Lakeside Love

Bad Blood

 I looked at my phone, rubbed my eyes, and tried to figure out what to do. Did I miss Rachel? Of course. Of course I did. It felt like a huge chunk of me was missing and there was just a giant hole left inside of me.

I used to talk with Rachel every day and hang out with her almost every weekend. We were the "cello chicks," according to Mister Dallas, our orchestra teacher. We'd been stand partners since we first picked up our cellos in fourth grade.

But before that, we were making trouble in Sunday school, giggling up a storm in the back of class since we were six. Rachel and I got into so much trouble with our talking and our jokes, that our school purposely never put us in the same class, except for orchestra. We'd never do Mister Dallas like that.

When my parents got divorced, Rachel was there for me. When my hair fell out, Rachel was there for me. When she broke up with her longtime boyfriend, I was there for her. Then when she broke up with her other boyfriend, I was there for her again. Rachel had a lot of questionable guys in her life.

We'd been at every birthday party or major life event since we were six. I felt a deep sense of sadness, knowing she missed our sweet sixteen party and my gender reveal, and I wouldn't see her for her birthday...which was today. I bought her gift three months ago. It was sitting, already wrapped, under my bed at my mom's house.

I was sitting at the dining room table with my cereal and just kind of staring at that text. How do I respond? Do I even respond? We're young. I don't know the whole story. Maybe I'm being too cruel. It's literally her birthday. I really should give her a second chance, shouldn't I?

I took a breath and texted her back.

Me: Happy bday. I don't have a lot going on today so I can Facetime you later if you want.

Rachel: Okay! I go out to lunch with my family at 1 so I can call you around 11:30?

Me: Sounds good. Talk to you soon.

I closed my phone and powered it off. This was too stressful. I didn't want to keep looking. I moved my cereal over to the living room and got to work on my farm instead. In-game, the autumn fair was a week away and I needed to get nine high-quality items together for my grange display.

I was celebrating my victory at the fair when I noticed the time. I cleaned out my cereal bowl and put it in the dishwasher, then brushed my gross teeth and got on a cuter outfit. I didn't want to look like a mess. I wanted it to seem like I was doing great and had everything together.

Once I was all prim and proper, I went and sat out at the firepit so as to not disturb my dad. I listened to Taylor and texted Brayden while I waited for her to call. Rachel always called first. A little past eleven-thirty, her name popped up on my screen. Seeing her call used to bring me so much excitement, but now all I felt was dread. I exhaled and answered the call.

Rachel came up on the screen, her same warm smile and with her deep purple hair. She always dyed it in the summers since OLH didn't allow colored hair. Her makeup was done to match it, and she looked fabulous. I could hear Opal's voice in my head telling me not to be intimidated; that I looked great, too.

"Hey, it's good to see you," she said. "I miss you so much."

"Thanks. Hope you're having a good birthday so far," I said.

"Well I just woke up so we'll see how it goes," she said. "So, it's two girls! Congrats! I'm so excited for you. Do you have any names picked out? You should totally—" I zoned out for a second. Why was she talking to me like nothing happened? Was she really going to just gloss right over that whole thing and pretend everything was fine? "Kimi? Why are you looking at me like that?"