The Last Good Thing About This Part of Town

“UGHHHHHH” I groaned as I walked into the door of the locker room at school, ready to change for practice. I just flopped down on the bench in between the lockers and opened mine to get my clothes out.

“Whats wrong with you?” I heard Erika ask, walking up to her locker right across from mine with a bag of crackers and peanut butter, already dressed from her 7th period running class.

Erika was my best friend. Even if I didn't show my anger or annoyance like i usually do, she knew when something was wrong, but I made this one easy for her.

“You know what the problem is” Nicolette said as she rolled her eyes and laughed a little.

“Ahhh right. A little too hard last night.” she said, giving me crap about the previous night. Erika didn't drink. As much as she liked going to parties and dancing and stuff, she was too focused on her running and didn't want to “ruin her chances of getting into a good school.” I respected that. Erika really had become the most talented on on the team. Towards the end of her senior year, she became the number one runner for us. I always thought that if I hadn't started partying, maybe I would have been as good as her.

I knew Erika since middle school track when I was an eighth grader and Erika was a seventh grader. Now that I was a senior and headed off to college the next year, Erika would be stuck in her senior year of high school without her best friend, And believe me, I felt horrible about it.

“How much water did you drink today?” Erika asked, concerned

“About 7 bottles, one every period, and I’m probably going to smash on down right before the run”

“I think you'll be okay. Come on, practice is starting soon!” Erika said forcing me to get dressed and head outside.

We walked out to the field where practice has been held for the past 5 years. When we finally got to our usual spot where we like to sit and stretch and talk, Erika and I plopped onto the grass and then she started to roll her eyes and say “Heads up. Looks like someone isn't quite over you” She warned

I turned my head around, and there jogging towards us was Aaron. I turned back to Erika and rolled my eyes and mouthed ‘save me’ to her. She laughed as I turned around and prepared for the most awkward conversation of the day.

“Hey Nicolette! Hey Erika!” he exclaimed with a wave as he was jogging over.

“Aaron, what do you want?” I asked rolling my eyes, not hiding the fact that I was more than annoyed with him with just his presence.

“Wow is that the way to treat you're boyfriend?” he said with a sad puppy dog face, putting his arm around me as he sat down next to me.

I pushed him off of me right away. “You are NOT my boyfriend anymore, we broke up a month and a half ago, please just get over it and leave me alone” I rolled my eyes and turned back to Erika.

“Fine then, hey Erika. You free Friday night?” He asked Erika, obviously trying to make me jealous.

“Fuck off” Erika said and I just looked at her with satisfaction and started cracking up.

“Fine then, looks like both of you are missing out on all this” He gloated, modeling his boney framework.

“Definitely not missing ANY part of you. Some parts were just way to small for me” I shot back right away. Erika lost it and was rolling on the ground laughing. Aaron flipped me off and ran back towards the guys on the team who heard my remark and laughed at him as he jogged back towards him.

Once Erika finally stopped laughing, coach had called us up to do the warm up lap and dynamics and sent us out on a 5 mile run. I always ran with Erika on LSD days. I picked up my pace a little and she slowed hers down just a little just so we could talk and laugh at all the stupid stuff her long time football boyfriend talked about and everything going on in my life.

“So how was your first day?” she asked about a mile and a half in.

“The usual, I walked in 5 minutes late and Mr. Martins had a bitch fit about it.”

She just laughed “Well he does pretty much hate you from last year. Remember?”

“Yeah yeah I remember” I said.

I then remembered to think about Andy from first period. I hadn't really stopped thinking about him all day and it was a rare thing for me. I decided to tell her about it because, well, I tell her everything.

“Do you know anything about a a new guy named Andy? You know, red head, covered in tattoos?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Hmmm, no. Haven't heard of him, and I definitely think I would remember someone covered in tattoos”

“Okay well he’s in my first period and I sat next to him and I can’t seem to stop thinking about him or our conversation”

“Wait, what? YOU can’t stop thinking about a guy? Is this the end of the fucking world because this NEVER happens.”

“Oh come on I can think about a guy for more than an hour.”

“Yeah and remember the last time that happened?”

I stopped talking for a little while and knew exactly what she was talking about. It was sophomore year and I had met Damien for the first time. I was head over heels for him. We talked for months and I never really got bored with him like I did the other guys. But apparently he got bored of me. Because he started dating different girls and never had a relationship last for more than 2 weeks. He kept coming back to me each time a new relationship ended, and of course I followed him around like a puppy. Until he started dating Melody. I thought this would go on like usual. He would date her for 2 weeks then get bored of her and come back to me, but they dated for a month, then 2, then 3, 3 turned into 6, then 6 turned into a year and he just strung me along that entire time. I hated her. I hated that I loved him. My heart was crushed. I was always crying to Erika whenever we had sleepovers or whenever he would text me about her. Until I decided I had enough, and dated his best friend, Aaron.

“Atta way girls” our assistant coach yelled at us, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Okay but that was different" He was a player. He moved onto a new girl every other week" I said

“Good pace good pace” our head coach followed him.

They always followed us around on bikes or took the coaches truck out to get us at different spots and I liked that. The days before meets they would always stop us in our groups, freshman, jv, or varsity, to talk to us about the meet the next day. I loved my coaches. They were the best role models I had.

As we turned around at the 2.5 mile, Erika and I started to get really tired and had a silent run the rest of the way back. We were the first girls back of course. We grabbed some water and stretched out a little bit before we headed back into the locker rooms.

“So are you gonna talk to him tomorrow?” Erika asked.

“Well I sit next to him in 1st period, so yeah. And I’m really curious about him. He’s nothing like the other guys here” I said then took a sip of my water.

“Yup, we all know how bored Nicolette gets with the guys at this school”

I gave her a light push and she just laughed.

As we walked into the building, Aaron came up to me again, this time more serious.

“Hey I need to talk to you” He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the end of the hallway before I could walk into the locker room door.

“Why?” he asked me

“Why what?”

“Why did you just break up with me for no reason? Did I do something or what? You kinda just left me hanging there” he said with a little bit of sadness in his eyes.

“You knew before we started dating that I have this reputation of..” he cut me off

“No don’t give me that, thats the lamest excuse. I know that reputation isn't true. You don’t just get bored of guys, you're scared.” He yelled at me. His look then softened and he grabbed my hands, taking a step closer to me “But, if you let me, I could be the one to help you move past it. I know how much Damien hurt you. I know that this was all because of him and I just want to help you move past that because, well, I love you”

I was suddenly so mad when he said that. He didn't know anything about the Damien situation besides what Damien told him. I pushed him back and yelled back to him “You know what maybe my reputation is or isn't true. You don’t know that. And if I flew through guys because I was scared, you sure a hell wouldn't be the guy I would date to get over it. Anyway I have a date on Friday with the new guy Andy. Maybe he could be the one to help me get past my ‘fear’ you never know. But you will NEVER be that guy. Leave me ALONE” And I stormed off into the locker room.

Erika noticed how mad I was and ran up to me and asked what happened. When I told her, she just looked at me and said, “Well I guess you really do have to get to know Andy then”

‘Oh shit’ I thought. Now I had dragged Andy, a guy I barely had a 5 minute conversation with into this whole situation. What was I thinking? Now I have to take the chance of him thinking I'm a total loser.