Personal Essay: My Best Friend Who Changed My Life

I knew I was struggling, but I didn’t know it was going to start all this trouble. I can’t believe it all began like this. What? Oh. Yeah, I should introduce myself and what the heck I’m talking about.

I’m Hope-Rose “Spade” Jones. Nice to meet you. I am 5’ 6” and recently became a freshman in college. So I’m 19 years old. My best friend, Xavier, and his girlfriend, Katie, know me better than anyone. Only because we’ve known each other since freshman year of high school.

I got my nickname because I always dug a little deeper, which got me in trouble often. Xavier became known as “Joker” because he was always making jokes in high school. Katie? She’s called “Queen of Hearts” because she broke every heart of almost every guy in high school. That

My parents abused me and my brother. I couldn’t leave him behind, so I took him to our aunt then I ran. I ran to the next town over with a few clothes, two hundred thousand dollars, and some water. I’m currently living in a car that I bought with $100k. I’m just trying to make it by.

If Joker finds out about me, he’ll never want to know me. He’ll turn me into the cops. I hear the knob turning, so I dodge under the table getting ready for the cops (or someone helping them) to barge through the door. Instead, Joker enters and calls my nickname. I poke my head out and ask if was helping the police. He asks if my real name was Hope-Rose Jones. I couldn’t deny it. I nodded and stood up and cried. He ran over and hugged me as tightly as possible.

“Spade,” he says softly, “I would never turn you into the cops. Even if you tried to kill me.”

I look at him, wearily, in the eyes. He smiles caringly into my eyes, trying to calm me. He pulls me in closer so I can bury my face into his chest. It felt like hours standing like that, but it was only a mere minute.

A cop bursts into the room and asks Joker to back away from the runaway. He cuffs me and drags me out of the school and away from my new best friend. My only