Best Friends Forever

Iris’ P.O.V.

It was Saturday. Today I was going out with Justin. He had sent me a message asking if I wanted to go to the movies. I responded immediately with a yes. I loved going to the cinema. Maybe Justin would help me distract and forget about Harry. Justin almost seemed perfect. He was taller than me (which was great because I was taller than most of the boys), he had those deep blue eyes (you could just drown in them), when he smiles there appears a dimple in his left cheek (same as me) and he had beautiful hair (something between blonde and brown). He couldn’t exceed Harry, but he was close enough. Before the summer I had really liked him. He was my crush. That feeling faded when I met Harry, but I still liked Justin so maybe I could go back to that feeling. The one and only thing I always looked for in a boy was a good sense of humour. A boy had to be able to make me laugh and Justin could do that. Justin was definitely boyfriend material. I hoped he thought the same way about me. If he did, I hoped we would take it slowly. I wasn’t going to jump into a new relationship that fast. No rush. Harry was definitely past tense, but it still hurt and it takes time to heal. I was sure Justin would understand that. When the doorbell rang, I grabbed my bag and walked downstairs. I had discussed with Lucie what I was going to wear. I wanted to be casual, not overdone, but I still wanted to look hot, so I went for a dark skinny jeans, a white top with a simple print, a red faux leather jacket and red high heels. I loved the colour red, especially because it matches so well with my red hair. When I opened the front door, a smiling Justin stood in front of me. “You look great”, he said while hugging me. “Thank you. You don’t look bad yourself either”, I said with a little blush. “Ready to go?”, he asked me smiling. “Definitely”, I answered smiling. When I stepped outside, I saw his car waiting for us. I wish I had enough money to get my license. It would be so much easier. “What movie are we going to?”, I asked him. I really hoped it wouldn’t be horror or thriller or else I already knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep for the next few days. “You’ll see”, he answered with a grin. That didn’t make things any better. When we got at the cinema, Justin bought us a popcorn and two cokes. I didn’t care about my diet now. Actually I never did. We sat down on our seats and as soon as I saw the title of the movie flashing by I was excited. Justin bought tickets for Blended. I wanted to see that movie so badly. The two main actors, Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, were one of my favourites. “You made a good choice”, I whispered to Justin. Now I knew I was going to have fun the whole evening.

“That was a great movie”, I said smiling as we walked out of the cinema. As we were walking down the street to a little café, Justin slowly grabbed my hand. It caught me by surprise, but I couldn’t resist. We entered the little café and Justin ordered a wine for me and a beer for himself. We couldn’t stop talking, drinking and laughing. He didn’t mind hearing about my summer adventures and for the first time, I didn’t mind talking about it. Maybe because I had a little too much drinks, but that didn’t matter. What did matter was that I had real fun for the first in a long time. Justin was amazing. “Let’s go outside”, Justin suggested. “Do you know how you can really forget about Harry?”, Justin asked once we were sitting on a bench. “Tell me”, I said. He grabbed a little jar from his pocket and let two little pills slip out of it. “With this”, he responded smiling. “It numbs all your feelings”, he continued. “But I don’t want my feelings for you to be numb”, I said grinning. I was definitely drunk. When I’m drunk, I always start laughing and giggling about everything. I guess alcohol makes me more fun. “Don’t worry. You’ll feel better because of it”, he said, trying to convince me. “Why not”, I responded laughing and grabbed one of the pills and swallowed it. I immediately felt something. “That actually feels nice”, I said. “Can I have another one?”, I asked with puppy eyes. “Just take all of them. I have more. Just don’t use them all at once”, he said laughing. “I promise”, I responded with a smirk. “I guess I have to go home”, I said while looking on my phone for the time. It was already 3am. “Then I guess I will have to bring you”, Justin said with a smile. “Thanks for the great night”, I said as I stepped out of Justin’s car. I felt really dizzy but tried not to show it. I didn’t want to look a pussy who just used drugs for the first time. “Wait, I’ll walk you to the door. I want to be sure you’re home safe”, he said smirking. “Really, I had so much fun tonight. Thanks”, I said when we were standing at my front door. I felt like I was going to faint any moment. “I hope I have the honour to go out with you again”, he responded smiling. “Definitely”, I said with a smile. Please just hurry up. At that moment Justin leaned in to kiss me. I looked into his deep blue eyes and got caught up in the moment. Kissing him felt amazing. We both pulled away and he gave me one last peck on the lips. “Good night”, I said smiling while stepping into my house. “Good night beautiful”, he responded and I slowly closed the door. I felt like I was on cloud nine. I tried walking up the stairs, while floating on my cloud, but it didn’t go that easily. “Hey you.” It was my mom who just came out of her room. “Hey mom”, I said, trying to sound sober. “How was it?”, she asked. “Truly amazing, but can we please talk about it tomorrow? I’m exhausted. Good night”, I said half-smiling while entering my bedroom. I pulled out my high heels, ran to my bed and plopped down on it. Pfew, just in time. Seven wines, four mix drinks and two XTC’s certainly were not good for you. I grabbed my bag which was beside me and took another pill. This is definitely too addictive. Then I passed out.

