Lost Keys and Men Who Vanish

Photo on Foter.com

The summer transitioning from sophomore year to junior year was the year I learned the most about what I wanted, and what I didn’t. It was a year of self discovery – I started finding my style, my people, and I got a haircut, (a really, very bad haircut). Attempting to find out who I was in a sea full of people who didn’t have a clue was oddly comforting, but awkward. We were all lost and on completely different paths. When the school year was coming to an end, I began to realize how ready I was for even more change. We would come back in the fall as juniors – our time was almost up. I knew I had to make that summer the best one yet, so I put myself out there, and boy, did I learn a lot.

When the summer finally started, I spent everyday with my closest friend. We went to the beach on our days off, talked for hours in empty parking lots at midnight, and laughed until we couldn’t catch our breath. Everyday revolved around her, and I was grateful to have someone in my life who was so similar to me. Little did I know, things were about to get rocky, and our friendship would grow stronger from the events that are about to be shared.

At the time, she was in a relationship with an older boy, and they attempted to set me up with his best friend. Both of them thought it was fate, and we had to be together. I would roll my eyes and sigh every time they brought up the idea of a double date, but eventually, it happened. When the day finally came, I didn’t have butterflies. I wasn’t excited to meet him. Again, he was much older than me. Being sixteen, and hanging out with a nineteen year old was a bit scary, but I wasn’t afraid. I wasn’t going to allow myself to get involved with someone so much older than I was. There were three years of experience between us – he was in college, and I was barely a junior – I was not going to allow this to become anything more than a silly date.

When we first met, he was shy and began flirting with me immediately. I knew what his intentions were, so I was a bit cold and stuck up the entire time. I made it clear to him I was not interested, but he still tried counting shoulders during the movie, and his pick up lines afterwards. I began warming up after awhile, (for some reason I still don’t understand) and I agreed to hangout with the three of them after the movie. Long story short, we all had a great time and the two of us made plans to see the other again. I went home, finally feeling butterflies and smiling like an idiot – I was falling for this guy, and I knew it was going to be hard to get back up again. I received a call from my best friend on my way home, and she asked how it went. She asked me how I felt, and we talked for over an hour.

The week after the movie, my friend and I decided to go to the beach. We invited the boys, but they both refused, stating that neither of them were interested in joining us. We were a bit hurt, but went anyway. The sun began to set as we picked up our stuff and headed to the car. I opened my trunk to grab a water bottle, closed it, and tried to open the drivers seat door. It was locked. I searched through my pockets to find my keys, and then realized shortly after I had left them in the trunk. We began to panic, because I didn’t have an extra set of keys and it was getting dark. We were in a new area, and well, neither of us knew what to do in a situation like this. I started to panic as she desperately tried to find something to go in through the window to unlock the car. She walked around the beach until she found a metal clothes hanger – it was quite convenient! She then attempted to slip it through the top of the door. She reassured me that everything would be okay, but I was losing hope, so I called him. Yes, the mystery movie boy. He sighed and fussed, and I begged and pleaded until he agreed to help. He showed up about an hour and a half later. The sun had set completely and my friend and I had been waiting in the dark, huddling together, as it had gotten colder and we were still in our beach attire. He showed up, and with the help of a firefighter who had all of the equipment in his car, we managed to get the keys out of the trunk. I thanked the man who saw us struggling, I thanked my best friend for sticking with me, and lastly, I thanked the boy. Clearly annoyed, he rolled his eyes and went home. We didn’t speak for a few days.

After that day, the boys began to drift further and further away from us. The boy I was with seemed less interested in spending time together, and I knew it was because the summer was coming to an end. He was older, going to school over an hour away from me, and he rarely came home during the year – at least that’s what he told me. I knew he was trying to distance himself, but it wasn’t because he was trying to let me go – it was because he thought I was getting attached. My friend and I were confused at the time, but as time went by, we were able to realize why he did it. In mid August, the boy my friend was with decided he was done. These two had been together for awhile, and were constantly off and on, so I knew they would be back together soon, but something was different this time. He had a temper, and would often unleash his anger out on my friend. She constantly made excuses for him, but at the end of the day, we both knew it was more than a bad relationship – he was emotionally abusive and she had to come to terms with that. He stopped talking to her, blocked her number, and vanished. I stayed with her for a few days, and called her when we were apart. Meanwhile, the other boy went back to college and never spoke to me again. For the remainder of summer, we carried on like nothing ever happened. We went out for ice cream, took little road trips, and had occasional breakdowns together. Looking back to the keys in trunk situation, it wasn’t the boy who helped me, it was her. She calmed me down, and tried to find ways to unlock the car while reassuring me that everything was going to be okay. The boy made me feel like I wasn’t important, and helping me was such a hassle. We also helped each other grow stronger from that experience. We were there for one another through everything, and to this day I’m blessed to say she’s still the person who keeps me sane and we help each other with quite a bit. Maybe this story was a bit long, but for awhile I thought the boy was going to be a lifelong friend, someone I could always turn to if I needed, but I was never prioritized or important. I spent so long focusing on him, I never realized the things my best friend was doing for me. She’ll always have my best interest at heart, and I’ll always have her back.