Starcrossed

7. Tired of The Sidelines

Bee.

I had decided to stop ignoring Lola; it was only making me moody. A month I tried to keep my distance but damn it if it wasn't difficult. Seeing her chuckle and kid around with Chrissie was making me not like the girl very much. I know it's dumb but something told me that Lola and I were supposed to be friends, not Lola and Chrissie. I tried to ignore that feeling and kept up the distance but things didn't change. All I got out of it was guilt and I didn't like that much.

I had thought that if I stopped talking to Lola and just kept the distance between us that Memo would change. I was wrong. Things did change, but for the worse. In a month I heard so many rumors about Lola than I had heard about any other girl in school. In a month people had believed that Lola was a drug addict and that the different eye color was a long term effect from doing too much coke. Another rumor was that the reason why Lola was a lesbian as because she had slept with every single guy in her last school and that now she was going for the girls. The one that made me laugh was that the reason Lola defended Chrissie so much was because they were lovers; it made me laugh after the rage I felt subsided.

In a month Memo had managed to ruin Lola's reputation, but from what I had seen Lola didn't care. Every time my jackass boyfriend threw something at her, Lola would return it tenfold. She had gotten in fights with Tammy and had won, but then people would say that she had attacked Tammy without reason so there was a lot of afterschool detentions involved. I knew that Memo wasn't happy about all this, especially that it seemed that somehow Lola was making friends. He had tried to make the girl a complete outcast so it would be easier to break her, but the way Lola defended her against Memo was to be admired. No wonder people started following Lola from time to time.

I felt like a coward seeing those girls and the guys talking to Lola. I had wanted to help Lola and explain everything to the Dean once but then Memo had threatened me and I had been too chicken shit to do anything else. After that day, Tammy and Memo seemed to keep tabs on me; somehow Memo knew where I was at all times. I was sure that Tammy had gone to tell Memo about the slap I had given her that morning a month ago when Lola had been called to the principal's office, but I had had no choice. The girl was to blame for that and I had only seen red because I felt betrayed. I thought that if I kept my distance that Tammy wouldn't go to the principal and then as soon as school starts there was that announcement.

What was I supposed to think?

Anyway, after a month of watching from the sidelines I got tired and finally grew some balls and talked to Lola. I knew that it tripped her out at first because I hadn't talked to her in a month, but seeing her smile and telling me that I was weird had given me hope that we could be friends. When I told her that we could be psychos together my heart had been beating a mile a minute and I couldn't help but giggle when she nodded and did the peace sign with me. We would be psychos together and this time I wouldn't let Memo threaten me again.

We got to know each other better and I even became friends with Kevin, one of her dads. I hadn't told my mom about her because I was sure Raul would have something to say about it. He was a homophobe after all. Anyway, the times Lola and I hanged out at her house were really awesome. She told me about life in San Francisco and how it had pained her to leave her friends. She told me about her friends back home and that they still kept in touch via Facebook and Skype. Lola looked happy as she told me about all the adventures she had had with her friends and promised that if there was a chance she'd introduce me to them one day. The more I got to know Lola, the more I was convinced that in deed we were meant to be the best of friends and I considered her my confidant in such a short time.

"Don't forget to study your lines for the play," Mr. Silva said as the bell rang and we had to go to our next class.

The play we juniors had been assigned was going to happen in a week, being the middle of the semester meant that the play had to be done soon. Especially since the seniors would be studying for their finals and admission tests for the universities too. The play would be part of a small festival sort of thing where every grade did something different. It was a way to entertain the seniors who had to study hard for their exams and to have fun and interact with the other class in our same year.