The Bet of a Lifetime

Have you ever had a friend who is continuously reminding you every second of your life that you don’t have a boyfriend?

Well if you don’t, thank the Lord.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Jessie. We’ve been friends for as long as I can remember. But she could at least cut me the littlest bit of slack.

Oh sorry.

Let me introduce myself. I’m Anna, second name Camille, last name Sanders and I am now officially a junior at Eastside high school in sunny state of Florida. I’m sixteen, about five foot four (way to short for my taste), slender, with a full head of shoulder length brown hair and emerald green eyes.

You could say I’m “popular” but I’d rather ignore that remark. Social statuses really wasn’t in my best interest. I had a couple of friends, some closer than others. Jessie was definitely the closest of them all. We’ve been together since birth practically and no matter how much we fight we still end up being friends again. Its weird, I know, but I like it that way.

As I was saying. Jess and I were walking to school when the topic about dating and boyfriends came up. No offense to other girls but I HATED this topic. Its not that I hate boys, trust me I don’t but could we, the female race, just STOP OBSESSING ABOUT GUYS AND DATING. I’m guessing you already think I hate relationships because I had a really bad breakup in the past.

Well you’re wrong.

I’ve never dated anybody in my whole life. Well unless you count that one time in first grade that I had this little play date with this guy from my school and then he asked me to marry him. Obviously it didn’t work out. But aside from that nothing, nada. And to your surprise, I’m completely fine with it.

Its not that I’m against the whole relationship thing. Its just it doesn’t appeal to my taste. Oh ,and by the way, I am not a feminist. Most of my friends are actually boys and I’d like to keep it at that. Just friends.

I would gladly read a good book or hang out with friends than go out with some guy that will probably dump me on the third date. I was focused more on my studies and trying to get a better education. Its my first priority and I’d do anything to get into a good college and finally become an adult.

Jess kept talking about how I should at least start to date while I just nodded my head, pretending that I actually cared what she was saying.

“So, does that mean you’re you in?” Jess said, snapping me back to reality.

“Huh?” was all I managed to say.
“You weren’t listening to me were you?” she said narrowing her light brown eyes in my direction.

“Sorry” I apologized, not really feeling all that guilty.

“Well I was talking about us trying out for cheerleading.” she said, dead serious.

I immediately stopped walking.

“What?!” I exclaimed, completely shocked at the words that had just came out of her mouth.

No offense to cheerleaders but they had ruined a perfectly good sport. Dancing was an art and so was choreography but they just had to mix it up and create this totally cliché new sport. Air headed bimbos in short skirts and spanky pants doing mediocre routines wasn’t, in my opinion, a sport.

Jess and I had always hated cheerleaders. A very large number of them were sluts and just treated you like crap. But there’s always an exception. And that my friends is our very close companion Gabriela Bordens. She may be the only cheerleader in the whole squad who actually has a brain. Again no offense to cheerleaders but some of you are extremely annoying.

As I was saying. Gabriela is a smart, tall brunette with golden hazel eyes and tanned skin. She was enviable because of her well known and seen beauty. At school she was given the ‘oh so famous’ title of the ‘Hot Smart Cheerleader’ or the ‘HSC’. Gabby is a great friend of ours. She didn’t ditch us when she joined the squad. The only reason she joined the stupid thing is because her mom was intense when it came to cheerleading. Both of her daughters have been part of the squad.

So she was practically forced into it.

Enough of cheerleaders.

“You can’t be serious?” I asked totally bewildered that she would actually suggested that.

She tried to keep a straight face but it was no use. Soon enough her bottom lip was quivering, daring to erupt with laughter. After a few seconds she couldn’t hold it anymore. She just exploded into large fits of laughter. I knew she couldn’t have been serious.

“You…should have…seen…your face!” she said in between the laughs.

I attempted to give her my best “you are so dead” look but sadly I failed. Soon I joined her incipit laughter and continued our walk to school.

“Now what was it you were really saying?” I asked now genuinely curious at her past conversation.

She giggled before answering my question.

“I was telling you that you should start dating.” Jess said finally answering my wandering question.

I didn’t respond.

