Worst Luck

This reunion is going to suck. I wasn’t disappointed as I walked through the door. The room was filled with the lifeless bodies of deflated balloons, and the few stray ones were floating and clashing in bright hideous colors - lime green, neon pink, and mustard yellow.  

A slow song was on, but the dance floor was practically empty, occupied only by a few people who brought their dates to the reunion with them. It seemed that Eve Zimmer and Brent Johnson ended up together. Surprising, they hated each other. Eve had a sparkling diamond band on her ring finger, and she was smiling widely. 

What a loser. These people are all losers. 

The food table was cluttered with the randomest food items, from hard boiled eggs to cinnamon rolls. There was a platter of cupcakes, frosted sloppily in neon pink icing. I delicately plucked the thin wrapper off of one of the red velvet cupcakes. The colors looked awful together, pink and red. It looked like Valentines Day had come early. And I hated Valentine's Day, ever since my life became miserable, including my love life. 

My name is Bri West, and back in high school, I was the nicest and smartest girl in school. I had a lot of friends, but then all of that changed. I attended Stanford, and I thought that it would be great for me. 

But in college, I started to care less about my grades and more about partying. I started to flunk all of my classes, and when I had all D’s and F’s in my classes, Stanford kicked me out. Two days later, I was fired from my job at a fancy restaurant, Le Dîner De L'amour. Two weeks later, my boyfriend, Max, broke up with me. 

I had the worst luck, and it hardened me. I became a cruel person, to even my family, who I had to live with due to the fact that I had no job. 

I eventually found work at a small flower shop, but that was barely enough money to pay for the apartment I lived in. 

I had to stay with my parents for not one, but two years! It was dreadful, and my sister, Ariana, kept getting spoiled while I was given practically nothing. 

I hated it, so I found somebody who was willing to room with me - my enemy, Lora Skid. It was really hard, but I sucked it up because she was paying most of the rent. Not too long after, we became pretty close, and we ended up becoming good friends. Or so I thought. 

I had gotten a new boyfriend, Isaac, and he was smart, funny, and cute. But he wasn’t what I thought he was. Apparently, he was a cheater, but he didn’t cheat on me for a random girl, he had fallen for Lora. I dumped him after Lora told me that he confessed his feelings, but I couldn’t bear to be living with her - it would be too awkward. 

I packed my bags and left the apartment, heading back to live with my parents. The next two months weren’t that bad. 

A rich man moved into our neighborhood, and he purchased plenty of flowers, from our shop, of course. This meant I didn’t have to live with my parents! I moved out of my old house and started a new life in a large apartment. Life was fine, but I had gone through so much, I was still an awful person.

And I still am now, I thought, as I threw the wrapper into the garbage with little effort. I took a massive bite out of the cupcake, and spat it out immediately into the trash can. Who thought that red velvet and chocolate would go together? Awful combination! I cringe, the bland flavor is trapped in my mouth. I pour myself a glass of punch and make an effort to wash the taste away. It doesn’t work. I walk over to my old high school friends, Sia Sharma and Helen Jett, who are chatting happily in the corner. They haven’t changed a bit. Sia still has long, black curls and sparkling blue eyes, and Helen has a short brown bob and green eyes. 

“Hey, guys.” I said, bored. 

They look at each other, and glance back at me, confused. “I’m sorry, but who are you?” Helen asks. 

“I’m Bri West, from high school, remember?” I remind them. 

A look of remembrance dawns on their faces, before they smile, and Sia says, “Oh, hi Bri! You look a lot different from since we last saw each other!” 

They weren’t wrong. In high school, I had shoulder-length blonde hair, which I grew out until it reached my back, and I had perfect skin, but now I have freckles and tattoos decorating my body. 

“Yeah, I guess I do! You guys look the same, though.” I remark.

Helen raises her eyebrows. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“No no no! It’s a good thing, I guess.” I stammer. “It’s just kind of dull.”

“Apparently, you don’t just look different, you’ve changed, Bri.” Sia looks at me like she would a puzzle - trying to solve it. 

“Is that such an awful thing?” I shoot back. 

“Bri, you’re not as nice as you used to be…” Helen replies quietly.

“Stop judging me! You don’t know what I’ve been through!” I shriek. 

“Okay, just stop. It’s fine. You can do your thing, we’ll do ours. Why don’t you go hang out with the mean girls in the meantime?” Sia smirks. Then she and Helen walk away from me. Can they cut me some slack? They haven’t lost everything! And they didn’t even care! They’re horrible friends. I thought to myself. I wasn’t that mean to them! Was I? Was I an awful friend? I shuddered at the thought. No! I couldn’t be! Could I?  

I run towards Helen and Sia, but they simply turn away from me, and keep on chatting about their lives. “Guys, please talk to me!” I say, desperate. 

“You’re going to have to be nicer. Do something kind to somebody. Something big. But that’s the only way that we can be friends again.” Sia informs me.

I nod and rush away from them into the girls’ bathroom and lock myself in a stall. How am I supposed to do something good for someone? It’s been weeks! I think to myself, and then I finally come up with a plan.