Cross My Heart and Hope You Cry | The Clique Fanfiction

18

It's not as if she wanted to stop being friends with Massie, Alicia and Dylan. They'd been a group for so long that being without them would be like losing an integral part of her life - an integral part of herself. But goodness she hated the rules that went along with it! Saving up every penny she could to spend on clothing she didn't even really care for that much just to fit in the rest of them and not be forced to walk five steps behind. Not being able to have friends outside the Pretty Committee that didn't meet the harsh standards that Massie had set. Following Massie's beck-and-call like a lapdog . . . Claire hadn't been wrong when she called them her mutts. She followed her no matter how unclean it made her feel inside, because Massie was still a friend. She could be funny and nice and they could talk for hours about nonsensical things. But on the other hand she often thought that Massie was more like a drill sergeant than a friend, and Dylan and Alicia were simply her fellow foot soldiers. It was Massie that had brought the four of them together, but she wondered if she was a strong enough glue to keep it that way.

"Alright, girls!" Massie grinned as she sashayed in from her walk-in-closet. She wore a slouchy cashmere sweater that showed off one of her slender shoulders along with matching knit sleep shorts and Miu Miu fluffy wedges that clicked-clacked against the wood flooring as she walked. She'd been practicing her runway walk lately and her hips sashayed gracefully as she strolled across the room, looking as if she'd just come off the cover of Teen Vogue. Bean trotted happily behind her before she clapped her hands sharply. Kristen couldn't help but think that she was calling them to attention as they all turned towards her.

"I finally got Mean Girls!" She squealed, and Dylan and Alicia squealed along with her. Massie's birthday was the latest out of all of theirs being at the end of the July and her mother hadn't allowed her to watch the acclaimed movie till she turned thirteen. She therefore declared that they could only watch it for the first time at one of their famed sleepovers. Back then, she thought it was because she wanted them all to experience it at the same time together, but now she wonders if she just didn't want to be kept out of the loop which would undoubtedly happen if the rest of them had been able to watch the movie while she couldn't, just like when she missed the back-to-school shopping and spa day before the start of seventh grade because she was sick.

They hadn't gotten back from their various vacations till the very end of August so they hadn't yet had the opportunity to watch it. For their first sleepover they'd been preoccupied with picking their outfits for the first day of school and putting together out-of-season clothes for the annual auction and the last two following were mostly drowning in their sorrows about Cassia, then feeling awkward when Claire hadn't shown up for the last one.

It was clear now, however, that Massie was going to try her hardest to bring things back on track.

"Ehmagawd, I'm so excited - I have been waiting for this for what feels like forever!" Alicia exclaimed, dropping her brand-new, monogrammed, Spanish leather weekender duffle on her sleeping bag as she bounced excitedly on the tips of her toes.

"Cool it, Leesh, or your boobs are gonna fly off," Dylan snickered, falling starfish atop her own sleeping bag as Alicia's darkly tanned cheeks flushed in embarrassment. She scowled, and kicked Dylan in the thigh, making the redhead howl out a cuss word and causing the three of them to break into loud laughs. Her tense shoulders relaxed as the laughter burst out of her mouth. This is why she would never leave. No matter how insensitive the girls could be it was rarely ever meanly and this good (their laughter, their playfulness) never outweighed the bad.

Dylan pouted, rubbing the sore spot as she sat up. "Yeah, yeah, laugh at the victim!"

"I dunno," Kristen teased. "You kinda deserved it."