Part of Me

“Sami, c’mon, do you really have to go?” my friend, Una, asked me. “You are probably the only cool person I know that’s actually going.”

“Una, I already told you, I have to go,” I said to her, giving her a look as I adjusted the top of my dress. Prom was tonight, and I knew I couldn’t miss it. Not that I was too obsessed with going, but my boyfriend Elijah was and my parents also wanted me to go. I wasn’t one to protest, and so I just agreed to go. There wasn’t really anything else keeping me in the way of going, anyway. Except for Una.

“God, I told you not to call me that anymore,” she said, exasperated. “It’s Bergitte, got it?”

The name ‘Una’ literally meant ‘to be satisfied, or happy’. That fact along with the pure hatred she had towards it, Una all of a sudden decided to start going by her middle name, ‘Bergitte’, which was simply ‘Bridget’ in Danish. Which was what she was, along with her parents. Her full name was Una Bergitte Henriksen. The only way you wouldn’t guess she was Danish was if you just went by the way she spoke, which was unaccented due to the fact she lived in America most of her life.

Una was far from ever being satisfied, and according to her she never had any completely happy moments. So, she thought her first name was better intended for someone else. One time she said it would even better suit me than it did her. Even since then she has tried to get the name ‘Bergitte’ to stick, although it really hasn’t because people better know her by her first name.

But at least her name was better than mine, which was so plain compared to that that you didn’t even need to spell it out. Sam, or sometimes called Sami depending on who you talked to. Woo-hoo.

“Oh, whatever,” I said to her. “As long as you call me Sami you’ll always be known as Una to me.”

“Regardless,” she said, waving it off as she dug into her pocket and pulled out a cigarette. “You’re not going to Prom tonight. Especially with that douche that you call a boyfriend. My parents would even approve of him.” She initialized that considering it took just about forever for her parents to warm up to people. I had known Una since middle school, but it still took three years before they stopped with the glaring when I walked into their house.

Elijah was one of the most perfect people you could ever meet. He got the best grades, had the best looks, and everyone fawned over him. I knew I was lucky to have him. Una, however, didn’t like him because she expected everyone one of his perfections were each sitting on some lie that started them. But Una was just one of the few people who accepted the imperfections in people, and thought perfect people were fake from the core. In a way, I sort of admired her for this, but not when it came to my boyfriend.

“He’s probably cheating on you right now,” she continued, just pulling it out of the air that now contained the pollution of her cigarette smoke. “I mean, no offense Sam, but... he does have a reputation to uphold. That being, he needs to be liked by everyone, no matter what.”

I ignored her as I pointed to the cigarette she was still smoking. “Really? My parents are right downstairs. You of all people should know that they can smell something illegal from a mile away. At least go outside.” She shrugged and opened the one window in my room instead. I rolled my eyes as I went to put final touches on my makeup.

As soon as you first meet Una you need to realize that she’s sarcastic with everything she says or does. If you don’t, you can’t be friends with her. And if I didn’t recognize this characteristic, there wouldn’t have been any way I still would’ve been friends with her. I would be like my parents, who, after knowing her for more than five years, still don’t realize this about her and always give her disapproving looks after she makes a comment about something.

“Well, while you go to Prom, I’ll be with the piges,” she said, “having a much better time than you will with Elijah, slow dancing. Which is probably his version of a grind.”

Even though Una wasn’t too fond of her Danish roots, she occasionally used Danish words in her dialect. ‘Piges’ meaning ‘Girls’. She was referring to the group of girls she went and got high with. I rarely went with her to see them, but when I did, I avoided the drugs. They always teased me for staying out of it, and that was partly the reason why I never went with her when I could get out of it.

“Good for you,” I said to her, not knowing what else to say. She rolled her eyes and looked aggravated. She stubbed out her cigarette on my windowsill and threw it out the window. I gave her a look as she then shut the window.

