Janie's Eternal Freedom

Libby Osbourne is not my friend.

Let me rephrase that. Libby Osbourne was my friend.

It’s hard to believe that we actually had a history. I mean, if you looked at me and then you looked at her, you’d laugh if I said that we used to share a tree house together.

Libby was always just so loud and outspoken. She was always the one that everyone loved and everyone was jealous of. They treated her like a chocolate bar and they treated me like a bran muffin. We were so unalike that people would actually push us towards other people. But we never did. We were best friends and nothing could ever change that.

But when high school hit, she sauntered off towards more beautiful people that I couldn’t even compare with if I looked like Heidi Klum. They had an aura around them. They smoked sometimes, and only a few got stoned. Overall, the “populars” came from rich families that really didn’t give a shit about the outside world and just all went golfing in the country club right next to the school. It didn’t help that everything was so extremely boring in the town that we lived. A small suburban town near Seattle called Ellewich. It was where the rich people settled. The AP born, Ivy League molded kids all went to Jackson Visitation Private School. It was just a stroke of luck that my parents had more than enough money and dragged me into this hellhole.

Libby and I used to go around Seattle together. She was more of a tea person, and I was always devoted to coffee, so she always used to say that she hated Seattle. But I knew she didn’t. She loved the cold Pacific Ocean just as much as she loved her mom.

But reality was a bitch. And I was just that unlucky that I was stuck in it.

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Jackson Visitation is probably the worst school you will ever find.

Never mind that that their SAT scores are so stellar that they pierce through the roof, there’s really only one mastermind behind it. Marcus Flynn, who helps people cheat, study, or gets bribed to give people the test answers. Marcus is a senior this year, but he’s just that much of a genius that he was accepted into Harvard, Brown, Stanford and Columbia early, but he chose to live out highschool like a regular kid. Although he was far from that.

Never mind that our sports teams do great. The only people that are on it are dumb jocks who act stupid just so people won’t expect much from them, but are actually extremely smart. Some of these people include Torrin Kennedy and Rigg Sony. Those boys are extremely hot but extremely manipulative, and they smoke more than this whole school combined. Don’t question it; they’ve been best friends since the second grade.

Never mind that the girls appear all welcoming and caring and you assume that we all get together over the weekend and bake cookies. The girls in Jackson Visitation are the worst girls in your life that you will ever meet. Including Libby Osbourne, who is conveniently the girlfriend of Torrin. They really are the cutest couple. Not.

So here I am, waiting in the parking lot in my blue BMW, hoping that the first bell will ring already, just so I won’t have to sit here any longer looking like an extreme idiot.

Worst of all, Torrin sashays up beside my window, smiling brightly at me as if I actually care what he thinks of me. (OK, maybe I do care a little bit.)

“Well, isn’t it Janie Kooly. How is your science project going?” He says. Another thing that I absolutely hate about Torrin is that he is an asshole. He is a complete and utter asshole.

I shrug. “I don’t know. Goodbye. ” I say. I look the other way and see Marcus walking up the stairs. He waves at me and I smile. I turn back to my window, and I literally jump since Torrin is still there.

“So are you and Marcus a thing now? Because really, I think you two just don’t look right. He’s such a boob.” He says. I roll my eyes. He really is an asshole.

“Don’t you have a girlfriend to tend to? Or maybe a reputation to uphold?” I remark, trying to sound mean. I grip my steering wheel tighter, and watch as Marcus enters the building, flocked by a few other boys and 1 or 2 girls.

“My girlfriend can take care of herself for a while, she’s not a baby. And my reputation is high, so it doesn’t need any holding, unlike yours, which is so low that goats feed on it.”

I feel offended. I open my car door, causing him to stumble backward, but because he is the complete opposite of what I am, he regains his posture and stuffs his hands into his pockets. It’s in the middle of October, so when I step out, my scarf blows in my face. Of course, Torrin laughs.

