Kaila flipped through old pages in her worn scrapbook, stopping to gaze at the picture before her. Two scrawny girls sporting braces grinned back at the camera, standing on top of a mountain from their trip to Colorado. She winced while glancing at their feet. How could shoes as ugly as Sketchers have been so popular? Laughing at the thought, Kaila continued onto the next page. The same small girls had grown a bit, and the scene shifted to a basketball court. A sigh escaped her lips as she looked up at the room around her. An empty chair stared back at her. She missed it’s old occupant who was now more engrossed by the computer screen than the life around her.
The days of senior year passed by but Kaila still felt an emptiness without Megan. Sure, Megan was still there technically, but Kaila had never felt so distant from her in her life. Senior year had started without a hitch; Kaila and Megan always drove to school together swapping new gossip they heard. Megan especially loved the gossip; she was always interested in what was going on in the lives of others. After school they ran together, trying to stay in shape since neither of them played sports anymore. November rolled around, and it became too cold to run outside.
Kaila was ready to hit the gym, “Meg, you’re coming with me to the gym after school right?”
“You know, this whole running thing really isn’t for me. I’m just going to start going home after school. Have fun though.” Megan tried to sound nonchalant about the going home part, but Kaila knew it was just another excuse to check her Facebook.
How could she throw her life away like this? Was staring at that screen all she did now? Thoughts would invade Kaila’s brain about Megan losing all real contact with people, resorting to that screen to give her all she needed in life. How could she believe that this was healthy? Kaila decided to try and have an intervention on the way to school the next morning.
Both of them sat comfortably in the seats of Kaila’s Jeep. Kaila fidgeted in the driver’s seat thinking of a way to start the conversation. She decided the best was to be direct, “Don’t you want to hang out with people anymore? Like everyone thinks you are on drugs or something, do you want them to think that? I miss hanging out with you Megan. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I don’t know why you are even freaking out. Get over it. I’m not even on that much.”
“Oh come on…”
“Oh, but did you know that Sean and Jen broke up last night? I mean based on his status, I’m going to guess she dumped him. Rough, huh? Well, I mean, I guess I would have dumped him too based on that picture of him and Sara. You know the one that was his default a couple days ago?” Megan splurted out the sentence as if she had memorized it. She was too confident in her words, and that scared Kaila.
“Megan, you gotta be kidding. Did you just hear what came out of your mouth?”
“It was in my news feed! I can’t help that it comes up in my news feed! What am I supposed to do, defriend everyone? That would make everything totally pointless.”
Kaila decided to give up for the day and sighed as the road opened up to the acre that their school sat on. Pulling into the parking lot in silence, both girls gazed out the window awkwardly. Kaila noticed when they were pulling up that Sean and Jen were walking into school holding hands. Megan must have noticed it too.
“Woah, do you think they are back together already?” Megan asked as she whipped out her iTouch to check her homepage. “That’s weird it says they are back together already. I mean, they changed it at like one in the morning. What could have happened between then and now?”
Kaila smirked to herself and responded, “I don’t know, girl; maybe we’ll find out when we go in.” They walked into school, and as they did Sean and Jen turned around and beamed at the girls. Megan looked over to Kaila in confusion. The happy couple approached the girls looking happier than ever.
“So, how are you guys doing?” Megan asked cautiously, still glancing over at Kaila in shock.
The couple noticed the look and Sean said, “Oh, are you talking about our Facebook breakup and get back together thing? Yeah, well, Kaila thought that you needed a little jolt, so we wanted to see if you would comment about it. It was totally fake. We knew that only someone with a legit problem would notice that.”
Megan looked over at Kaila with remorse. Did Megan finally get it?
As the thoughts trickled through Kaila’s brain Megan said, “Ok, ok I get it. I’m a Facebook creeper! I’ll stop; I promise. Or at least I’ll slow down. So running after school?”
Kaila broke into a smile and triumphantly responded, “For sure, girl. I’m glad you finally get it! I thought I was going to have to put your name on the announcements for being the biggest Facebook creeper ever. I’m glad I only had to do this.”
Both girls laughed and waved goodbye to Sean and Jen. Having her friend back was exactly what Kaila needed. Senior year was now back to being perfect.