Courage

Chapter Seven

[Maya]

Tired and hungry, I put my head down in a way that looked like I was playing seven up.

Just six classes I have to get through, including this one. I can do this. I think.

"Maya Evange-fucking-line Scott." I slowly raised my head like a guilty child. Caroline was towering over me with her hands on her hips and an angry expression.

"Hey, Caroline," I said. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is that my best fucking friend didn't have the decency to come to my dorm for my half-birthday." Oh right! I forgot yesterday was Caroline's half-birthday. She celebrates it every year as if it were her actual birthday.

"I forgot, sorry," I apologized, though my apology wasn't really genuine. "Why didn't you just call me, though? I would've come over."

"I shouldn't have to call you, you should be the one to call me," she hissed. "Also, I deleted your number after our fight."

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. It's not like it was your real birthday. Yesterday was the number of your birth date,  just . . .  six months later."

"You're a shitty friend."

"Caroline, do you even know when my birthday is?" I inquired, though I knew the answer to that.

"It's, um, it's in A—August," she stammered.

"July fifteenth."

"Yeah, well—"

"Yeah, well, nothing," I cut her off. "Honestly, can you get the fuck out of my face because now you're about to piss me off."

Caroline hesitantly took a step back and walked over to a group of girls. At this point I'm too tired to even feel nervous about the fact that they're probably talking about me.

Francesca stepped in, gave the group of girls a puzzled look and stalked toward me.

"Caroline's talking about you," Francesca informed.

I rolled my eyes at the news. "Oh well."

"If she has something to say about you she should say to you, not her little clan, you know that, right?"

"Francesca, I really don't care. She can talk about me all she wants. And if that upsets you then maybe you should say something," I countered.

"Why should I say something? She called you a fake hoe bag, not me," she retorted, and went to her seat.

Six classes later, I can finally go home. When I found my hand-me-down Honda in the parking lot I noticed the deflated tire. I looked around to see if  the person who did it was near me. Everyone in the lot was either talking to their friends or getting in their cars, and there wasn't a lot of people, by the way.

"Hey, Maya!" I turned around to see a smiling Caroline. "Where you headed? What happened to your tire?"

"Someone slashed it," I said, knowing it was her. Whenever Caroline didn't get her way, she would always do something petty.

"Awh, sucks for you." She shrugged.

"You really are a petty skank," I hissed.

Caroline giggled. "I think you mean pretty, and, um, at least my tire isn't slashed."

I wandered around aimlessly around campus before I decided to just call an Uber. But then, I realized that I didn't have enough money on me for an Uber. And so, I decided to walk home.

I heard a plethora of honks and saw that a car stopped in the middle of the road. The driver did not seem to care about the honking and yelling coming from other drivers. I watched the window roll down and saw Francesca in the drivers seat and Camila in the passenger.

"You can't just stop in the middle of the road when there are other cars, moron!" Camila chided her sister.

"Shut up," Francesca retorted, as she lightly pushed her sister's head to the side with her hand. She then looked at me. "Where you going?" she shouted.

"Home, my tire got slashed so I have to walk," I shouted back.

She rolled her eyes and said something to Camila that I couldn't hear.

"Get in," she ordered.

I went to the car, got in the backseat and put my seatbelt on. The honking from the other cars on the street didn't stop.

"Camila, give them the finger," Francesca muttered.

"Seriously could've just pulled over," Camila muttered back.

"Yeah, yeah. Maya, who slashed your tire?" Francesca asked.

"Caroline did, she was mad about something so stupid."

"You could've asked for a ride, it would've been better than walking," Camila said.

"Yeah, does that not sound like, I don't know, the smart thing to do?" Francesca parked in front of a library. "Bye, Millie." Camila got out of the car with her book bag and a book in her grasp. I got out as well to sit in the passenger seat.

"I don't know why I didn't ask." I muttered, feeling stupid and a little embarrassed as Francesca drove off.

She sighed. "What are you going to do about Caroline?"

"Nothing. I don't know I what can do."

"You terrifically piss me off," she spat at me.

"W—what did I do?"

"Nothing. That's the problem! You don't do a god damn thing, you don't defend yourself." She sighed again. "Fucking invertebrate."

I wanted to get out of the car and just walk home. Francesca was being mean, but I can't deny that every word that was coming out of her mouth was the truth.