The Bet

Chapter 18 - Don't Revelations Suck?

Melissa licked her lips, “Whatever,” she said again. It was her selling line: the one that told people that she didn’t care that she knew they were right and it bugged Amy. Maybe it showed confidence to some people but to her, it was arrogant and self absorbed.

What had Chris seen in this girl? Sure, she was pretty. But Amy had never seen him act so shallowly. She didn’t even know that he had that side. Surely he couldn’t see anything else in her because there was nothing else to see.

Chris turned around to face the group and tossed his arms around Mel’s shoulders, cutting through the awkward silence as if it was butter and it was a machete.

“Woah, why so quiet, guys?” he asked, his eyes searching from face to face innocently.

David ignored the question and began a conversation about the football season and how awesome the team party at the end of the year would be. Amy could only catch a couple of words because it was almost as if the two boys were talking in some secret code. As someone who’d never really watched football, she wasn’t able to understand the terms or names of the players. There was something about a touch-skin and pig-down... or maybe it was a touchdown and pigskin... Oh yes, she reflected, that sounded more right.

But she nodded and smiled at everything they said, pretending like she knew exactly what they meant.

Melissa rolled her eyes again and then pouted at up at Chris, her neck craned to see his face, “Chrissy, baby, do you want to go over there with me for a minute?” she asked, not really giving him the chance to respond before knotting their hands together and yanking him over to the side.

Amy ran her hand through her hair again and jerked her head down as they walked away. When Melissa and Chris were out of the way and over on a bench at the side of the mall, Amy looked up at Julie and excused herself to go to the washroom.

She walked over, making sure to take longer than necessary so she could check her reflection for flaws. Amy smoothed down her shirt and combed her fingers through her hair; she added a new coat of lip gloss and pinched her cheeks a little to add a bit of colour.

“Really?” she demanded, coming from the entrance of the washroom. Had Melissa followed her here just to make fun of her? “What a loser,” she said to herself, although making sure that Amy was listening and affected, “No one pinches their cheeks anymore. They have this new thing called blush. And while you’re at it, could you use some cover up or something. No one wants to see that,” she spat.

Amy gasped and let out a shaky breath as Melissa pulled out her bright red lipstick and circled her lips.

“Why are you being so mean to me?” Amy asked finally, building up the courage for once, “I haven’t done anything to you.”

Instead of answering though, Melissa spun around, away from the mirror and glared at Amy. Her brows were set in a sharp line; her eyes squinted at her, thinking mean things behind that harsh brown colour; her lips were set in a scowl.

“Stay away from Chris,” she threatened. Stay away from him? Amy had barely said ten words to him ever since she’d met up with everyone. She’d said hi, asked how he was and then told him that she was going to speak to Liz. That couldn’t have been more than 15 words.

“Huh?” Amy mustered rudely, her mouth hanging open at the end.

Melissa placed her manicured hand on her waist, “You heard me. Stay the fuck away from him.”

When Amy didn’t respond knowingly, like she understood what was happening at all – because it was clear that she didn’t – Melissa rolled her eyes.

        “Do I have to explain everything to you? Are you retarded? God,” she said, splitting her last word into two to emphasize her annoyance, “It is so obvi that you like him. Just forget about it. He’s mine and you’ll never have him. He wouldn’t want a loser like you anyways.”

        Amy grinded her teeth together, and blushed. The colour in her wasn’t from all the pinches though, it was from embarrassment, “I don’t like him!” she said quickly.

        Melissa sighed and looked at the entrance to the washroom. “Whatever.”

        But unlike the rest of the times she’d said that word, it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t her self-absorbed way of giving up on the argument because she knew she’d lost. It was a condescending ‘whatever’ that meant that she’d won. And she knew she’d won and she was ready to use that knowledge against Amy whenever her opportune moment came around.

        Amy held her breath and fled from the washroom quickly, wiping under her eyes. She could feel her hot tears of anger burning trails on her cheeks so she walked over to the corner farthest from the group and pulled out her cell phone, angrily pushing at the buttons to make it seem like she was texting while she cooled down.

By the time she’d calmed down enough to actually read the screen, she noticed that she’d managed to write several profanities as well as about a dozen incoherent words.

        Amy deleted the screen and made her way back to the group with her dimly lit facade in place.

        “Hey Chris,” Amy started. She sure as hell wasn’t going to listen to Melissa when she was completely wrong. Amy didn’t like him. He didn’t like her. They weren’t ever going to be together. But that didn’t change the fact that she was pissed with his girlfriend, “Can we talk?”

        Chris dropped his gaze to her with an easy grin on his beautifully delicious lips, “Yeah, sure. What did you want to talk to me about?”

        Melissa glared at her and pushed out her lips with a stern bite in her expression. She resolutely cocked her neck to the side and said, “Sorry, bitch – he’s a little busy.”

        And with that, she pulled his face into a kiss that ended up getting hotter and more inappropriate for the mall hallway where little kids and senior citizens found rest during the weekends. Amy looked away, trying to respect their personal – uh – activities but it was so hard when Melissa stared at her with a malicious smirk dancing at the back of her evil eyes.

        After about ten seconds more, Amy shook her head and let a sharp sign escape from her lungs as she swallowed and walked away.

        It bothered her that she was such a threat to Melissa when she’d really done nothing wrong. But it bothered her even more that this girl could act so horribly to her and Chris wasn’t stopping it. Maybe he wasn’t the same guy that she’d learned to be friends with.

        But if he wasn’t, then who was he?