Growth

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Albeit I should be wearing shoes and I probably should've raked them last night when the moon was up instead of the sun.  Oh well, now here I was under the Georgia morning sun raking up leaves that were left on the ground from our Autumn in the Summer party last night.

The party was a last minute attempt to become more popular than my ex-bestfriend, Ashley. Ashley had tweeted 5 days ago that she'd be throwing a Winter in the Summer party and that she'd have real snow. Snow? In the summer? Yeah, great idea Ashley. But it was better than anything I had. Honestly the Autumn party started as a joke between my mom, sisters and I.

"If she's having a Winter party, why don't you have a Spring or Autumn party?" Mom chuckled.

"Oooooo Yeah! You should do an Autumn party! Everyone can wear scarves and boots." Lisa, my 11-year-old sister said.

"Or maybe they can just walk around the yard with Pumpkin Spice Lattes in a Starbucks cup." Daria, Lisa's Twin said.

"Ya know, the twins may be onto something here. We can probably order some fake colorful leaves and grab a couple pumpkins too."

"If this gives me a reason to order Apple Cider donuts then I'm in!" I said it jokingly but later that night my mom was sending me links to order the leaves and stuff from. They arrived 2 days later & then I tweeted out about my Autumn in the Summer party. Shameless, I know. But Ashley had it coming.

Our 8-year friendship had ended over a guy. Cliché. I know. This wasn't just any guy though. Zach had been my crush since the second grade but had always followed Veronica, our old classmate around and in middle school they claimed to be dating. Ashley constantly reminded me too and would suggest I find a new crush every time I brought him up. Well, Veronica announced that she was moving away during our 8th grade graduation and I assume Zach knew early since he didn't even attend graduation.

That next day, Veronica's family was packed and as their U-hauls passed through town she tweeted "Goodbye Savannah, Hellooo Santa Monica". I couldn't believe it but I saw an opportunity in this and as bad as it sounds, my thoughts on checking in on Zach were purely that. Everyone knew how crazy Zach was about Veronica. He would barely let other girls approach him over fear that Veronica would misunderstand. 

I figured with Veronica out of the picture that I could at least be his friend now. Only Ashley must’ve had the same idea since when I arrived at Zach’s house the following weekend after graduation, Ashley had been walking out. I was immobilized. Part of me wanted to run up to her to find out what that was about. 

She told me she planned to be at swim practice all day. But the thought that my best friend had lied to me caused me to hide instead. As she was heading down the stairs, Zach ran out and grabbed her hand. She walked back up the stairs and then Zach kissed her. I couldn’t believe it. Everything inside of me broke. I thought she might push him away but she kept kissing him. 

I rode my bike home, dragged myself up the stairs to my room and proceeded to cry the entire night and partially into the next day. I woke up with my eyes so puffy I could barely see out of them but for what reason would I want too? I would only see the betrayal of my best friend and the lies of my best friend and the heartbreak of my crush. 

After a week of ignoring Ashley’s calls, mom stopped pestering me about what made me cry and I figured she guessed it had something to do with Ashley since she would often be standing next to me as I pressed the end call button. I’m glad she stopped asking because I had no plans to tell. Instead she booked me a 4-week vacation stay with my cousins in North Carolina. 

It was definitely needed. My cousins brought a glow back to my face and made me forget all about the betrayal. Of course sometimes it would sneak back on me and I would find myself crying in the middle of a boat ride around the lake but I definitely laughed more than anything. 

I hadn’t checked social media since I left but when I did- I immediately wished I hadn’t. Ashley was now in a relationship with Zach. They were having a Winter in the Summer party. 

Back to now. School starts in two weeks and we’ll be Highschool Freshman so while I knew that Ashley would invite our grade, I highly doubted she would know any High Schoolers to invite. It was in this area that I had the upper hand. My mom is the town vet and I often help out with secretary duties on the weekend. I’m cool with just about half our high school's junior and senior class plus I know a lot of the sophomores too. 

I sent a Snapchat invite to everyone I know. Most thought it was a hilarious idea and added some ideas of their own, which is why a few of the football team members showed up in Halloween costumes and the night ended with us watching horror movies on the projector in the backyard. 

I cleaned up all the food, blankets and trash last night but the thought of leaves was too much. So I was woken up lovingly by my mother who handed me a broom and dustpan before I even got out of bed and told me to “Sweep up or pick up every last leaf in the backyard”. Still being half asleep I trotted down the stairs and am now regretting the idea to skip shoes. 

Wildly enough, I don’t think I miss my best friend. It hurts and it will likely hurt whenever I see them together but I know I’ll make new friends. Time will heal these wounds and maybe next summer I’ll have a new best friend. One who has an opposite taste in guys from me.