The Mix-Up

Lilian had been my best friend since the second grade. We would always hang out and we still do, more than we used to even. She has been there for me from that long ago till now, our first day of freshman year in high school. Last night I stayed up on Facetime with her a little too late, so now as I am waking up at six in the morning I am super tired. 

As I walked into school and am checking my previous text to double check which locker is Lilian’s, I feel this person run into my shoulder. Before I had time to turn around and see who it was, I heard a familiar voice say, “Oh my goodness, I am so sorry.” Wait, I know that voice. It is the most popular boy in our grade’s voice, and he just talked to me. I turned around just to double check, and sure enough there was Jasckson Mclanny standing right in front of me, actually talking to me. 

“O-Oh no, you’re good,” I stuttered back. 

“Hey, maybe I could get your number and we can hang out sometime?”

“Uh, yeah sure,” I replied as he hands me his phone pulled up on contacts. Oh my gosh, the cutest boy in the whole school just asked me for my number. Jackson freaking Mclanny just asked me, Ryleigh Moore, for my phone number in front of the whole school like it was nothing. I put my number into his contacts, triple checking that I typed it in right . As I handed him his phone back, our hands brushed against each other. We exchanged smiles and both headed our separate ways. 

I stopped by my locker and dropped everything off I would not need for my first class, Algebra. Yuck! Then I head towards Lilian’s locker. Even though it is halfway across the school, it is closer to my Algebra class anyways. When I got there, she was finishing up emptying her book bag into her locker. When I saw her face, it hit me for the first time since my encounter with Jackson earlier. Lilian and Jackson used to have a thing between them until Jackson cheated on her with Mia. Mia and Jackson did not last but about three weeks. Yet, it still made Lilian upset anytime someone brought it up. However, she still hadn't gotten over Jackson even though it had been two years now. She refused to get with anyone else because she still thinks that he will give her another chance. Every now and then she will bring up something about him or how she wishes they were still together and how she missed what they used to have. I am pretty sure she knows everything about me except one thing, which is that I like Jackson. 

Out of all the times she has talked about him, I have managed to encourage her and not mention anything about me liking him or even thinking he is cute, and I will not lose that streak now. So I approach it as nothing has changed. We talk about normal things any two high school girls would talk about on the first day of school, boys, although not Jackson, this weekend, and how a bristle of our $40 makeup brush fell out, so we threw it away. She was in mid-sentence talking about how her little sister spilt her oatmeal all over her mom as the bell rings for the 1st hour to start. 

“Great, now we are officially late to the first class of high school, and now all the teachers will think less of us than we want them to.”

I rush down the hallway and take a right, to enter Algebra two and a half minutes late. Luckily my teacher, Mr. Jakner, was pretty chill with the rules and kept talking like he didn't even notice I walked in. Which is fine by me. 

It was a risky first day of school, keeping a lie from my best friend for the first time since in 4th grade when I told her I did not know where her book was at school when I knew exactly where it was. It was easier than I thought it would be, but I had this unbearable churn in my stomach all day. I just tried avoiding it, and it finally went away. As soon as I had a chance, I checked my phone to see if I had any new texts. Sure enough, after scrolling through seventy-one texts about stupid things, I found it in the middle. It read, “ Hey, it's Jackson, call me when you get the chance.” The first thing I did was put him down in my contacts with just his first name and the star emoji. What else am I supposed to do except for call him like he said, so that's what I do. 

On the phone we talk about how our first day went and how he has apparently liked me since the end of last year but didn't feel like getting in another relationship after what had happened between him and Mia. Then he asked me if I wanted to go to the movies. Of course I said yes, and we were just talking about random things until our call got interrupted by Lilian calling me. I told Jackson I had to go because Lillian was calling me and I didn’t want her to be suspicious. He unexpectedly understood, so we said bye and I answered her call. When I answer, I know the first question coming before it even leaves her mouth. 

“What took so long to answer?” 

“Sorry, I was getting a snack from downstairs and when I came back into my room I saw you were calling me.” The second lie.

After a month of firsts, talking and hanging out with Jackson, lying to my best friend, and the first month of high school, Jackson asks me a question I knew would be coming. 

It was a Saturday night and we were out getting ice cream. He says, “Would you wanna, I don't know... maybe go out with me... like a real date as a couple, not just as friends?” 

Well maybe I wasn't expecting him to say it like that, but I had figured something was coming. I agreed to it, and we decided we would go out to dinner the following Friday. 

On the Friday of our first “real date,” I don't feel like dressing up that much, so I just wear my ripped jeans and light blue cutoff shirt. He comes in a shirt and jeans so I am not as embarrassed that I didn't wear a dress. After we order our food, we talk about any vaults that would be in the way of our relationship. The first thing mentioned was Mia. She is still jealous if she sees Jackson hanging out with any other girl, but he promised me that he wouldn't go back to Mia and he wouldn't cheat on me like he did with Lilian. Which made us bring up a big discussion on what we were going to tell Lilian about us, or if we would say anything. He brought up a good point about if we wanted to be like a normal couple, we would have to hang out and I think she would notice if I randomly just started hanging out with her ex all the time. We ended up deciding that we would just let her figure it out on her own if she were to find out, but not to mention anything to her because she would be furious at the both of us. At least I thought that’s what we agreed on. Apparently Jackson thought the opposite.

A week later, Lilian and I hadn't had any problems and her mood hadn't changed at all. She was still her happy self. So I just figured Jackson and I had had the same idea and were on the same page. Until the next day when I get a call from Lilian at 11:30 at night when I am about to fall asleep. 

I hear my phone ring and see her name and just expect her to be calling and saying that her dog just learned a new trick or she finished a series on Netflix, but nope. I answered and she just started ranting at me for a minute straight. I couldn't understand one word she said because she was balling her eyes out. She started over, slowed down, and then calmed down a bit. I then realised why she was crying. I still didn’t understand every word, but I understood what she was trying to tell me. Jackson told her about us, how long we have been talking, how many dates we had been on, and everything in between. 

I sat there in shock, first of all that Jackson told her and second of all that all of this stuff was even happening. 

“Lilian, I am so sorry, I didn't know how to tell you and I knew you would be devastated. I completely regret lying for this long, and I won't do it again.”  

At that point I was crying, because I truly was sorry and I did regret it. I just wished I would have never liked Jackson in the first place, because then I wouldn't have put my number in his phone, I wouldn't have said yes to going out with him, and none of this would have even been a thing. Now I have to own up to my mistake and just hope that she will forgive me. 

We sit in silence until she states, “Well I hope Jackson was a better friend than me, because don't ever expect to talk to me again. We. Are. Done.” 

Those words struck me like a sword in my chest. I could never live without her. I still couldn't believe he had told her. If I am being honest, I was always planning on telling her, just whenever I found a good time. There was only one more thing to do, which was to text Jackson and tell him the same last three words Lilian sent me so I texted him just that. 

“What do you mean?” he replied back. 

“I mean we are done. I thought we could work out, but you told Lilian. We decided that we wouldn’t, and you told her anyway. I knew I shouldn have trusted you after what you did to her two years ago.” 

“It was miscommunication. I didn’t know you didn't want her knowing. I swear.”

Miscommunication?? Is he serious? He actually thinks I believe him? I blocked him without replying. 

I realised I just lost two important people all because of what Jackson calls misccomunication, but I call it untrustworthy. It may have all started because I lied, but that is not the only factor in why I lost them. Perhaps I should have never put my number in his phone. There are many ways we could have prevented this whole situation, but none of them wanted to work in our favor.