“You’re such a bore,” she said to me. “And God, Sam, I’ve put up with it for long enough. I’ve been waiting for you to move out of your shell and you’re still the same person I met back in seventh grade. You always have to please your parents. Do me a favor, would you? If you go to the prestigious college your parents and Elijah want you to go to, and ever make one reckless decision, send me a picture. Because that will be the only time I’ll ever see you mess up in your picture-perfect life.”

“If I’m so perfect how have you managed to stay friends with me for this long?” I asked her. “I thought you hated perfect people!”

“I do! I guess I thought you were different because unlike the others, you actually put up with my shit,” she stated, straight to the point. “But lately, you’ve even objected to that. So I don’t know what to do anymore.”

“You know what happened to my sister...” I trailed off, not wanting to continue. But I knew I had to. “I don’t want to end up like that.”

“Who? Tara?” she asked. “You have to be kidding. If you’re saying that I want you to be like that, you’re so... off, Sami. Why would I want that for you? You don’t have to end up like her. But you shouldn’t live the rest of your life, with a stick up your ass, just because your parents and your boyfriend do. That’s where you’re going wrong.”

“Whatever, just go. I have to finish getting ready,” I said, as I went back to continuing my makeup. She shook her head and disbelief and went to leave. Right before she did, she turned back to me.

“If you change your mind, we’ll be at the... le springvand, if you even know where that is anymore,” she said, now combining two languages. I’m pretty sure ‘le’ wasn’t Danish, or if it was, it wasn’t the right word to use. But ‘springvand’ meant ‘fountain’.

She left without saying another word.



“You look beautiful tonight,” Elijah said to me, for possibly the millionth time tonight, even though we had just gotten to the Prom a little while ago. I smiled, and while I accepted the compliment, I couldn’t help but be a little annoyed that he kept saying it. It felt like he was taking the saying for granted because every five minutes, he said it.

“Thanks,” I said, trying to sound earnest, but I ended up sounding slightly annoyed instead. Elijah noticed and gave me a look, but didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he suggested that we should dance. Not wanting to disappoint, I took him up on the offer.

Everything about tonight was perfect, except for what went down with Una earlier. So... what was wrong? I didn’t think that had bothered me that much.

Still, I was tense, and I bet Elijah had sensed it too. Because after a minute passed of us dancing to a slow song, he pulled away from me.

“Are you okay?” he asked me, glancing around at the people surrounding us before leading me off the dance floor. “You seem... out of it.”

“What? Oh, no. I’m fine, really,” I said to him, even though it was a lie. He noticed that I was lying too.

“Are you sure? Because you can leave if you’re feeling bad,” he suggested. I tried to see if I had heard him wrong. I couldn’t help but notice that he said ‘you’ instead of ‘we’.

“Well, will you come with me?” I asked, hoping my ears had failed me. But he shook his head.

“Babe, you can leave if you want to, but... I have people I need to socialize with,” he said. “You know, to guarantee that I sealed the vote for Prom King.”

I didn’t expect those words to come out of his mouth. I had never heard of a guy caring so much to be Prom King as I heard different girls saying how much they wanted to be Prom Queen.

“What? Elijah...” I trailed off, speechless. “What... why is that important? I mean, who cares?”

“What are you talking about? I care,” he said, looking at me like I was insane. “And if you’re staying, you should feel the same way about getting Prom Queen. You being with me can only get you so far, babe. You have to work it out on your own.”

I looked at him, appalled. He really put his status so far up as to say that being with him would help me get Prom Queen status? Who really thought that highly of themselves?

“Una was right,” I mumbled, not intending for him to hear, but he did anyway.

“Una? What does that druggie have to do with anything?” he asked. “I thought you stopped hanging out with her.”

“Because I had a fight with her! And that was tonight!” I stated, outraged with what he just said. “But she’s still my friend. Friends have their fights.”

“Well, sure. But there’s really no point in trying to make amends with her,” he stated, taking my hands even though I didn’t want him to. “Baby, she’s only brought you down. Why would you want to be friends with someone like her?”

I don’t know how it happened, but after he said those words, something just... snapped in me. That resulted in me jerking my hands away, raising my one hand in the form of a fist, and punching him square in the face. Everyone around us stopped what they were doing, and stared at us amazed, not expecting what just happened, to happen.

