Better than Friends

Chapter 12: Revenge Plan

• • •

"If they are okay with losing you,
then stop fighting."

- Unknown

• • •

After our mostly uneventful dinner at All A King, I had lost all contact with Cassidy, Elenor, and Marcus. I would like to blame it on the fact that finals had finally started and I was busy to no end but unfortunately I knew that the reason was something else entirely. Throughout the week that we hadn't talked, I began to doubt if voicing out my discomfort with Cassidy's treatment of me over the years was the right route to go but if it wasn't, what was? Keep my silence? Not anymore.

Finals was a rough week. When you barely study and are instead caught with too much personal agendas and occasions then academic failure looms over the horizon for you, fucked up, right? Having a life now entails failing your abcd's.

But thankfully the storm has passed and all I have to do now is stress over my results, though I'm sure that the ending would be a big fat fu-

"So, why did you want to meet?" Dawson asked, cutting my internal conflict short.

I chuckled nervously and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. We were sat in a restaurant on the outskirts of town, famous for it's scenery that resembled a tropical rainforest or what my mom liked to call Paradise. It was made much more sense why people would get lost in thought here, it's the perfect setting for it.

"I told you last time I knew how to finally get Cassidy's attention, didn't I?" I reminded him with a heavy breath, my leg trembling up and down.

Dawson nodded his head as he recalled our last conversation.

"Well, now that I've found time to tell you what that is I thought it would be best discussed over some good lunch—far away from the people we're trying to bamboozle, of course."

Dawson nodded again but stopped halfway, eyebrows furrowing curiously. He leaned closer, chin over the table as he whispered, "Is this your revenge plan?"

"Revenge plan!?" I shrieked then quieted down as the other customers threw me nasty glances. I smiled at them in apology before glaring at Dawson.

"Why would I need a revenge plan?"

He shrugged and then leaned back in his chair, arms crossed coolly. "You seemed mad last time we saw them, I just assumed."

"Look, Daws, it's not a revenge plan—I want to get that clear," I began, looking away from him. "I just want Cassidy to see that no man ever steals my attention from her—men steal her attention from me."

"You want me to prove that she's a hypocrite or that you have a crush on her?" He asked in an amused tone, eyebrow raised as he observed my gaping reaction.

"Why can't females be friends in this century without being suspected of homosexuality?" I turned away from him in a huff, arms crossed over my chest not-so-coolly.

"I'm just teasing." He picked up his menu and scanned through the contents as if he wasn't having a conversation with me. It was one of my pet peeves when someone you're talking to isn't paying attention, it made me glare at him. "Anyways, you already know my stance on this plan, as long as I get what I want then I'm game."

I pouted and tilted my head to the side, noticing something strange about his demeanor. His fingers were clutching the menu tightly and even though I couldn't really see his face I could tell that his jaw was clenched. He wouldn't even meet me in the eye and I was starting to suspect I wasn't the only one who noticed it, the waiter who was waiting for us to take our orders had even thrown me a glance I assumed meant worry.