We are best friends, we are roommates, we are Angelina and Erin. I’m Angelina, 18 years old, and people have always referred to me as the perfect teenager. I never lie, I never party, I never even miss homework assignments. I’ve always been considered the ideal role model for teenage girls. Erin, on the other hand is a partier. At just 18, she was the queen of lies and rule breaking. She would tell her friends she was studying just so she could go out on the weekends. She was a good student up until she got to college and realized all the other opportunities that were much more fun than school. Despite our differences we were inseparable, we always evened out the other and kept her in place. No one knew we were even friends because we were such opposites. But somehow we managed to prevail all odds and our friendship survived throughout college.

One bright and sunny afternoon we had just got back from our English class that Erin was currently failing. I opened the door to the petite dormitory where we live and we jumped up onto our beds. We both grabbed our laptops off our side tables and began to play around. Erin put on some punk rock music while I dove right into the English homework we just received. I had built up a tolerance to Erin’s shenanigans and was able to type my essay without being distracted by the music. Erin quickly became bored of her music and wanted someone to talk to. She closed her laptop and waited for my attention.

I looked up. “What’s wrong?” I said.

“Nothing” replied Erin, “I just wanted to know what you were doing tonight?”

“You’re looking at it” I said back.

Erin had a puzzled look on her face. She thought to herself about her Friday night plans and then it hit her. “No you’re not,” she said. “You’re coming out with me for once. There’s no way you are spending another Friday night alone in this dorm.”

I didn’t even know what to say. I knew it would be wrong to go to a college party but then again I am in college and I haven’t got to really experience it yet. “Fine.” I said. Erin was filled with excitement and once again blared her music and started to dance around the dorm.

Eight o’clock rolled around and we both had just gotten out of our beds and began to get ready. We did our hair, put on cute outfits, and by nine o’clock, were ready to brave the night. We slammed the dorm room door shut and began to head across campus.

By the time we made it to Jake’s dorm the party was crazy. There were people everywhere we turned and a look of nervousness ran throughout my body. I turned around to tell Erin I wanted to go home but she had disappeared into the mix of all my unknown classmates. I was off to fend for myself. I set off towards the drink table where I figured I could just hide out for the rest of the night. Surrounding the table was a large group of guys, one of them happening to be Jake. Jake was in my English class and I had noticed him many times now. He is a tall, handsome guy with a personality any girl would die for. I continued towards the table when I felt something. There was a drizzle of liquid running down my back and I couldn’t help but want to cry. I quickly turned around to find out Jake had fallen into me and spilt his drink all down my back. “Oh my god I’m so sorry” he paused. “Wait I know you. You’re the girl in my English class right? You sit in the front row right in front of Professor Stanley?”

“Yeah that’s me” I responded.

“I didn’t know you came to these things? Like parties I mean?” said Jake.

“Wellllll my roommate kind of dragged me here but the minute we walked in she disappeared on me.” I complained.

“Here, let me show you around.” said Jake.

We spent the rest of the night together. He introduced me to all his friends and we got to talking and realized we had a lot more in common than either of us thought. When midnight rolled around I realized it was time to go and I told Jake. He gave me a nice kiss goodbye and told me he’d see me around. I fled the scene with a huge smile on my face.

The next morning I awoke, still smiling. I couldn’t wait to tell Erin the news about my big night. I jumped out of bed and onto Erin’s. Erin quickly sat up and asked me what was up. I began, “okay so last night after you ditched me at the party, still mad at you for that, I met this guy in our English class and we spent the whole night together just talking and getting to know each other and then he kissed me!!!”

“Wait what?! Ahh I’m so happy for you Ang, that’s awesome!” she responded.

“Thanks! And I haven’t been able to get this smile off my face since.” I explained.

“After you left the party last night I started talking to this guy in our English class too! What are the odds?! We always seem to find each other at parties and always end up talking. He kissed me too!” screamed Erin. We couldn’t help but laugh and smile. We were both so excited about our first college kisses that we had forgotten to mention their names.

Later on that day Erin was being her usual self and thought she should make the first move on the guy from the party. She direct messaged him on twitter and asked for his number. He answered and the two got to talking. I was not far behind though because right after my little talk with Erin that morning I got a text from a random number saying “Hey, it’s Jake.” We texted all day long. Being roommates, we decided it would be fun to go out on a double date with our party boys. So we both of them texted our guys and asked if they were busy that night. Jake said he could hang out but Erin’s mystery boy said he was already busy. Erin decided that for me, she would third wheel on our little date anyways. The clock struck eight and we were both ready. We were meeting Jake at the Fireside Hut on the other side of campus. It was one of the few on campus restaurants. We left our dorm and arrived a few minutes early. We got a perfect table and awaited Jake’s arrival. Ten minutes later, Jake pulled open the restaurant door and turned to see us sitting at the same table. The look on his face was surprising seeing as as soon as he saw us he turned straight around and ran out of the place. “What was that?” I asked.

“I don’t know” replied Erin “but that was the guy I kissed at the party. I thought he said he was busy tonight.”

“Wait. Erin. That was the guy I kissed at the party. What are you talking about? He was my date.” I questioned.

“Um no he was supposed to be mine. Ang… I think we hooked up with the same guy last night. Of course he chose you. Just like everyone else.” Erin rushed out of the restaurant and never looked back.

We both arrived back at the room later that night still not having said a word to each other. I was the first one to speak up. “Ok, let’s make a deal” I proposed, “how about neither of us talk to Jake anymore and we both move on.”

Erin was quick to respond. “No way! I’ve been talking to him for a long time now and I finally thought we had something but then you came in and swept him off his feet. It’s not fair. I just wanted one thing that you didn’t have. Just one thing.”

At that moment I came to realize that Erin wasn’t really upset about Jake but more upset that I was the one who he fell for. I spoke up, “Erin, can we talk?” She nodded. “I know we both like the same guy and I know it’s not fair to either one of us but it’s not worth losing a friendship over. We have been best friends since kindergarten and I don’t want it to stop now. Especially over a silly guy.”

“It’s more than that though. It’s you’re better than me at everything and everyone likes you more and everyone looks up to the precious Angelina.” Erin replied with tears in her eyes.

“It doesn’t have to be that way Erin. When we got here everything changed. You became a totally new person and it has driven us further apart. We used to be side by side every step of the way and you wouldn’t hear the name Angelina without it being followed by Erin. I miss that. I miss you. I miss who you used to be.” I said. Silence came over us.

“I miss you too Ang. I miss us. I just wanted to stand out for once and have my name on top but clearly it didn’t work.” sighed Erin.

“As long as we have each other we will always be on top,” I replied.

“They’re plenty of fish in the sea!” Erin said with a wink.
From that day on, Erin and I have proven to be college girls staying above the influence. We have always stood by each other’s side even now that we’re growing older. I’m proud of who we have become. And I’d like to say congratulations to Erin Campbell for being valedictorian of Brown’s class of 2013.