Elijah’s nose started to gush blood as I backed away from him.

“You’re such a stuck-up asshole,” I said, before walking away from him.

At first, I didn’t know where I was going to go. My parents were expecting me to stay at the Prom, so I couldn’t go home. And I couldn’t stay here, considering what had just happened.

So I thought of Una, and where she told me she would be.

And I went there.



“Well look who decided to join us,” one of the piges said, as I walked up to the fountain, still in my Prom dress. “If it isn’t Sami so-and-so! And look, she’s dressing to kill tonight girls!” This was another reason I didn’t like coming around the girls Una hung out with: because of the nickname they gave me. It was a play on the name of the famous baseball player, Sammy Sosa, except mine was ‘so-and-so’ because they knew I followed whatever I was told, and strictly stuck to the rules.

“Is Una here?” I asked. The girl who had been talking to me, named Trina, laughed.

“Who?” she asked. I knew she meant this rhetorically, because she very well knew who I was talking about. Except her and the other girls knew Una by the name she preferred.

“Bergitte,” I said instead, knowing that would trigger a response. One of the other girls, Jamie, I believe, nodded over to the other side of the fountain, where Bergitte was sitting down by herself on the ledge, smoking. I made my way over to her.

“Sam?” she questioned, not expecting to see me. I didn’t blame her, because this wasn’t exactly my plan either. I sat down next to her.

“Hey,” I said.

“My God, have you been crying?” she asked, looking at my face. I hadn’t realized it, but when I went to touch my face, I realized I had been. I also realized that either this new fact or Una’s total cool state made her forget about what had happened earlier.

“Huh, I guess I have,” I said, as I watched her stub out her cigarette and throw it.

“Com’ere,” she said, sticking her hand into the fountain water, and going to run a hand across my face. I presumed to get the mascara or whatever had ran, off.

“So... you realized Elijah was a douche?” she guessed, turning away as soon as she was done. I gave her a look.

“How did you know?” I asked, surprised. She gave a small laugh.

“Why else would you be here? And crying?” she asked. “Prom’s definitely not over, and you can’t go back there seeing as you don’t want to be near him. You can’t go home because your parents think you’re still there. Yada, yada, yada...”

“Yeah,” I said, letting her know she was right. She gave me a sad look.

“What did he do?”

“Not important,” I said, not wanting to tell her. At least right now, anyway. “I clocked him, though.” I then looked at my hand I used to punch him and saw that it was starting to swell. Una noticed and looked too.

“Nice,” she said. “Put it in the water for a bit. That should help it.”

The fountain wasn’t your typical water fountain. In fact, it was gorgeous, being in the park near the high school. In the center, being the most appealing thing about the park. I’m surprised it was still in the state it was considering the surroundings. But I guess everyone else knew it was the best thing about the park and decided to leave it be for the most part. Though there was still some graffiti in places that those selected really inconsiderate people still damaged.

“Some guys are meeting us here,” she said after a moment of silence. “Maybe that will help you get your mind off of things.”

“I just ran away from a guy,” I said. “Do you really think I want to deal with another? Let alone a few.”

“Don’t worry, they’re cool,” she said. “And funny. You’ll like them. They’re not douches like the guy you were just with.”

“Very reassuring,” I said to her, when all of a sudden I saw guys approach the other girls from where they were on the other side of the fountain.

“Sami?” Una questioned me, getting me to look back at her.

“Hm?”

“You do remember what I said earlier, right?” she asked. “About Tara?”

I didn’t say anything, so she continued.

“You’re not going to end up like her,” she said. “What I meant was, you don’t always have to live life so seriously. You can have your few reckless moments every now and again. And even if they go bad, you learn from them. But Tara... where she went wrong was that she wanted her life to be only those reckless moments. She didn’t stop and take things seriously when she needed to.”

