Let's Not Meet Again

Chose Your Friends Carefully

I didn't think I'd ever revisit this, but this event changed my life, and still affects me to this day. I apologize in advance for the length, but I promise, all of these details are relevant.

I was in 8th grade. I was a typical 13-year-old girl who loved pop music, lip gloss, and talking about boys. My best friend Tiffany and I were inseparable. We had every class together, ate lunch together, spent the night with each other every single weekend, and called each other every single day after school. We had another friend, Ashley. She was a lot more boy-crazy than Tiffany and me. She was far more adventurous too; she had already had her first kiss (!) and was seriously crushing on this guy, Adam. She talked about him constantly, to the point where Tiffany and I were indifferent about it.

Adam was a hellion -- one night at a football game, he doused his hand with Axe body spray and lit it on fire. And, for a reason that escaped me, Ashley was infatuated with him. He wasn't great-looking, so I think she was attracted to his bad-boy demeanor. The four of us were in concert band together.

Now, this was the era of Myspace, Xanga, Angelfire -- the old-school social sites. I had an account on each site and spent a lot of time online, harmless stuff that my parents knew about and approved of.

During football season, after every home game, my school would host a dance that we called a sock-hop. At one dance, Tiffany introduced me to a friend that she had met online -- Tyler. He didn't go to our school, so he had to have snuck in. He had a sense of humor that was a bit too dark for my taste, but I thought he was an all-around nice guy. At the end of the dance, Tyler asked me for my phone number -- not in a crushing-on-me kind of way, but in more of a we-should-keep-in-touch way. I obliged and the night ended.

Tyler would occasionally text me a harmless "Whuddup girrrl", and we'd exchange small talk via text once every couple of weeks. Tiffany, however, talked to him non-stop. She developed a crush on him and stopped calling me after school. They started going to the mall without inviting me, and it led to the two of us drifting apart. With Tiffany and Ashley chasing boys, I was all alone. I was doing my own thing at school. I still saw Tiffany and Ashley every day, but things just weren't the same between us.

One morning before the first bell, I was walking to my locker. I met up with Tiffany, since her locker was right beside mine. We were exchanging awkward small talk when I saw a hand poke Tiffany's shoulder. We both turned around and saw Ashley, wide-eyed with delight. I was intrigued; was she about to divulge a juicy story about a boy? She smiled and said, "Look what I've got!" and unzipped her small purse. I peek into it and see about ten white, oval-shaped pills. I had never seen drugs in person before, so I was obviously taken aback.

"Where'd you get those? What are they?!" I exclaimed. She grinned and replied, "Adam gave them to me. I'm gonna take them after first period." "No," I angrily responded. "Ashley, you can't! You don't know what these are! You have to get rid of them right now." She scoffed and smirked. "Shut the fuck up. Adam said I'll be fine." The first period bell rang and she strutted off, satisfied with herself. I was in shock. I asked Tiff, "What are we gonna do? She can't take those!" To my surprise, Tiffany didn't seem even slightly concerned. She started walking to class, and I followed, nauseous with worry for Ashley.

The first half of the day was a blur because I couldn't focus. I was sick with worry. Before I knew it, it was time for lunch. I took a tray and sat down at an empty lunch table. I was half-heartedly stirring at my mashed potatoes when I heard an outburst from the hallway behind me, then loud sobbing and screaming. "What the--" I thought as I turned around and saw Ashley on her knees, bawling. Before I could process much else, three of my concert band friends saw me, bolted to my table, and sat down. They told me that Adam was taken out of class on a stretcher and was on the way to the hospital. He had had a seizure due to a drug overdose.