“TWEET, TWEET,” recess had just ended.
“Alright we better go,” said James. James was my best friend. We hang out at recess together every day, then after school we play video games together.
“Okay,” I said as we started to walk to the gate.
“Hey kids, how was recess?” said our teacher Mrs. Vargas.
“Good,” said me and James in unison.
“Great.” she said while opening the door. We all took our seats and Mrs. Vargas sat down on her stool and began to read. A while later Mrs. Vargas stopped and said, “Okay kids pack up, clean up!” The room grew loud as everyone cleaned up.
“See you after school Korbin!” James said over all the noise.
“Ya see you!” I said as I walked out the door.
A while later I was walking out the school front doors to find my mom. I walked up the sidewalk and saw my dad’s car. My mom usually picked me and my siblings up so I was a little confused.
“Hey, bud! Said my door through the window.
“Hey dad! Umm… where’s mom?
“She’s at home and I decided to pick you guys up.”
“Oh, ok.” I said as I got in the front seat.
“Hey, can you go find your sister?”
“Ok,” I said as I got out of the car. As I walked down the sidewalk to find my sister.
“Hey Korbin,” said Marry “Umm I don’t know if you want to know this but James was showing everyone that photo of you.”
“What photo?” I asked.
“You know… umm… that one… oh ya, the one with you playing with Barbies.”
Suddenly my stomach knotted so quickly I didn’t even have time to process what she said. Then without even meaning to, I took off running as fast as I could. It felt as if my feet had a mind of their own. I stopped running, panting, I tried to hold back my tears as hard as I possibly could.
That photo was meant to be a joke between me and James, he sent me an embarrassing photo of him, I sent him an embarrassing photo of me.
My sister Sabria showed up with her best friend Addie.
“Korbin, we’re bringing home Addie and Leo today.”
“Okay,” I said, trying to sound as if I were totally fine. Addie and Leo were our neighbors and best friends. Addie was in 4th grade and Leo in 2nd. I am pretty good friends with Leo even though he is three grades below me, he also acts really mature for his age. On the other hand, Addie is not very nice to me and she acts like a fourth grader, which makes sense because she is in 4th grade.
Sabria, Addie, Leo and I started to walk back to my dad’s car. When we got to the car I got in the front seat and we left. I didn’t talk the whole car ride since I didn’t want Addie and Leo to see me cry, cause I was 100 percent sure I would if I told the story. We pulled up into Addie and Leo’s driveway and dropped them off. Sabrina then said, “Can I play with Addie, Dad?”
“Yea sure,” replied Dad.
“Okay thank you Daddy!” Sabria got out of the car and ran to the front door to tell Addie the news. We then pulled out of the driveway and went home.
I didn’t want to tell my dad about James because he would tell my mom, and then my mom would tell my teacher, then my teacher would tell Mr. Mohagen and then I would have to sit in a room and talk to James, which I did not want to do. We got into our driveway and I sprinted inside. I knew exactly who I wanted to tell.
I barged into my sister’s room and found Emily sitting on her bed watching TV. Emily had a history of keeping secrets so that’s why I wanted to tell her. Emily was also the oldest and I’m the 2nd oldest so I usually come to her for things like this.
“Emily,” I said through a face full of tears.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” She said clearly seeing my face.
“If I were okay I wouldn’t be crying.”
“Well I’m sorry,” she said sarcastically.
“Just, whatever, can I talk to you in my room?”
“Yea sure.” she said as she got up to go to my room.
We got into my room and I plopped onto my bed and Emily sat down at my desk.
“So tell me what happened,” said Emily.
I told her everything with James and how we were perfectly fine this morning.
“What was the picture you sent him?”
“This one.” I pulled out my phone and showed her the picture.
“Bro… why.”
I was expecting her to laugh but surprisingly, she didn’t. “Okay well, what do you want to do about this?” She said, still looking down at my phone.
“I don’t want to be friends anymore,” I said, putting my phone in my pocket.
“Well just think about it… the rest of the year will be awkward cause you’re in the same class… and you have some friends that like James right?”
“Yea.”
“Okay well, why don’t you call him and tell him how you feel.”
“Ya, I feel like socking him in the throat the first moment I see him.”
“Okay, let’s not get expelled”
“Fine” I said, getting my phone from my pocket. I dialed James and almost immediately he hung up. Without even telling Emily I removed my phone from my ear and texted him, I know you are ignoring me, I’m not dumb.
Around 30 seconds later I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I took it out of my pocket and put it on speaker so Emily could hear.
“Hello,” said James on the other side.
“Hi,” I said angrily.
“Is this about the picture?” He said
“YA IT’S ABOUT THE PICTURE!” I yelled. I was pretty sure everyone could hear me in my house but I didn’t care.
I took a deep breath, then said, “First of all, why did you show people that photo, it was meant to be an inside joke between me and you, not everyone in our class, second of all if you do something like that again… I don’t know if we can be friends anymore.” There was a long pause.
After around 30 seconds I said, “Hello?” No answer. “I know you can hear me, James! TALK!”
“Okay fine,” he finally answered.
“Well did you hear what I said,” I said, trying to keep my calm. I looked over my shoulder at Emily and saw she was mouthing something to me. “Mute, mute it.” I pressed the mute button. “Yes,” I said.
“Say you want to give him a second chance,” she said.
“Well I don’t want to give him a seco-”
“Hello, Korbin, are you there?” James interrupted
“Unmute him,” said Emily in the same hushed whisper. I pressed the unmute button.
“Hi, I’m here,” I said.
“Hi umm I’m sorry they were forced me-”
“WELL HOW DID THEY FIND OUT TO FORCE YOU,” I interrupted.
“Okay, okay I’m sorry I won’t do it again.”
“And I want you to tell me the people you showed it to.”
“Marry, Darby, Katniss and Colden.”
“Ok well… just… er…” I didn’t know what to say. I pressed the mute button and looked to Emily. “What should I say?” I said to her.
“Tell him that you want to put this behind you and to not do it again,” she said calmly.
I pressed the un-mute button and told him, “I want to put this behind us and continue to be friends. But can you please stop doing stuff like this?”
“Okay, I’ll stop and we can still be friends, but can you please stop making fun of my hair?” I look at Emily and roll my eyes then turn around to the phone and say, “Ok fine but just so you know those are friendly jokes.”
“Well I don’t like them.”
“Whatever, so now that we have that settled, wanna play Fortnite?” I ask him
“Sure.”
We spent the rest of the day playing video games until we had to go to bed. The next day I walked in anxiously expecting people to laugh at me but no one did, actually they thought it was funny and laughed with me.
Me and James made up and to this day we are still best friends, and still respect our promise.
I hope in the future James and I could grow as friends. I also hope that in middle school I can make some new friends to make jokes with.