She was right. After my older sister Tara graduated from high school, she was tired of going by my parents rules. So she started to go hanging around with the wrong crowd and soon got hooked on drugs. You name it, she had it in her system at some point. But what she didn’t realize was that if she continued, she was putting her life at stake. Whether it be mixing with the wrong people or with the drugs themselves. She was found dead in an alley one day, after she ran away from home. The autopsy reported she overdosed on heroine, which made sense considering she was found with a needle in her arm. My parents, afterwards, were stuck with the debt she had with multiple people. They decided to pay it so trouble wouldn’t come around again for them or even me.

“I think that’s why my parents are so pushy with me doing everything they want me to do,” I said, after thinking about everything. “You can’t blame them. They just don’t want the same thing to happen again.”

“So okay, maybe it’s good to listen to your parents sometimes,” she said. “But don’t let them shape you. Shape yourself.”

I nodded. We didn’t get to say anymore seeing as we were interrupted.

“Ooh, I can tell we walked into something inspirational,” Trina said. “What, Sami so-and-so needed some advice from one of us, for a change? I love how they put themselves above us but still expect us to help them when they need some guidance.”

“Look, Trina, I don’t know why you never gave me a chance,” I said, standing up and looking at her, showing her I was serious. “It doesn’t hurt to, oh, I don’t know, care about yourself every now and then. Which is why I didn’t do any drugs when you guys wanted me to. But I’ve been through enough for one night. So can you just do me a favor and shut the fuck up for once? And stop with the bitch treatment?”

It was quiet for a moment, the girls and these new guys with them not expecting me to say what I just said. But who cares? They didn’t know me. They didn’t know how I acted at home; none of them did besides Una. They just judged me.

I noticed one of the guys was looking at me with interest. He had bright blue eyes and dark brown hair. I raised an eyebrow, but then looked back at the rest of group as I waited for one of them to say something.

“Damn,” Una said, jumping to my defense. “She just told you off, Trina. So will you stop being a bitch now and just consider her a part of the group?” The rest of the girls snickered at Trina’s second diss, and Trina rolled her eyes.

“Fine,” she relented, not seeming too pleased with doing so. “Whatever.”

“I noticed you eyeing Bam,” Una whispered to me, as soon as everyone’s attention wasn’t on me anymore. “Go talk to him!”

“What? No,” I said.

“Oh yeah, that’s right. You’re not one for confrontation. The old cliche in you,” she mumbled, but then shouted, “Hey, Bam! Come over here!”

As soon as she shouted his name, he looked, and I immediately blushed.

“Would you stop!” I said to her, but it was too late, seeing as he was making his way over.

“Oh, look! He’s wearing a tux! You two are perfect together!” she said, playfully grabbing at the bottom of my dress. I slapped her hand away as Bam walked up to us.

“Is your friend Ryan single?” she asked him. He nodded. She then shouted, “Hey, Ryan!” The guy I assumed was Ryan looked at her as she made her way over to him. She went behind him and jumped on his back, and I laughed. But I secretly hated her action because I know she did it to give me alone time with Bam.

“Hey,” he said, sitting down next to me.

“Hey,” I said, looking at what he was wearing. “Did you just come from Prom, too? Since you’re wearing a tux?”

“Yeah, all of the other guys did, too. We were planning on crashing it. But I was the only one who dressed the part, thinking we wouldn’t want to catch attention when we went in. But the rest of the guys didn’t think about that, so when we went in, everyone kind of knew right away. And they made us leave,” he said, laughing afterwards. I laughed too.

“Hm... that’s funny. I don’t remember seeing you guys,” I said. “I did leave early, though. So that might be why.”

“Wait... were you the one with that Elijah dude? Are you Sami?” he asked me, looking kind of shocked. I raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Why?” I said, answering both questions. He laughed then.

“Wow... so you were the one who punched him in the face, and broke his nose?” he asked. I felt my mouth fall open.

“I broke his nose?!” I shouted. I noticed that Una heard and looked over at me.

She gave me a thumbs up, somehow knowing what I was talking about. “Woo! Way to go, Sami!” She was still on Ryan’s back. I wanted to laugh, but I was still in shock.