And there it is again. Dating. Oh how I HATE that word! Ok its not that I’m this weird loser who never gets asked out but lets just say dating isn’t on top of my things to do. Better yet, its not there at all.

“Oh come on Anna. You have to give it a try. Look I know that you don’t like to date but just try. For me. Please.” Jesse pleaded (to my surprise).

“Why do you care if I date or not?” I said rather harshly.

She didn’t reply. By the expression on her face I knew she was nervous. Whenever Jess was uncomfortable she got all silent and started to squirm around. Frankly, she was pretty easy to read.

I stopped walking yet again.

“There’s something you’re not telling me” I said seeing through her nervous act.

She was either lying or keeping something from me. She knows we’ve been friends too long for me not finding something odd about her behavior.
She avoided my eyes. What wasn’t she spilling? If she hasn’t told me yet then it must be pretty important because we always tell each other everything. And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING.

“Well…” she said looking kind of scared.

“Well what?” I interrupted, pretty curious and sort of getting pissed at the secrecy.

“Um, I kind of…. sort of…” she continued.

There was another pause from her part and frankly I was getting impatient.

“Oh would you just spit it out already!” I exclaimed in a pretty impatient tone.

“I have a boyfriend!” she yelled.

Ok. You would think that I would be all supportive and congratulating her right now because of the ‘great‘ news. If you thought that, you’re utterly mistaken.

“WHAT?!” I screamed, obviously mad.

I wasn’t ticked off by the fact that she had boyfriend. I was mad because she didn’t have the decency to tell me. Her Best Friend. Why she hadn’t told me? I don’t know but it certainly wasn’t the best excuse to get me to date.

“I’m sorry” she said, ashamed expression planted on her face.

I didn’t speak.

We had promised each other that if one of us ever started dating we would tell each other as soon as we got together. That was our deal. It was plain and simple and not hard to keep. I mean if you were dating someone the first thing you would do is tell somebody about it right? And that person would be your closest friend.

Well at least that’s what I would have done but I guess that didn’t cut out for Jessie.

“I’m sorry Anny, it just…happened. It was summer and he just asked me out one day and next thing you know he asks me to be his girlfriend” Jessie explained poorly using my nickname.

There was a long pause before I decided to ask the question that was itching away in my throat.

“Who’s the guy?” I asked, trying to understand the reasons for the secrecy.

She squirmed once again. This was not going for her.

“It’s Heath” she finally spit out..

Heath. Out of all the people she could actually date she chose him. I think there is a limit on how angry you can be. And I think I reached mine.

“Heath. Heath?!” I shouted. This was unbelievable.

Ok. Heath was a jock. Not only was he a jock but he was well renounced player. I think he had already dated half of the female population of the school. No he wasn’t cocky like the others but still. He could seriously break some hearts. I knew what he was capable of with his well renowned reputation. I didn’t want by best friend to get hurt.

“Look Ann he’s a great guy, he’s sweet and I think its real” she said in a hushed but stern tone.

I sighed. There is just so much stuff I can take in one day.

“How long?” I said.

“Two months,” she replied.

Wow. Two complete months. That was the longest I had actually seen him with a girl. Maybe I should give him a chance. I mean Jessie is happy. I stayed quiet. There was no need to get angry with her on the first day.

“Fine. I‘ll bite.” I finally breathed. Admitting defeat. This was not the way to start school.

“Yay!” she squeaked pouncing on my small figure.

“Are you going to do it?” she asked once she was done celebrating.

“Do what?” I asked stupidly. I knew what she was talking about.

“Date,” she said seriously.

“No.” I stated firmly.

“Why not?”

“You know why.”

“But-”

“Jess don’t push it or I’ll take back my surrender.” I warned, knowing she would never put that in risk.

“Fine” she sighed.

“Now come on. Your little revelation is going to make us late” I said pulling her by the hand.

We were already pretty close to school. I lied to get out of the awkward situation. And as of now I knew.

Jess wasn’t going to give this up. Not until she got what she wanted. And that scared me. Why you may ask? There was something certain about my very best friend.

Jesse Matters always got what she wanted.