Torn Between Friendship and Love

Anita pulls me aside in the hallway. “Chizuru, I need to tell you something,” she whispers in my ear.

I look at her with curiosity. “What is it?” I ask.

Anita giggles. “So you know about that crush I’ve been talking about?” she says, still giggling.

I roll my eyes. “Hard to forget. You’ve been talking about him for the past two months nonstop!”

“Yeah, well, he’s Enzo!” Anita squeals.

My heart drops. She likes my crush? No. I can’t ruin our friendship just because of some boy. There are plenty of other boys out there. 

I put on a smirk, even though my heart hurts. “Ooh,” I say, “you like Enzooo!”

Anita puts a finger to her lips. “Shh!” she hissed. “Someone might hear you!”

I wave her off. “No one’s going to care,” I say. Except me… I grab her arm. “C’mon, let’s go to class. We don’t want to get a tardy!”

***

At lunch, I sit at a table by myself. Anita had lunch detention with one of her teachers for yelling out loud. I sigh and pick at the gross lunch food. Enzo walks by, catching my eye. I scowl at him and he smiles. Butterflies start fluttering in my stomach.

Enzo goes to his friends but doesn’t sit down. He motions to my table. Then, all of his friends got up and walked to where I was sitting.

Enzo sits next to me. “Can I sit here?” he asks.

I roll my eyes. "Why bother asking if you’re already sitting here?” I say.

He laughs and puts his hand on mine. “You’re so funny, you know that?”

I pull my hand away. “Yeah, sure…”

“Let me introduce you to my friends…” Enzo says. He points to a boy with curly hair. “That’s Jake,” Then he points to the boy next to Jake that looks quite similar to him. “That’s Josh, his brother.” Then a guy with straight hair. “He’s Zyan.”

Finally there was a guy I was quite familiar with: Tyler. He broke one of my sister’s heart but managed to make her fall for him again. Her name is Angel. She’s a year younger than me, while my other sister Emi (the youngest) is two years younger than me.

I ended up having a Japanese name because when my parents first came to the U.S., they didn’t adapt to American names, so I was named Chizuru. I’m fine with it though because I can represent my culture that way.

I glare at Tyler. He just looks at me and goes back to his food. 

“Say ‘hi’ to Angel for me, would you?” he says.

I could feel a vein pulsing in my neck. The nerve! “Fine, since she’s my sister.”

Enzo pushes away his plate. “Sorry, but they’re all taken except me,”

I smirk at him. “And it will remain that way,” I say.

Enzo brushed his hand against my cheek. “Maybe not.”

I blush hard, but I get up and leave.

I didn’t bother telling Anita what had happened. I didn’t want her to get upset. The day continued as usual, until dismissal.

Enzo walks up to me and crosses his arms. “Want to hang out on the weekend?” he asks.

Anita jumps up. “Of course!” she squealed.

He frowns. “I was actually talking to Chizuru, but you can tag along too, I guess…”

Anita’s face falls. I glare at Enzo. “Don’t be so rude to my friend! If you don’t apologize, I won’t be going!”

Anita shoots me a look. “No, it’s fine. You two have fun.” Then she walks away.

Enzo sighs. “Anita,” he says stiffly, “I’m sorry for being so rude to you.”

She turns back and half smiles. “Alright, I forgive. So, what time are we going?”

Enzo shrugs. “I don’t know. Three maybe?” he says more to me than Anita.

“Yeah, that’s good,” I answer.

“Hey, is it okay if I bring my friends? It would be way more fun,” asks Enzo.

I nod, but Anita shakes her head.

“Alright, then. I’ll bring my friends!”

As I and Anita walk on the sidewalk, she goes from mad (at Enzo’s friends) to happy (that she gets to hang out with him). She said bye to me and went inside her house, I went into my house, which was right next to hers.

I put my backpack down in my room and walked into the kitchen. I find Angel sitting on the counter doing her homework.

“Where’s Mom and Emi?” I ask.

She turns in her chair to look at me. “They went grocery shopping.”

“Oh,” then I remembered. “Oh yeah, I saw Tyler today.”

Angel jumps out of her seat. “Oh my god. What did he say?”

I roll my eyes. “He says ‘hi’.”

She jumps up and down squealing, “O.M.G., he’s so sweet!”

Just then, the front door opens. Emi and Mom come in carrying big bags. I go help them by grabbing some of the bags, and Angel does the same.

As I set the bags on the counter, I decided to tell Mom about the meet-up on Saturday.

“As long as you keep up your grades, I’m fine with it,” Mom answers.

“Thanks, Mom,” I say.

“Can I go too?” asks Emi.

I shrug. “Why not? I’ll let them know.”

She squeals. “Thank you so much for letting me tag along!” 

Her words instantly remind me of Anita. The thought of her coming too kind of made me jealous. What am I talking about? I should treasure my friend more than my crush. 

I tell my family that I’m going to go to my room to finish up homework. “And if Dad comes home, call me,” I add. I don’t know what I’m doing with my life.

Saturday comes and it’s about 2:46 in the afternoon. I get dressed, wearing a size too small shirt ( the top and shoulder sleeves are black and the rest white with a heart-shaped Ying Yang emblem), green baggy cargo pants, a grey jacket, and a pair of high-top shoes. To top it all off, I wear a pendant with the letter C.

When Emi and I arrived, Enzo was there with Josh and Jake, and Anita had just arrived like me.

Since I was old enough, I drove, but Anita wasn’t so she had her older brother go with her. He was a year older than me and he was in a gang, but he was a pretty cool dude.

Emi dropped at the sight of him. He had his brown hair tied up, and he was wearing a black leather jacket, a black t-shirt, black leather gloves, black jeans, and glasses.

“Hey, Chizuru! Been awhile, huh?” he says.

I smile. “Hey, Collin. How’ve you been doing?”

Collin shrugs. “Alright. Doing better now,” he says as he eyes Emi behind me.

I look at Emi. She was red and hiding behind me. I smile. This is the first time I've seen her like this.

Collin puts a hand on his hip. "Mind introducing the girl over there?"

I wave a hand to my sister. "Fine. This is Emi, my little sister," I say. Then I smirk. "She's single."

Emi yelps and slaps my arm. "Dummy!"

Collin grins. "Well, that's good to hear. Hey Emi, wanna hang with me?"

Emi slowly emerges and nods. "Sure, why not."

Anita crosses her arms and laughs. "You setting up your sister with my brother now? What are you, a matchmaker?" she teases.

I roll my eyes and whisper in her ear, "Guess so, because I'm trying to set you up with little Enzo here."

As I said this, my heart felt a stab of pain. I ignored it and stare after Collin and Emi as they walk away.

Enzo clapped his hands. "Okay! Let's get movin'!"