The next morning I woke up with a huge headache. I looked at my phone and saw I had three missed calls from Lucie. Speaking of the devil, at that moment another call from her came in. “Hey”, I said as I picked up. “You sound pretty messed up”, she responded. “How was it last night? Were you able to forget about Harry?”, Lucie continued. “It was amazing. Justin and I had so much fun”, I answered. I decided not to tell about the XTC. “I’m sorry, I’m gonna go to bed again. It was pretty late last night”, I said. “Wait, you still remember that big project we’ve got to do and hand in before next Friday?”, Lucie remembered me. “Oh yeah shit. Can’t we do that tomorrow after school?”, I suggested. “I’m totally fine. I’ll see you at school tomorrow then. Have a good rest. Bye”, she said and we hung up. I put my phone away and lay down on my other side.
“Dinner!”, I heard my mom shouting in the distance. I groaned. I heard footsteps on the stairs and my bedroom door opening. “I’m sorry, you were still sleeping”, my mom said. “No, it’s okay. I had to get up anyway”, I said as I changed into different clothes. Luckily, I felt way better now. “Tell me about last night”, my mom asked. “It was so great. We went to see a movie, Blended, which was amazing by the way, and after that we went to a little café. We talked and laughed a lot. He is so cute, mom”, I responded smiling. “Maybe you should bring him over sometime”, she suggested. “No no no, I don’t want to scare him immediately by introducing him to my parents”, I said laughing. “We’ll just see how it goes”, I continued. “When did you become such a strong and grown up woman?”, my mom wondered aloud. “Just stop it”, I said grinning while walking down the stairs together. “Hey dad!”, I said brightly as I saw him. “Long time no see”, he said with a grin. I gave him a hug. “I’m hungry! What are we eating?”, I asked. “Your favourite. Paella.”

The next day Lucie and I both walked to school, as usual. It was one of those days where none of us could shut up. Sometimes we’d just have endless conversations. Our teachers in the morning were completely gone mad because of us. Several of them had already separated us or threatened to report ourselves to the vice principal, but nothing helped. We’d end up talking anyway. During lunch break, when Lucie and I weren’t talking for a moment, I sent Justin a message. Where are you? I want to see you. Not much later, he sent me a message back. I’m skipping school today. I want to see you too. At our bench in half an hour? By our bench, he meant the bench we sat on at our date and where he gave me the first XTC pills. He wanted me to skip classes and I didn’t care about school now. My heart was itching for him. See you then xx. “I have to go”, I told my friends. “Why? You still have school today?!”, Michelle stated. “Justin wants to see me”, I responded. “Shouldn’t he be at school as well?”, Anna asked. “Are you going to skip classes because of him?”, Lucie asked. “Yes, yes and yes, but I don’t care”, I said and I took off. I left my friends completely speechless behind. This is not who I am, but change can be good, right?
“Hey”, I said smiling and sat down on Justin’s lap. He gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I have a question”, Justin began. I looked at him. “What is it?”, I asked him. “Do you wanna be my girlfriend?”, he asked me smiling. A big smile appeared upon my face. “Yes of course”, I answered before I leaned in to kiss him slowly. “I wanna introduce you to my friends. Is that okay with you?”, Justin asked as we pulled away. It surprised me, but not in a bad way. “I’d love to meet your friends”, I said and grabbed his hand. Not much later we arrived at one of his friends. As I stepped into the living room, I saw that more of Justin’s friends were there. “Everyone meet my new girlfriend, Iris”, Justin introduced me while still holding hands. “Hey”, I said, a bit shyly. Justin’s friends weren’t the types of people I’d usually hang out with, but you know what they say: ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. I decided not to look too much dependent of Justin and sat down on the couch between two girls. “Hey, aren’t you that girl who dated Harry Styles during the summer?”, one of them asked. “Yes, that’s me”, I admitted. Sometimes I didn’t mind talking about Harry anymore, but there were also times, like this, that it still hurt me. “From Harry Styles to Justin? Why?”, the other one joked. “Excuse me”, I said and stood up. “Where’s the bathroom?”, I asked Justin’s friend who lived here. “First door to the right”, he answered. I entered the bathroom and locked it. I had to loosen up a little, so I decided to take a pill. Or two. “I’m back!”, I exclaimed brightly as I got back to the living room. Everyone looked surprised at me. “Justin, did you give her your pills?”, one of his friends asked. “Yes, why?”, Justin responded. “So we don’t have to hold in ourselves”, he said grinning. A few hours later the room was filled with chatter, laughter and a lot of drugs and alcohol. Justin certainly didn’t have goody-goody friends. I wondered how often they did this. I was sitting between the same girls as before, Claire and Angelique. “Iris, have you ever smoked before?”, Claire asked me while handing me a cigarette. “No, but there is a first time for everything”, I responded grinning. I took the cigarette and inhaled. I immediately started coughing which caused everyone to laugh. “What is it?”, I asked when I was done coughing. “Weed”, Claire answered. I inhaled again and again. It felt good. This weed has made me even more loosened up. I was definitely starting to get high.

