We warned Jackie about that boy. We didn’t think he was meant for her the day we heard about him. She didn’t have to say it, but, we could tell, she loved him. Every day we would hear about him. Something, even the smallest thing. She could always find something about him to talk about; it was a new thing every day, and she didn't even see him every day! Jackie is sweet, kind, and caring and we didn't think she would even go for a guy like HIM. He was country, he wasn’t even really that attractive, and he even had a mullet! We are Jackie's closest friends and were with her through everything, so we think it’s a good idea to start from the beginning. 

            In a small town called Theresa, during the bright and gorgeous summer, there was a street dance to support the local region, that we all went to. Anyway, we were all hanging out together at the dance just talking and laughing, you know, normal girl stuff. We collectively noticed that Jackie would periodically turn her head behind her, but we didn’t say anything about it until we noticed HIM. 

           Mick asked Jackie, “Hey Jack, what ya lookin' at, or WHO ya lookin' at?”

           Jackie’s first response is, “Oh, it’s nothing.”

           “Oh come on Jackie,” Mick says, “ it’s obviously something.” 

              “Yeah, Jack what is it?”

              “Yeah, who is it?” 

              “Who is it, who is it?” 

             We all started begging Jackie and finally, she gave in. 

              “Okay okay. There’s a guy over there that keeps looking over here and I think he’s looking at me.” 

              Of course, she thinks he’s looking at her. Anyways, she continues with, “I don’t think that he’s cute, I just want his Snap just because, but I’m scared to go over there.”

None of us wanted to go over there either, but her mom's friend overheard the conversation. We then watched as she grabbed Jackie's phone aggressively, yet gently enough not to break it, and went over to get his Snapchat. We could tell by Jackie’s expression that she became very embarrassed. She quickly turned her back to the guy and faced the inside of the group. Her mom's friend comes back with her phone, hands it to her, and Jackie quickly shoots a look at the guy. 

Later that next day we were all hanging out back at Jackie's house. We asked Jackie questions about the guy, like if he had added her back yet, what his name was, and what they talked about that night. She told us that he added her back when he got home, that his name was Cole, and they talked about why she wanted his snap and why he added her back. Jackie couldn’t help but blush and smile the whole time she talked about him. Minutes felt like hours when we had to listen to Jackie talk about Cole. It became annoying. She would talk about how he called her pretty all the time, about all the snaps he saved of her in chat. We even found out that he would use a heart emoji when he would call her pretty and he would use it with “good morning” and “goodnight.” Hearing about this all the time, we were back and forth as to whether or not Cole was a good guy. We would talk about it in our group chat that we didn’t include Jackie in. Don’t worry, we made it after she started talking to Cole, because we started to assume that something bad was going to happen. It turned out to be a good idea because we weren’t all that wrong. We all had our own opinions on him but they were mostly bad. At one point we all agreed that this wouldn’t end well for Jackie and that Cole would end up being bad for her. We talked and prepared for when this might happen, because, you know, bad things always happen to good people, and we cared for Jackie so much and we didn’t want her to get hurt.  

A few months later, towards the end of September, our school had a football game that we had to be at for pep band. We all went to our “clubhouse” after school to get ready for the game with the theme; which was a construction theme. It tends to get colder at night though, now that it’s closer to fall so we wanted to make sure we had all of our blankets to keep us warm. After we were finished, we went down to the game together. We were all singing and having car karaoke but noticed that Jackie wasn’t acting like her normal self. She just sat silently in the front not doing anything. She wasn’t even bobbing her head to the music. We all looked at each other confused. We all fell silent and sat for a brief few seconds listening to the blaring music from our playlist and the BOOM BOOM BOOM of the bass in the speakers. After a few seconds of confusion, we all knew exactly what the problem was. Cole. That boy turns out to be a problem that cannot be solved. We all slowly turn our heads back in Jackie's direction. 

“What’s wrong Jackie?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

We can tell she’s trying not to cry, so we give her a few seconds to reply. 

“Joseph texted me.” Jackie basically whispered. We could barely hear her, “He was asking if I was with Cole. I asked why and he wouldn’t tell me. All Joseph said was that he didn't know if he should so I just left him on open. I guess I’ll talk to him later, maybe at the game when we aren’t playing pep.”

We were able to take Jackie's mind off of it for now and it was a normal car ride the rest of the way to the ‘lovely’ Lomira High School with our car karaoke back in session and Jackie with the lead role, of course.
We arrived at school and parked the car right up front in our normal spot. It even had our names written on it. We then proceeded to walk inside to the band room. We let Jackie walk in front of us so we can keep an eye on her in case she breaks down for some reason. We even snatched Jackie’s phone from her so she couldn’t see any messages. Everything went fine while we played through our opening songs and Jackie didn’t mention what happened in the car, but we could tell she still thought about it. 

