These Classrooms Talk

VI

We arrive at the school ten minutes after the meetings begun.
I try to calm myself.
Normal girls would've been late...heck, Emily probably isn't here yet.
Sean zips his pants.
"Thanks," I say.
"You're welcome."
I open the door, then turn around and kiss him on the cheek.
I run into the school.
Down the hallway. Into the conference room.
A table is in the middle of a large room with different prom themes strung up on the surrounding walls.
"So, in conclusion, Starry Night is way too cringeworthy and will earn us way too many #tbttopreschool." Emily.
Around the table sit misfit looking girls. Towards the end of th table, on the left, Kim and Nancy. Then on the right, Yana and Penelope. At the head of the table is Briar. Briar Smithson. The five of them are the Plastics of Goodson High.
"Kenny!" Briar shouts, "nice of you to join us."
Emily, who is sitting with her back to me, at the opposite end of the table right in front of me, turns to see me.
"I've seen you in class, but you never really talk," she smiles a clearly fake smile, "Ily here has filled us in on the gos, haven't you, Ily?"
Emily looks at me, a big grin splashed on her face;
"Uh huh. Kenny, I told them all about you, Sean and Drew."
"Fuck!" I shout.
"Something wrong?" Briar asks.
"Nope," Must. Stay. Calm. "let's get down to business."
I take the spare seat next to Emily.
"You were here on time?" I whisper.
"You weren't?" Emily whispers back.
"So," Briar says, "Kenny. Two guys at once, huh? And Sean as one of them. Quite a story you made."
What's happening? Is she accusing me of lying? It was true - all of it was.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Well, it's just a big story, is all." She says it with such poise and elegance that you can't help to do anything other than agree with her.
"Yeah, it does," I say, "we didn't go all the way, but we did do...stuff. Even ask Sean."
"My ex denied it when we were the phone," OML. It clicks. Her and Sean were together, "so I'll ask you...how big is his dick."
I don't know! It's not like you measure it!
I need to lie.
The photo!
"He made me take a photo of it, and he sent it to me," I say. Lies. Normal girls lie, right?
"Show," Briar demands.
I pull out my phone and search through it. I find the photo and show her.
"Very well." She says.
Phew.

~

After the meeting, me and Emily are walking home.
"This weekend has been overwhelming," I confide.
"Tell me about," she puts her phone in her pocket, "with the party, and Leo."
"Leo?" I ask.
"Yeah, the guy I slept with."
"

You said his name was Brady!" I shout, in a giggly fashion.
"I lied," she laughs and we shove eachother.
Normal girls would do this, wouldn't they?
"So, how was your day?" She asks me.
I frown; "it was good for the most part, but-"
"But it didn't really feel like you." Emily says. She knows me so well.
"Yeah, I just can never shake the feeling - is this normal? Like, is this what normal girls do?"
"You don't need to be normal," Emily wraps her arm around her neck, "you don't need to be anything you're not."
"Well, then what do I need to be?" I ask.
I feel my eyes welling up.
"Hon, all you need to be, is you." Emily pulls my head in, so it 's resting on her shoulder, "you are you, and I am me, and we shouldn't worry with labels. Like gay, straight, normal, weird, boyfriend."
She almost spat out the last one. I have a feeling we've moved on from me.
"What does that mean?" I ask, "the boyfriend one, I mean."
Emily sighs.
"Leo thinks I'm his girlfriend."
"NO!" I shout.
"I'm glad you think it's funny." She spits.
Emily? With a boyfriend? OML, he clearly doesn't know her at all.
"No, it's just - sorry." I mumble, "continue."
"So, I said we're not together and then he said...it."
"It?" I ask.
"The three words," Emily almost gags, "I love you."
"And you didn't say it back," I guess.
"I-I-I panicked!" She's almost crying, too. "I like him, but how can you be sure after just one night?"
Her words hit me like a brick wall. It's true. How can you be sure after just one night? Me and Sean, it's all happened so fast. I don't know if I want to spend the rest of my life with him. On our first date we had a threesome.
That is not normal, is it? I am not normal. I will never be normal.
I may as well embrace who I am.
And who I am is a girl trying desperately to be normal. To be like Emily. We all have our flaws, and that's what makes us normal. It's how we act on those flaws that really defines us.
Normal people are full of ignorance.
They must ignore their flaws.
So I, too, must try to ignore my flaws. Try to be normal. Be out there. And eccentric.
I must know what I'm doing.
"It's alright, Em." I comfort.
"I know, I..." I can see the sadness in her face. We're teenagers. We always jump so far into things, so early on, "I made a mistake."
"Come on," I say, "Leo might be annoying but he's not a mistake."
"That's not what I mean." She says. This is the first time I notice the bag on her back. She slides it off and unzips it. Then she shows me its contents.
"I, have a problem." She is bawling now.
I peek into the bag, and when I do, I scream. I stumble back and fall onto the road. Emily crouches down and cries.
I may not of ever tried it, but I know what thousands of dollars of cocaine look like when I see it.