My Best Friend, Amelia

Amelia and I had been best friends since we were very young. Her family moved in across the street from ours when we were about three years old. My mom called up her mom one day to set up a play date, and we have been inseparable ever since. Neither of us ever thought that it was strange that our best friend was a member of the opposite sex. During sleepovers, our parents would tuck us in together on a fold-out sofa and read us bedtime stories. At the beach, our parents would throw us in the bathtub together after being out in the sand to make us quicker to wash up. That’s just how things were.

Even when we started middle school and everything started to become about discovering our sexuality for all our peers, it never was between us. Amelia joined the band and played clarinet, I joined the baseball team and played first base. Guy, girl. Band, baseball. Our differences never phased us and we were always the best of friends.

I always thought that Amelia was pretty, but I never thought of her in a sexual way. She was cute in middle school. Her brown hair was straight and long, reaching halfway down her back. Her eyes were big and green, always twinkling. Her nose was small and round, and didn’t call attention to itself. And her body was skinny and angular, making me think that when God designed her he must have only had a ruler handy to help him draw. She had a couple boyfriends over the years, and always talked to me about her crushes. It never bothered me. I did the same with her when I was interested in a girl.

High school came around and nothing changed between us. Still best friends. But around the middle of freshman year, I started to notice a change in Amelia. She started to grow up. She cut her long hair, which made her look young, in favor of a shorter haircut that fell around her shoulders. She could wear it up or down with equal ease. Her body started to fill out as well, her legs becoming longer, her hips widening, and her chest developing. I noticed these things, but didn’t really let it change the way I felt about her. Sure, I admitted to myself that my best friend was totally hot, but I had never thought of her as anything other than my best friend, and that’s the way it would stay. I was protective of her, and always a little wary when a boy would ask her out, but that was only because I wanted to make sure that nobody hurt her.

Thankfully the first guy that she really had a serious relationship with was alright in my book. His name was Justin. He was on the football team, was a good student, and most importantly, was a decent guy and treated Amelia right. They started dating towards the end of freshman year. I was never so sure how Justin felt about me. Maybe he thought it was strange that Amelia’s best friend was a guy. He and I were never super close friends, but he seemed to tolerate me fine and didn’t seem jealous of how close I was with Amelia.

Around the beginning of sophomore year, I started dating a girl named Megan. Megan was a cheerleader, was very pretty, and also really smart. We had Spanish class together that year, which is how we met. I really enjoyed spending time with her, and she was a lot of fun, but I sensed that Megan wasn’t completely understanding of my friendship with Amelia. Don’t get me wrong, Megan never said or did anything wrong towards Amelia, but when you are dating someone, it’s hard not to notice things like when they seem not to care for your best friend.

Things went along like that for about a year. Amelia dating Justin. Me dating Megan. And Amelia and me still best friends through it all. Everything seemed like it was going pretty well until one day in the middle of junior year…

“I just can’t believe you wouldn’t stand up for me!” Megan yelled at me one day after school.

“Megan, you’re being a little ridiculous. You really didn’t need to bring your huge gym bag to chemistry,” I replied, equally upset by this point. “Plus, it was totally a mistake. She didn’t mean to trip!”

Megan and I were in chem together that year, and for some reason Megan insisted on bringing her very large gym bag to class with her on game days. Maybe it was so that everyone at school would recognize her as a cheerleader. She seemed to view it as a huge status symbol for some reason. Today in chem class, another girl had tripped on Megan’s bag since it was too big to fit under her desk and wound up spilling a beaker full of some noxious liquid all over the bag. Even though the chemical did no harm other than smelling bad, Megan had completely lost it and had started yelling at the girl for being so clumsy as to spill all over her special cheerleader bag.

Thankfully our teacher, Mr. McHenry, had stepped in swiftly and had come down hard on Megan. He told Megan that it was obviously an accident and that she needed to calm down or else he would send her up to the office to have the assistant principal deal with it. Throughout the whole thing, I just sat quietly at my desk, not wanting to get involved. To be honest, I was actually a little embarrassed that my girlfriend was making such a huge scene in the middle of class. As many nice qualities as Megan had, she was a little volatile and prone to outbursts if she didn’t get her way. I had started noticing it a few months into our relationship, and had found ways to work around it, but my patience was really starting to wear thin on the issue after a little more than a year of being with Megan.

“How are you still not on my side, Clark?” Megan yelled at me as we walked out of school at the end of the day and towards the student parking lot. “I’m your GIRLFRIEND. You’re supposed to be on MY side when stuff like this happens!”