About 15 minutes later and a few minutes before halftime, we noticed that Jackie must’ve stolen her phone back because we couldn’t seem to find it. We saw her looking at it and when she turned to us; she started tearing up and was about to cry. Joseph. It had to be. That had to be the only explanation. Jackie had told us before that Cole couldn’t come to the game because he had to “work”, but we knew that he lied and obviously Jackie thought it was true. She started talking but none of us could understand what she said because she tried to speak through tears. She finally calmed down and was able to tell us that Joseph said how Cole didn’t actually like her and how he was using and playing her. We felt bad for Jackie, we really did, even though sometimes she can be a lot to handle. She didn’t cry for long and we made sure that she was okay. She told us that she still didn’t think any of it was true. She said she thought Joseph lied because Cole didn’t think of Joseph as a friend, and Joseph was the one who told her. Later into the night, it started getting cold at the game and we all just wanted to leave. Especially Jackie.

Later that night, after we all got home, the secret group chat buzzed. Every one of us was once again saying how much of a bad person we thought Cole was. We wanted to say something to him, but we didn't know how because Jackie was the only one with his snap. So, we figured we just take her phone, or we would get lucky enough and she would give it to us. 

It was about the first day of October and we were all enjoying a nice and normal lunch, listening to the chatter and laughing around us, until Jackie showed up. It was all about Cole, AGAIN. Over all the chatter in the lunch room, Jackie had to shout and it just made the situation worse, for all of us. That amount that she talked about him, it’s like he might as well have been there with us and talked for himself. She would not stop talking about his homecoming either. She told us that she had fun and that she thought he still actually liked her.  And we let her think that. She did tell us though that it seemed like he flirted with another girl while she stood right next to him. The table fell silent and everyone just gave each other a look of “I told you so”. 

A few days later all was quiet until BUZZBUZZ BUZZBUZZ. It was 9:30 p.m.! We all picked up the Facetime almost immediately. Jackie had mascara running down her face, she bawled her eyes out, her hair was messy and we even think we saw some mascara on her shirt. That girl was just a mess. This time, she did talk through her tears. It was kind of hard for us to understand her because, well for one, she was bawling, and for two, she breathed the way you do when you usually cry.

“My mom told me to ask Cole if I could introduce him as my boyfriend to you guys at homecoming,” *inhale *inhale *inhale, *exhale, “and he said ‘no. Because I’m not so don’t introduce me as that.’ and I just said ‘Okay’ I wasn’t even sending face snaps anymore because he wasn’t either and,” *inhale *inhale *inhale, *exhale, “and he just like started snapping me less THE DAY AFTER his homecoming. He’s not even using the heart emoji anymore like he always did. AND HE WAS THE ONE THAT STARTED IT!” *inhale *inhale *inhale, *exhale, “I think you guys might be right, but I’m gonna see. I’m just not gonna talk to him anymore tonight.” 

We were telling her just to calm down and take deep breaths. Then we heard her talking to someone else and noticed her mom walk into the camera. One by one we just hung up and that ended the night.  

About a day or two later, some of us had our first class with Jackie and we decided that would be a perfect time to take her phone and talk to Cole. To tell him how awful he had been to Jackie, how it’s not right to treat someone like that, and how he can’t be mad at her even if he’s mad at something else. It’s just not right. The great thing was, we didn’t have to be sneaky. She must've already been talking to him because she told us how confusing he had been So all we had to do was ask her if we could talk to him through her phone. Surprisingly she told us we could, but we just had to say the messages were from us and try to be nice about it. We noticed her pacing and she looked nervous but it was hard to tell. The rest of the people in the class were silent and probably looking at us weirdly, but we didn’t care because we were taking care of our friend. We were able to receive some answers from Cole but we never told Jackie what he said. We told her that she would have to read them on her own. The thing is, even after all this, she still took him to our homecoming. 

Jackie looked absolutely gorgeous in her blue, tight-fitting, sparkly dress, plus her silver glittery heels and her hair curled perfectly. It’s like we were the mothers and she was our child. We looked at her and then at each other in awe. We hoped this night was going to be exciting. 

Jackie was with us for most of the night just dancing and singing the night away. Periodically, Cole would come by, but he would really just stand by us and then he would walk away somewhere. There were a few times we lost sight of Jackie as well, but we assumed she was with Cole or trying to find him. The sad thing for Jackie was that there were slow dances. She must’ve been dancing with Cole for the first half of the songs because Jack would come and join our circle, which was way better than just Cole. There was one song where Jack was starting to dance with us but then out of nowhere Cole gently pulled her away into his arms for a full dance. We thought he had changed, just a little, but no, he didn’t. We could see the tension between them while they danced. The sad thing is they did look cute with each other. Especially this night, in the dimly lit gym with the disco lights and beautiful colors bringing out their best features. 

About a week after our homecoming, Jackie talked about Cole less and less until she didn’t anymore. She told us that Cole wouldn’t snap her much anymore, so she stopped worrying about it and she didn’t put in much effort anymore to try and fix it. Even though we could tell Jackie was depressed about it and she didn’t look so good, we still comforted her and felt bad for her. That shouldn’t have happened. She is a kind and stunning young lady who doesn’t deserve to be treated like that. Especially by some BOY. But bad things happen to good people…right?