One of the most important days in a teenage girl’s life is her sweet sixteen birthday party. It’s a day to share with your best friends and family. A night to remember, and have no one forget. Everything is a big deal, what you wear, how you do your hair, who is invited, what you will be doing, how fun it will be. That is a lot for one teenage girl to handle, which is why her friends are supposed to help her out.

It was fifth grade, new year, new teacher, new building of the school, and new friends. That is when I became friends with Christine. I had gone to school with her my whole life. She was even the one who taught me how to tie my shoes. We hadn’t talked since pre-school because we were never in the same class together, and this year we were. We hit it off immediately always joking and having fun, our personalities really worked well together. As the years progressed on we became closer and closer, friends came and gone but we always had each other.
In the seventh grade another girl, Kelly, joined our duo and we became a trio, best friends for life, or so I thought. In the seventh grade, Christine also got her first boyfriend Eric. Everyone thought they were such a cute couple, even I did. They dated all throughout junior high and even into high school. But the separation of schools took a toll on their relationship, and they finally broke up in the beginning of sophomore year. After the break up Eric didn’t speak to Christine, me, or anyone who we went to junior high with for that matter. A couple months later it was December, and Eric came back around again. Christine and Eric started dating again, but this time Eric was really different. He would get really violent and yell at me or Kelly when ever we would crack jokes about him or Christine around him. Christine said that he is still hurt by their breakup but he will get over it. Soon Christine started to distance herself from Kelly and I drastically. She barely had any girl friends and she spent all her time with Eric. When me and Kelly finally confronted her about it, she said that Eric told her to choose between either him or us and she didn’t want to choose. That day we got into a huge argument. How could she leave us for a guy? Not even a good guy at that! He was so controlling and all Kelly and I tried to do was help her. That day, Christine also got into a fight with Eric. She called me crying in the middle of the night and told me how sorry she was for ever choosing him over me, and that they were done for good. I remember staying on the phone with her for hours trying to make her feel better. She told me how she would never let a guy get in the way of our friendship ever again. The next two months were normal we had sleepovers, gossiped, Christine even moved on and began to like a new guy Matt. It was February and my sweet sixteen was coming up. Christine and Kelly came over one day and we planned the whole thing. Everyone was really excited, Christine already had her license so we drove around and dropped everyone’s invitation off at their houses. It was a really fun night, I actually felt like I was growing up and I was mature, because I could drive. It was two nights before my party and I was shopping with Kelly for the perfect outfit. My phone rang, it was Christine. We started talking normal about our days, and what we were doing, then she dropped the bomb. Eric asked her to the Norte Dame informal winter dance, and she said yes. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Eric asked her, it was on the same night of my party. She tried to reason with me saying she would come to my party and just leave early for the dance. I was so furious I just couldn’t help but scream at her. How could she miss my sixteenth birthday party? I could understand if it was my fifteenth or seventeenth, but it was my sixteenth birthday! And I could understand if it was homecoming, or prom or something, but it was an informal winter dance! This was the night I was supposed to remember and she was ruining it. The next thing I know I have Kelly tugging on my shirt to stop screaming, as I pick my head up I realize that I am standing in the middle of American Eagle screaming my head off and everyone is looking at me. I stormed outside and continued to yell at her. I told her that if she wasn’t going to stay for my whole party then she shouldn’t even come at all. How could she ditch me, her best friend, for her EX, abusive boyfriend! I stood there in shock as Kelly’s phone rang. It was Christine. She asked Kelly to ask me if we were still friends. I remember grabbing the phone from Kelly’s hand and screaming, “NO!” The next day, the day before my party, I had had some time to cool off and realize how much I was actually blowing this out of proportion. I called Christine. I tried apologizing, but then took it back when she told me that she had made a mistake breaking up with Eric and staying friends with me. I couldn’t believe it I was calling her to apologize and she threw it in my face for caring about how abusive her boyfriend was being to her. She quickly forgot the hours I had spent on the phone with her when he hurt her or how about I was still there for her when she had no friends, because he pushed them away. I told Christine to have fun at her dance, and with the rest of her life. I hung up. My party was still fun without her, but it wasn’t as great as it could have been. A couple weeks had passed and I had no problem completely blocking Christine out of my life. We went to different schools and that made it easy. It seemed the only thing we had in common was Kelly. The only problem with that was that we both wanted to hang out with her all the time. Christine and Kelly went to the same school so naturally they got closer. I seemed to become very distant from her and closer to my friends at my school. Alumni day was coming up at my old junior high. It was a weekend reunion of everyone’s graduating class. Which meant Christine was going to be there, and Kelly, and Eric. As soon as I walked in Kelly and I locked eyes and gave each other a big hug. We talked for a good 10 minutes right in the doorway. I was so happy to see her again. I then spotted Christine. She wouldn’t make eye contact with me. That night I ignored her. She hadn’t been in my life up until now, and I was doing just fine. The celebration was over and everyone was going to this girl Heather’s house. I spotted Christine in the corner crying. People were saying that she said she couldn’t go to Heather’s, because I was going to be there and that she would ruin my night. She was trying to play the innocent victim, I saw right through it. I decided to go over and talk to her. She asked me if it was okay if she were to go to Heather’s. I told her it was her own life and she could do whatever she wanted. I had told her what to do before, and she obviously didn’t listen so why should she start now. I know I could’ve made up with her right then and there. She was about to apologize I could feel it. That’s when I got this feeling like there was a bowling ball in the pit of my stomach. What do I do? If I let her apologize to me we’re going to become friends again, and if I don’t we’re probably never going to speak again. I remembered everything she said to me and made my decision. Actually, I used her to make my decision. I told her that if she honestly thought she was good friend to me she would come to Heather’s, but if she thought she shouldn’t be forgiven she should just leave. I got to Heather’s and asked around if she was there.

“She got a ride home from Eric,” some guy told me.