NOUN, NOUN, NOUN, NOUN, screams, dance, laughter, and through all of this I feel a steam of a tear on my face panic through my body, blurry vision in my eyes, my head doesn’t stop spinning reminding me of what happened and now I’m in the middle all alone. My name is NOUN and I guess you could say I have a pretty good life, I’m what you would call popular. I usually hang out with my friends who are also popular and rich almost all of them live in NOUN and if not their houses are worth a lot. They are pretty cool though, they get invited to everything, and it's good to have their kind of connections. “Come on Miranda we’re going to be late” That’s my friend NOUN her dads works for the power company called NOUN “Girl remember the outfit” and that’s Mitchell she’s pretty cool too even though she can be somewhat dumb sometimes. In the friend group theirs Lisa she’s the most popular and right next to her on the social pyramid is Marisol. They are pretty good friends and have no rivalry whatsoever as so many people like to say. After those go NOUN, Jose, Alejandro, and Mateo. Jose is Lisa’s boyfriend the power couple in the school. I’m in the pirámide because of these people, without them I would be nobody. I’m still not sure why they even let me be in their group since I’m not rich. I’m from another part of Dorado called it’s not poor it’s just isn’t rich. I live in what most people call “el barrio” but we didn’t have a choice, our whole family lives there and it’s not like we can afford a big fancy house. My family is of the working class my family works at everything and anything that gives money, they have to do this just to pay the bills and food. When they enrolled me in “el colegio” I knew they couldn’t afford it but I got a scholarship because of my grades and extracurriculars. My family was so happy I had this opportunity and at first, I was scared because I knew I wasn’t like these people, I couldn’t have the same experiences as them. Then I met the “corrillo” and they just adopted me, they gave me some of their old clothes, jewelry, shoes, etc. The biggest challenge was my hair, I have thick curly hair and it was hard to manage so they taught me how to straighten it, they said it looks prettier that way, and ever since I have straightened my hair every single day. When I got to meet their parents I was a little scared because at first I wasn’t even invited. After all, they thought if my family and I came it could be “dangerous” . I didn't understand why they would say this but I got to meet them anyways. When we got to meet I remember something they said to me after getting to know me and it was that “I was one of the good ones” I will never forget it because I didn’t understand what it meant until now.
A few months later and I’m at school con el “corrillo”and somebody says there is a party in a club and immediately we all say we’re going to go. I'm not the most party girl but as always they say if I don’t go I shouldn’t even be friends with them. This happens a lot when they throw parties I am the one who brings the alcohol, if they need their homework done, I do it, if they need me to take the blame, I take the blame because if not I would not be in the group, not anymore. I think of it as a small price nothing big has come out of it so I don’t mind that much. My grandma always tells me the same thing “ con amigos asi no se necesitan enemigos” I don’t try to think too much of it because I know if I do everything will go wrong and realization will hit. I've known for a long time that these aren't really friends but I choose to ignore the fact, I act dumb. After, my friends took me shopping for a dress for the party, usually when I go to parties I’m the designated know where everything is and everyone is. I don’t meet a lot of guys there but I know a lot of people because of my friend group. At one party a guy asked me to dance and it wasn’t the first time it happened I just usually prefer to be with my friends except for this time they told me to go afterward he said he liked me and we ended up being a thing. We dated for a bit but he told me I cared too much about how I looked to my friends, my appearance, and overall I just seemed to care for the approval of them, that’s not true. We got our nails done, and our hair, bought shoes and accessories, it was a good day what I was scared of was tomorrow the party. I stayed over at Lisa’s house with all the girls and we put on our dresses mine was a white sequence dress with purple, pink, and blue hues. The shoes were the same but more purple color with open-toe swirl heels. Lisa had on a pretty pink dress with these beautiful pink heels, Marisol had a navy blue 2 piece set with some black heels, and the rest of the girls followed. We did our makeup and our hair and then the boys came with the car and we all got in. I was feeling a little anxious because of where we were going but Lisa tried to calm me down.
When we got there we entered with no problem and we started dancing, it wasn’t after some time later that things got worse. My friend wanted to buy drinks but couldn’t so I was in charge of that I got my fake I’d and bought some drinks like always they praised me for it we went back to dancing. After, they just seemed to disappear, I kept trying to find them but had no luck. Once I found them they were all wasted and started saying how I should loosen up and maybe finally be fun. That cut deep, I was used to their critics but they weren’t usually this mean. The next thing I know Alejandro tells me” You know with alcohol you don’t look so ugly anymore” That’s when my eyes started to tear up I mean what did that mean?! I wasn’t ugly anymore?! They told me he was joking to take a joke and they all went to go dance. I felt devastated but I followed they told me to dance to have fun. All of a sudden they were all laughing and told me to continue having fun I did I ended up having some fun until I realized they were nowhere. I looked for them everywhere and I asked the bouncer he told me they left and were giggling and laughing I felt humiliated especially since my parents didn’t exactly know where I was. I was alone in the middle of a crowd, I had gotten ditched. Lights, music, base, glitter, screams, dance, laughter, tears on my face, and regret of the dedications I made. I finally understood what my grandma meant with her “refrán” these weren’t my friends.