“Look, if the only reason that you’re here is to insult me, then I suggest you go back to your stupid best friend or your slutty girlfriend, because I’ve had enough of you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go catch up to Marcus.”

He grabs me by my arm right as I’m about to stalk off towards Marcus. “Don’t trash my best friend. OK, so maybe my girlfriend is a teeny bit slutty, but you don’t have a right to go bashing on them. Who do you think you are?”

I scoff and fold my arms over my chest. “Oh yeah? And who do you think you are to come over to me and insult my reputation? Why are you even talking to me anyways?”

Torrin blushes. “No ones here. I don’t want to seem like a loser.” He looks at me really seriously, like something is up with him but he doesn’t want to tell me why.

I sit silent. Torrin pulls out a cigarette and lights it, putting it to his mouth. I glare at him before I knock the cigarette to the ground and stomp on it repeatedly.

“WHAT THE FUCK?” he says.

“You’re a piece of shit, you know that?” I hiss at him.

Before I rush into Jackson Visitation to catch up with Marcus, Torrin calls my name. “Yes?” I say, turning around so abruptly that stray pieces of hair fly into my mouth from the side. Smooth, Janie. Smooth.

“Um…never mind. You can go now.” Torrin says. He looks extremely nervous, so I decide to press the topic even further. “No, tell me. I won’t leave until you do.”

Torrin shakes hair out of his head, looks at the ground, and smiles softly at me. “Do you think you could help me with my science project? I’m not exactly as smart as you.” He’s scratching the back of his neck again. It makes him look unusually insecure.

I sigh and cross my arms over my chest. “Help you? Surely you’re not serious.” I say.

Torrin looks behind him, as if he’s going to tell me a deadly secret. “It’s just…my mom is going to be really mad if I don’t get at least a C in that class.”

I scoff. “Well, what about your dad? What does he feel about your situation?”

Torrin rocks back and forth on his heels, before looking at the ground again. “My dad’s in the hospital. He’s a vegetable.”

That strikes me. I thought that Torrin’s life was close to perfect, that he could get anything he wanted with a snap of his fingers.

“Oh.” I respond. I’m not sure what to say next, so I gesture for Torrin to say something again.

He takes a deep breath. “It would just really make my dad really happy when he wakes up to know that I got into a really good college.”

Strangely, I’m kind of touched that someone like Torrin Kennedy cares so much about his father. He doesn’t seem like a guy that would care much about anything, other than girls and money.

I groan and look at Torrin’s hopeful face. I nod, sending him into hysterics. He starts smiling like a lunatic and breathes heavily. “Only if you stop being such a jerk.” I add.

Torrin chuckles. His laugh is nice. This is one of the only things I like about him. “Can’t promise anything.”

We stand there for a few seconds. That is, until Libby calls out his name.

He turns around as I look past him. Libby’s hair is let down loose, exposing her long red tresses. She looks really pretty.

“Torrin!” She yells again. After she calls Torrin, she looks at me.

The way she looks at me is unlike anything I’ve seen before. She looks at me with pure disgust, like she doesn’t care who I am and wouldn’t save me if I were falling off of a cliff.

We used to be best friends. It hurts that she looks at me like that.

Then, Torrin tries to look at me with the same expression, but I can tell that it is so forced that it almost looks ridiculous. I look away and stuff my hands into my pockets.

“Later, loser.” He mumbles, rushing off to Libby like it’s his destiny.

I look at them for a while. He leans Libby onto the hood of her car, kissing her neck while she laughs.

They’re too perky. They’ve had everything handed to them on a silver platter. I think, as I glide my eyes over the “populars.” They sicken me.

But what really sickens me is that I would give anything to be part of them.

“Janie! You coming inside?” Someone calls from a distance behind me.

I turn around and see Marcus, gripping his backpack over his right shoulder and waving to me.

I smile and rush over to meet him, looking back only once to come face to face with Libby.

She’s looking at me again with that same expression, and it makes me want to throw up.

Libby isn’t the same anymore. I should’ve seen it coming. I think.