The Great Divide
"What are we doing today?" David called and asked the minute he got off work. As he raced his old green car down the interstate to come to my house, Richard and I waited. This became a daily occurrence mainly because we had more fun with each other than anyone else. We were inseparable the whole summer.
"David, we are going swimming," I usually responded because I had just moved into a house with a pool, and it always felt as hot as hell outside. His body was not nearly as muscular as Richard's, but he didn't care because his looks weren't his first concern. If his jokes or his stupid dance moves made you laugh, then he would do them all day long. So, with his orange swimming trunks on, he did a belly flop almost everyday, and almost everyday it made me cry with laughter, and that's all he really wanted.
Considering it was two boys and I, the whole eating healthy was no concern for them. Swimming would make them feel like they were starving, so David always suggested Gatti's. He engulfed about ten pieces faster than I could chew one, and he usually regretted that decision shortly after. With our stomachs too full to suck in, we all had one thing on our mind; sleep. The three of us pilled into his old green car and drove to Richard's. He had most of the upstairs to himself, so there was plenty room for us to be the bums we were.
"Ya'll, I'm sick of being worthless, let's do something," he would always say after we had acted like bums for a couple of days straight. David always forced us to go outside and usually play basketball. For some reason, if he picked up a basketball he became Kobe, or if he kicked a soccer ball, he became David Beckham. With his 5'7 built, you had no idea he was capable of much, but he proved you wrong fast.
"David, can you just let me win once?" I complained after the game ended with me having the letters H-O-R-S-E. Considering I seemed like one of the boys to him, he had no problem with completely dominating me in every sport or videogame we played. Since I thought I was incredible at Mario Cart, I would challenge David and Richard anytime, anyplace. I was never worried about Richard, but David, well David would make me throw my controller across the room every time he beat me by a tenth of a second in the last race. As he laughed at how angry I was, I gave him the death stare while looking into his squinty brown eyes.
With the three of us spending the last night of summer together, we knew our busy school days would make it all change. We got to hang out every day, but since he went to another school, the week dragged without seeing him. Every night he would call me then we would three-way call Richard, so we could all talk about how shitty our days were compared to the blissful summer days just a few weeks earlier.
Months passed. Every break we tried to make as fun as that summer. Thanksgiving was crazy; David broke his ankle while trying to flip a go-cart. He never could do anything normal; he always looked for adventure. Christmas break, he was still crippling around because of the attempted go-cart flip. Somehow, Richard got six tickets to the LSU National Championship, so, we all drove to New Orleans and hoped David could keep up with us. David tried not to ask for help, but for about three months in the leg cast, he needed more help than ever. This brought David and me closer, because I would go over to hang out and help him with anything. I made an effort to see him much more, and it felt just like summer again. We were inseparable, but it all changed a month later.
"I met a girl, we're dating,'' David explained in a giddy voice. He described her as perfect, and they started dating two days after they met. He was the type of boy who loved having a girlfriend, so he saw no problem with the short amount of time they knew each other. While I was standing in Eye Masters, I let him know how happy I was for him, but I never told him about my shocked face over the phone. That same week, he wanted to bring his new prize to a high school basketball game. Since Richard and I had been predicting everything about her; we were ready to see the real thing. We all turned and saw his athletic body holding hands with a very petite girl. Instead of them stopping to sit with us, they walked right past, just to go sit alone. By half time, I decided to go up there and make them feel welcomed. She was quiet and shy, probably because she did not know me, but I tried to make conversation with the both of them until the gamed ended. Even though I still did not feel like I knew her, I felt there were plenty more opportunities for us to become close like David and I had been for so long.
A couple of days later, as I pulled up to my house, feeling a little tipsy from drinking wine at a house down the road, I saw his old green car slowly stopping.
"Oh my gosh, it's so good to see ya'll'', I screamed while jumping over to talk to him and the new girlfriend.
They were leaving one of our friends' houses that lived in my neighborhood. It felt like he was just as happy to see me as I was to see them, and I did not even notice her awkward silence in the passenger seat. He was never much of a party animal, however, he promised me they were going to stop by at the huge party that was happening the next night.
After eating a yummy mid-night snack and passing out in the clothes from the night before, I woke up to four text messages from him and another boy. Even though I had a huge crush on the other boy, I was more concerned with why he had sent me three messages. I was hoping they read good morning and how excited he was to hang out tonight. However, my hopes were shattered after the first message I read.
"Megan, I can't be friends with you anymore. Don't try to get in touch with me because I will not respond, and don't be a drama queen and tell everyone about this, especially at the party tonight."
I read that about a million times before I could even read the next message, which did not say anything different. I could not pick up my jaw off the ground; it caught me completely off guard. That night rolled around, and I planned on trying to forget everything he had said to me that morning. Luckily, all was forgotten after the many Vodka shots I downed. The next morning, as my head pounded, I still could not block out the thought of us not being friends.
While I sat in my room doing homework a week later, my phone vibrated on my notebook with his name causing it to ring. As my hands started shaking, I prepared myself to answer the phone without sounding nervous. He told me he thought I needed an explanation for the sudden change. Even though I could not say anything, all I could think was whatever the reason, it better be worth it.
"All me and Michelle do is fight over you. I mean, we can probably be friends after we break up." He told me that along with more excuses that seemed like just a bunch of bullshit to me. As he kept running his mouth, my eyes kept filling up, and I could not stop the tears from falling down my face. He pretended like he did not hear me, probably because he did not want to think he was hurting me. After a long awkward silence, I hung up the phone knowing while he was with Michelle; I was out of his life.
I was a mess; but Richard helped me when I was in denial of the whole situation, when I cried my eyes out, and when I would think of ways how I could literally hurt him and his horrible girlfriend, Michelle. I honestly don't think I could have made it without Richard. Eventually, after about six months, I finally realized how stupid I was being. David changed from being my best friend, and became someone I don't know anymore.
Reflection
1. At first, I had a lot of significant incidents that were special to me about David. However, that was not the point of the project. The point was to get the reader to see his characteristics. So, I had to change a lot of the incidents to ones that meant to me and ones that described David. I really think just explaining the story or conflict was the easiest to me. The conflict is so vivid in my mind so all the details were easy to explain. However, I had trouble describing him. I do not like the listing of characteristics in a paper, so I felt it was hard to describe him and not make it obvious. In the end, I think I mastered that more than I had before.
2. I feel satisfied with the end of my paper. Like I said, the conflict is very vivid to me, so after I got past explaining all the good times we had, I could explain the worst part of our friendship. I also feel like once I explain how he completely cut me out of his life the whole paper gets more interesting. I still wonder if I did a poor job explaining his characteristics or incidents of us hanging out. I explained a lot of specific times in the summer then jumped a couple of months to when everything was over. I don't want the paper to boring or sound dumb because I did that.
-Characterization: I think I grasped him more now. I tried to include specific information so the reader can see him more without sounding like I just added it into the paper to make a better grade. After I read it, I also like how I can see him more vividly too from reading it.
-Specific incidents or recurring activities: I think most of my paper was specific incidents. I really hope that the reader gets a feel of David by how I explained him but also the different things we did over the summer. I think the incidents sometimes show more about a person than if someone just said a characteristic about them.
-Significance: Even though someone didn't pass away, or I didn't have a conclusion paragraph stating how David affected me, I really think the significance is understood. Obviously a friend had hurt me and it affected me like it would affect anyone. I am satisfied with how I included a significance but didn't have to show it.