Lucie’s P.O.V.

Where the hell was Iris? We were supposed to work on our project and she was two hours late. I had already called her like 20 times, but she didn’t pick up. Let’s try one more time. This time she did pick up. “Where the hell are you?”, I asked angrily. She started giggling. “Oops, I forgot about the time. Sorry”, she responded, still giggling. She sounded very different, like she had too much alcohol to drink. “Are you still coming or what?”, I asked. “Probably not”, she said. “Whatever. Bitch”, I responded. I was really angry. “Go fuck yourself”, Iris said and hung up. What the fuck? This was so unlike Iris. Well, I didn’t have time to worry about her now. I had to get this project done. I would just do my part and Iris had to see for herself. Not my problem.
When I arrived at school next day, Iris wasn’t there. “Do you know where Iris is?”, Michelle asked me. “No clue”, I responded. “She’s probably with Justin again”, Anna said. “She just started dating him and Justin already has a huge influence on her”, Sophie said worried. “I know”, I said softly. “Yesterday she didn’t show up for our project. I called her and all she could do was giggling. She just didn’t care”, I continued. “Was she drunk?”, Sophie asked. “I guess so”, I answered. “She’s not picking up her phone. I will go by her house this afternoon to see if she’s there”, I said.
I rang Iris’ doorbell that afternoon twice, but there was no answer. Or she was ignoring me or she was with Justin again. I actually hoped she was ignoring me because I didn’t like Justin that much anymore. I went home and tried to forget about the whole situation. I called her a few times, but she didn’t pick up. I decided to just make my homework and I hoped I would see her at school tomorrow.

Iris’ P.O.V.

I decided it would be best if I went to school today. I already skipped school for 1,5 day. Yesterday Justin and I hung out with his friends again. We had a great time, but I was still in my senior year and had to pass my finals at the end of the year. I was surprised my school didn’t even call about where I was. Apparently it was really easy to skip classes at my school, which I didn’t mind. When I was ready, I went out and rang Lucie’s doorbell. No answer. She probably thinks I’m not coming again or she’s still mad at me. I really had to do something about that. We never were really mad at each other, but I let her down and told her to go fuck herself. I had to fix this. I hated it when Lucie and I were fighting. When I arrived at school, I didn’t see Lucie nor Anna, Michelle and Sophie. Luckily my first class was with Lucie. When I walked in the class room, there was still a free spot next to Lucie. I quickly sat down. “Can we talk?”, I asked her. She shrugged. “Lucie, I’m really sorry I let you down on Monday. I was being a real bitch. You didn’t deserve that. You just wanted to finish that project. What can I do to make it up to you?”, I continued. “You can’t just walk in and be all nice and sweet when on Monday you absolutely didn’t want anything to do with me”, Lucie responded edgily. “Please, I hate it when we’re fighting. I will do whatever it takes to make you love me again”, I said with my puppy eyes. I knew she couldn’t resist my puppy eyes, but unfortunately not this time. She was still cold. “Don’t you know how much I worried about you? Which you don’t deserve by the way. You and Justin just started dating and he has already completely controlled you”, Lucie began, but I interrupted. “Stop it. You have no fucking idea about me and Justin. You know nothing. I’m in love with him and there’s nothing you can do about it. Yes, I do skip classes, but so what? I wanna have fun with him. Just shut up”, I responded angrily. I was really mad at her now. What the hell does she thinks she knows about me and Justin. I grabbed annoyed my bag, stood up and walked out of class. I sent Justin a message. I’m skipping school again. You coming with me? Fifteen minutes later Justin and I were walking through town. “Calm down. She’s not worth it”, Justin told me. “I know, but still it makes me fucking angry”, I responded. “I need some coke”, I continued and searched through my bag. “Shit. I don’t have it”, I said. “No problem. I’ve got coke”, Justin responded. “No, I had it with me this morning. I must have dropped it somewhere”, I said, trying to think where I lost it. Then it hit me. “I lost it when I left class this morning, so that means Lucie probably saw me dropping it”, I exclaimed worried. “No one can know I’m using drugs, especially her. Ugh, I’m just a dumb ass”, I continued. “Don’t think about her now. Let’s do something fun”, he suggested. “What?”, I asked. “Let’s go shopping without paying”, he said. I looked at him confused. Then my eyes got wide. “You want to steal?”, I asked him. “Why not?”, he responded. “Or are you too pussy?”, he asked teasingly. “Fuck it. Let’s do it”, I said and walked into the nearest store.

Notes