“Look, Megan, there was no way I could get involved,” I tried to placate her. “McHenry would have totally chewed me out if I had spoken up in the middle of someone else’s business, and plus by the time the class was over your bag was mostly dry and it hardly smelled…”

“Clark, shut up! It’s not important what actually happened. The important thing is that some girl spilled some shit that smelled really bad all over my bag and then just acted like it was no big deal,” Megan continued to lecture me in an elevated voice as we approached my car in the parking lot. “It doesn’t matter if it dried and didn’t smell bad anymore. When bad stuff happens, you are supposed to be on my side, get it?!”

I sighed, visibly annoyed with the entire situation. “I understand what you’re saying, but I really think you’re overreacting in this particular situation,” I tried to explain as reasonably as I could.

“Oh my God. You just don’t get it, do you?” Megan screamed, dropping her gym bag on the asphalt behind my car. “You know what? I don’t care that your parents are out of town and you wanted to go to your house and fuck for a couple hours before the football game. You’re being an asshole and I’m not dealing with you. Go home and jack off for all I care. And don’t bother coming to the game tonight. If I look up and see you in the stands, I’m going to be so pissed at you.” Megan struggled for something else to yell at me, but seemed to be lost for words. She grabbed her bag from the ground and marched off in the opposite direction, leaving me standing in the parking lot, holding my keys, and watching her as she stalked away in a huff.

When she rounded a corner and it became apparent that she wasn’t coming back, I unlocked the car and slammed the door behind me as I got in. Megan and I had fought before, but never over something as trivial as this. I couldn’t imagine why she was getting so worked up over nothing. But still, we had fought before and gotten over it, so I was sure that if I just gave her twenty four hours to cool down, we would be fine the next day.

Still pissed off about the whole situation, I cranked the car, jammed it into gear, and tore out of the parking lot at a speed that probably wasn’t safe. But I didn’t care. I just wanted to get some of my anger out in any way I could at the moment.

Thank goodness she told me not to show up to the football game. I usually went to all the home games and sat in the stands. It was nice to support the team, and I knew it meant a lot to Megan to have her boyfriend there to see her cheer. But tonight, I knew that being there at the game would probably just make me angry. Sometimes when Megan was mad at me she would flirt with other guys in front of me just because she knew it would get a rise out of me. I hated to imagine what sorts of flirting would happen between she and the football players at the game tonight if I showed up in the stands. I didn’t think that Megan would actually ever cheat on me, but still, she was a very attractive girl, and she had figured out how to use her good looks as a weapon to make me jealous when we were in a fight.

Thankfully I wouldn’t have to deal with it tonight. The moment I pulled up at my house, I put the whole thing out of my mind and hopped in the shower to wash away the stress of the day. After my shower, I sat down on the sofa and zoned out while surfing channels on the TV.

I had completely lost track of time when all of a sudden I felt my cell phone vibrating in my pocket. I looked at the caller ID. It was Amelia. “Hey Mel, what’s up?” I called out to my best friend in a cheery voice as I put the phone to my ear.

“Clark,” Amelia sobbed into the phone. “I need to see you. Can I…can I come over?” Amelia sounded completely distraught, and I was immediately worried.

“Amelia, are you ok?” I asked, concern showing in my voice. “Of course you can come over, but tell me what’s wrong.”

“I can’t…not on the phone,” Amelia cried. “I’m coming over. See you in a few.” And with that, she clicked off.

I paced the living room anxiously. I couldn’t imagine what might be the matter, but it definitely sounded serious. I was very worried and couldn’t wait for Amelia to get there so I could find out what the heck was going on.

The ten minutes it took her to get to my house seemed to drag by. I thought about calling her back and asking where she was, but I figured in case she was driving that it would be unsafe, especially with how upset she seemed to be at the moment.

Finally I heard the slam of a car door out in the driveway and I opened the front door to meet her. Amelia ran into my arms and grabbed me as if her life depended on it. I held her close and felt her sobbing uncontrollably into my shoulder. I gently stroked her back and whispered into her ear that whatever was the matter, it would all be ok.

We managed to make our way inside and shut the front door. We walked into the living room together and I sat Amelia down on the sofa and went to the kitchen to get her a glass of water. I came back with the water to find her a little calmer. She was still crying, but her deep sobs had transitioned into meek sniffles and it seemed like she was about ready to tell me what was going on.

“Oh my God, Clark,” Amelia heaved as she gratefully accepted the glass of water I offered her. “I have no idea how to say this. It’s the worst thing that could have happened,” she said, struggling to control her voice.

“Mel, it’s ok. Don’t worry, just let me know what’s going on with you,” I said, trying to provide as much support as I could to my best friend.

Amelia choked down some of the water and then continued, “it’s not just me. This is about you too…”

Her ominous and confusing inclusion of me into the situation didn’t make sense. I struggled to understand how anything could possibly involve me as well, until Amelia finally found her voice and continued. “I walked in on Justin and Megan having sex in the weight room in the gym a few minutes ago,” she managed to choke out before relapsing into a fit of uncontrollable sobbing.