“Yeah. They had an ambulance come and everything. It was pretty funny,” he said. “That’s partly why they escorted us out so quickly. Enough was already going on.”

“Wow,” I said. “No wonder my hand hurts so bad.” I showed it to him, and it had significantly gotten worse since I showed Una. He winced, showing that he knew it had to hurt.

“Nice,” he said.

“Do you go to our school? Because I don’t remember seeing you there, ever,” I pointed out. He laughed and shook his head.

“I used to, but then I dropped out,” he said. “Me and my friends shoot these videos, and we thought we could get something good if we crashed Prom. Didn’t end up working out, though, seeing as we’re here now.”

“It’s pretty pathetic that our high school is throwing Prom at our actual school, isn’t it?” I said, just now thinking about it. “I mean, other schools have it somewhere else, like a hotel or something, but ours... nope. Just keep it at the boring old school, and that’s awesome.”

“Why did you punch him in the face?” he asked, getting back to what we were talking about. “You don’t seem like you’d do that.”

“Long story,” I said. “So much for wasting money on a dress, though.”

“Well, it looks nice on you,” he complimented. I looked away, flustered. But smiled nonetheless.

“Thanks,” I said.

Suddenly, Trina walked up to us. She had a smirk on her face.

“Yes?” I asked.

“So, you want to be a part of the group? Fine. But you have to do something to prove that you’re not still a goody-goody,” she said to me.

“Alright, fine. What do you want me to do?” I asked, not even considering the consequences of asking that. I just didn’t care anymore; I had been through enough for one night. She smiled at me, faking sweetness.

“I want you to get in the fountain,” she said. “If you’re not a goody-goody anymore, you won’t mind getting a little wet, will you?”

“Fine,” I said, first rotating around so feet went in, and then standing up and facing toward her. I shrugged, and spinned for emphasis. The water only went up a little above my ankles.

“Now, get him to join you...” she pointed to Bam, “and kiss him.”

“What?” I asked her, not liking the situation now. She looked at me smugly.

“What, too much for you? I knew it,” she said, already assuming I was giving up. She started to turn away, but I stopped her.

“Wait,” I said, then looked at Bam, giving him a pleading look. He didn’t seem too bothered, and quickly joined me in the fountain. “You don’t care?”

He shrugged. “I don’t exactly shoot down dares,” he said. “I mean, remember the situation I just explained to you?” He gestured to his tux.

“True...” I trailed off. “We can just get it over with, don’t worry.”

“Why? Why not put on a show?” he whispered to me, once he was close. “You’re pretty cute, too, so why would I want to get it over with?”

I blushed. Suddenly, he lifted me into his arms and tilted me back.

“Aw, Bam-Bam’s getting all romantic,” I heard the guy Ryan say, from where he was standing next to Una.

Then, Bam kissed me. His lips were smooth like flower petals, I couldn’t help but notice. That was a girly way of describing it, and I would never tell him that, but it was true. Upon pulling away, he smiled at me. He stood more upright again but was still holding me in his arms.

“You can put me down,” I said, but couldn’t help smiling. I had only just met him and I was already acting reckless for him. This was crazy.

“Why? Where’s the fun in that? But if you insist,” he said, and instead of sitting me on my feet, he set me down just the way he was holding me. And so now, the bottom half of me was wet seeing as I was sitting in the fountain water.

“Bam! You jerk!” I said to him, and tripped him so he joined me. He went face first though so his whole body ended up getting soaked.

“Oh, water fight! I’m joining in!” Una shouted, bringing Ryan in along with her.

“This is nice,” I said, laying back in the water. I didn’t care anymore.

“You’re so unpredictable,” he said. “We’re so much alike it’s kind of scary.”

I laughed, considering just a few hours ago, I was far from this person that I was being now. More like the exact opposite.

“I like this part of me,” I said to him honestly. “And I know now that no one can take it away from me no matter how hard they try.”

This is the part of me,
That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no,
This is the part of me,
That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no,
Throw your sticks and your stones, throw your bombs and your blows,
But you’re not gonna break my soul,
This is the part of me,
That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no.