wanted so badly to escape.

“Uhhh…” His mouth fell open as he struggled for the answer. His eyes darted over my grinning face, my book, his book and the shared one between us.

“That’s what I thought. You can throw away the chewing gum and come back here at lunch for detention.” Mrs James turned her back on him and Josh, being the little rebel he was, stuck his two fingers up at her. People who’d noticed chuckled quietly, I managed to stop any sound escaping by biting my lip further. He got to his feet and dragged himself to the bin. Mrs James turned back to her snickering class questioningly and glanced over Josh. He spat the chewing gum into the bin moodily and sank back down next to me glaring. Mrs James watched him with her arms crossed.

I shook my head in mock disappointment.

“Shut up,” he hissed at me. Turning his head to hiss as me was a bad idea – it exposed the right side of his neck. Mrs James had noticed the white wire snaking down into his jumper and snapped. She crossed over to us with her hand outstretched.

“Okay, make that a detention every lunch time this week and you’ll have to get your mother to collect that at the end of the day. iPod, now.” She snapped her fingers several times as Josh untangled himself from his headphones. My heart sank. Looks like I was alone this lunch. I could tell he was doing his best not to retaliate and push it further. He dumped the tangled mess of wire and machine into her open palm and watched as he walked away with it. The look in his eyes was so longing it was like she was taking away a piece of him. Josh without his music, huh…

“Sorry,” I muttered and folded my arms onto the desk to lean closer to him. He closed his eyes and shook his head to dismiss it. I bit my lip and sunk backwards, recoiling from the sting of his dismissal.

We trudged our way to Food Tech in silence but ten minutes into the lesson Josh seemed to decide it wasn’t my fault. The lesson flew by as we were lucky enough to have a substitute teacher for the hour. We spent most of it turning around on our stools to talk to the table behind us - Jake and Ben. Josh’s bad mood finally sunk back in as he headed back to English alone. I decided to go and find Katie’s class as we’d been let out slightly early.

I hung around outside her Business Studies class as I waited for it to let out. I pulled on the straps of my backpack as I paced back and for. I could see her towards the back sitting next to Bryony Evans – a rather lovely girl. I smiled at her when she caught sight of me as she made her way to the door. She only returned it half heartedly.

I could feel my heart sink down my chest. She’d obviously seen my email.

“You alright Katie?” I asked as lightly as possible. She nodded and followed me down the stairs and towards the main hall.

“I haven’t heard off you properly this weekend, is everything alright?”

“You told me not to lie so drop the pretence,” she hissed when we entered the busy hall.
Uh oh… My stomach flipped uncomfortably and I scratched my neck awkwardly.

“I’m sorry Kate, I was just angry you kinda ditched me for them,” I admitted with a twisted expression.

“Like you don’t ditch me for them,” she muttered as we settled down into some chairs. She glared at the floor.

“Excuse me?”

“Where is he?” she snapped rather aggressively.

“Who?” I knew who she was talking about but, as her point sunk in, I refused to admit to it.

“Fucking Franceschi, you don’t leave his fucking side!” Her voice lowered to a hiss when she realised she’d been too loud.

“What?! He’s in detent-”

“Of course, that’s why you’re here talking to me!” Katie glared at me through heavily coated lashes.

Yes.

“No!” I defended even though the voice inside was telling me it was a lie. “I wanted to see if you were okay!”

“Liar,” she snorted and got to her feet. “Let’s face it Jasey, you’re fucking obsessed with the boy and he’s not even your boyfriend! And the rest of the fucking band!”

“What?!” I demanded and pushed up from the chair to square up to her. I noticed a number of heads turning to look at us. A few of Katie’s new friends were heading over to us. “Look Katie, I don’t know what the hell you’ve got into your bloody head but I’m sorry! They’re as much my best friends as you are!”

“Pfft!” She laughed without humour and turned instantly again. “I’m nothing to you anymore. Not since you’ve regained your boy friends back Jasey! You abandon me, forget about me, you used me all summer until you got them back! You’re using me right now cause you have no one else!” I could see tears welling in her eyes but I wasn’t sure if it was from anger or distress or if she was actually upset things had gotten so bad between us.

“I-I- Katie that’s ridiculous!” My voice was low because everyone in a five meter radius was watching our argument. My eyes dropped to the floor as the realisation washed over me. Shit. I had neglected her. I had abandoned her but I hadn’t used her! Katie was my best friend! No way had I used her.

“You’re a user Jasey, a pathetic user,” she spat through clenched teeth, spun on the spot and stormed towards her group of glowering friends. They all sent me daggers as they led a fuming Katie from the hall.

Oh fuck…

***

“No fucking way,” Josh mouthed when I’d finished retelling my events from lunchtime as we hurried home in the pouring rain. I blinked several times as the water splashed onto my lashes. Water was slowly seeping through my hoody, jumper and shirt onto my skin. The back of my hair clung to the nape of my neck. My umbrella was folded up in my bag – I was too lost to care I was getting soaked. Josh yanked up my hood.

“Thanks,” I grumbled as we crossed the road and into one of the estates. “And yes fucking way.”

“Katie’s not like that…” I said slowly as if trying to reassure himself. I kept repeating it over and over in my head to do the same.

“She’s changed.” I was rather blunt about it but what was the point beating around the bush at a time like this.

The world hated me. My friendships and love life always fucked up. I could never ever get it right – I highly doubt I ever would. I was never going to get the balance right or be able to not upset one without upsetting the other. I seriously hated being a teenager.

“She hasn’t changed. She’s probably just a bit stroppy at the moment. Have you talked to her recently? Maybe something’s going wrong at home,” Josh suggested.

“It’s too late,” I admitted solemnly. “I’ve lost her to the fucking dark side.”

“Jase!” Josh grabbed my arm and swung me around to face him. The front of his hair was dripping wet along with his nose and cheekbones. I was forced to look up at him because he was taller than me – rain fell onto my face. “That’s not the fucking attitude. You’ve got to fight for her.”

“Fight?” I asked incredulously. “Haven’t you been listening to a word I’ve been saying? It’s too bloody late for that now!”

Josh let loosened his tight grip on my arm and sunk away in defeat. I pulled my hood further to shield my face as we carried on down the road.

I didn’t speak to her for the rest of the week. I vented my anger and frustration at everyone – Alex, Josh, Matt, Max, Chris, Joe, Erin, my mother. No one took to it lightly or gratefully and I was soon started to realised I was beginning to piss people off. I was pissing off people I needed.

They tried for me – all of them did. They all tried talking to Katie and tried to find a way to fix it but she was being too stubborn. Katie didn’t want to cave and seemed as willing to give them up as she was me. Max and Josh just seemed to have pissed her off further. Before I could dissolve into depression the boys in my life pulled me up before I sunk under too far to save.

There always seemed to be someone with me that weekend. Alex and Josh put up with each other to go out both Friday and Saturday night. When one left another arrived instantaneously – their aim to keep me happy and preoccupied so I didn’t dwell on my fading friendship with my best girl friend.

I was done with arguing with people. I hated fighting with my friends and causing problems. I shouldn’t have wanted it but I couldn’t help but feel it would be easier to let her go. She wasn’t my Katie any more and I knew it.

My fears were confirmed when we returned to school on Monday. Katie’s actions set in stone that we were no longer friends.