Forget Me Not

Ch 4. Awkward

EDITED.

It had been 2 weeks since the whole beach incident. Hannah had started hanging out at times with Amelia and her group and by the look of it she seemed to have gelled up with them pretty well. One day, she also introduced me and Sarah to everyone. We were having our lunch when Amelia entered with her friends and Hannah called out to her. All of them came to our table and we exchanged names and said Hi. Everyone except Vanessa who went and sat down at their table.

"Hannah talks a LOT about you two!" Amelia had said giving us a big fake smile.

The whole scene was pretty awkward if you ask. Because after saying Hi to eachother we all just stood there looking here and there. Thanks to Vanessa who called them back to their table.

"She seems nice, doesn't she?" Hannah had asked to which I and Sarah had just given a weak smile.

Lately, all Hannah could talk about was Amelia. It seemed as if in two weeks Hannah had forgotten what kind of a person Amelia was. More than the Sal Talks, it was now the Amelia Talks. What she wears, how big is her walk in wardrobe, how pretty she is, how sweet she is, how many expensive gifts her boyfriend gives her. And what not!

******

We were in Mrs. Jones' Literature class and she was distributing us our last week's test papers. I looked down at mine and saw an A- just as I had expected. Mrs. Jones gave Hannah her paper and said, "Not happy, Hannah." Well, this was new. After class we stopped her and asked her what was that remark from Mrs. Jones all about.

"I got a C-" Hannah pouted.

"What!" Sarah almost shrieked.

We three had never ever in our lives got a grade below B- in any tests or exams so this was not at all expected from Hannah. She looked wearily at her paper before speaking again.

"The day before the test was Aaron's birthday and he invited me too. I thought I would leave early so that I could study but..."

"You got so drunk that you completely forgot," Sarah finished the sentence for her.

Hannah pouted again and nodded slightly.

I sighed and said, "Don't get sidetracked, Hannah. This won't look good on your college applications."

For the first time that day she looked directly at me and gave me an 'are you kidding me look'.

"Sidetracked?" she emphasised on the word, "I am on the right track, okay? It's you guys who need to change your track. I mean all we have ever done in our school lives is get good grades, participate in debates and be the fucking GOOD girls!"

I and Sarah were taken aback by her sudden outburst. We just stood there staring at her with wide eyes.

"These past two weeks have been really fun for me. Amelia and her friends are nice people. And I don't want you both to make me feel guilty for having fun!"

"Making you feel guilty is not at all our intention," I protested, "we just wan-"

"Yeah, yeah. I know you want me to be safe and all that. Guess what, I am alright. I am standing in front of you, ain't I?"

Again, we all went silent. We three weren't used to all this bickering at each other. Yeah we had argued in the past but it was over petty issues like cancelling pre-decided plans or roasting eachother a little too much. Normal stuff that friends usually fought over at times. And, it had always between us three and never involved anyone else from the outside The Trio. Now it felt as if Amelia was coming between us. Though that might not be her intention at all, but she was causing a rift between us.

"You know what, I'll talk later," Hannah said before I and Sarah could say anything and left us standing there in the hallway. We didn't see her in school after that. And neither of us were in the mood to call or message her.

Later, after reaching home I opened up Instagram and was scrolling through my feed when I saw a photo posted by Aaron captioned 'My Hotties <3'. In that photo, Aaron stood in between Amelia and Hannah with his hands around their waists. Amelia had a faint smile while Aaron and Hannah were grinning all the way.

Next I saw a group photo of them in which Amelia's both hands were wrapped around Aaron. Kyle and Vanessa were standing to the left of Amelia and Hannah and Sal to the right of Aaron. All of them were smiling except Vanessa, who as usual had a poker face on. Does this girl not know any other expression? I wondered. Both the photos were from Aaron's birthday party.

It felt a bit weird to see Hannah with them, having fun. It had always been us three together everywhere. Ofcourse we had other friends but they all knew us as one. As The Little Trio. If there was any party then all three of us were invited. And if one of us did not get invited, though it never happened much, then none of us would go to that party. It had been like this for years, until now.

Scrolling further down my feed I saw something that really stung at my heart. It was a photo of Amelia and Hannah hugging! With a caption saying 'Best Friend Goals'. It was posted by Amelia. Call me selfish or mean or whatever you want but after seeing that photo I wanted to reach inside the screen and smack the hell out of Amelia. Best Friend? She had known Hannah barely for two weeks and now she was calling her, her Best Friend! Did Amelia Hastings even know the definition of being best friends with someone?

That photo was enough for the thin wire inside me to snap. With the excuse of bringing Hannah close to Sal, Amelia was instead dragging her away from us. But why? What had we ever done to her? Why all the sudden interest in Hannah?

Forget the answers for now, because it was time to focus on preventing Hannah from getting dragged away any further.

I was about to exit Instagram when I saw a photo posted by Vanessa. It was a candid of herself sitting on a pool chair and looking towards the pool with a glass of wine in her hand. But it wasn't the photo that caught my eye. It was the caption which said, 'Not everyone you trust is true. Not everyone who is true can be trusted.' Cryptic much? I don't know what was the deal with her. But could that caption be related to Amelia in some way? Or was I just being paranoid for no reason because I was angry with Amelia?

Uhh, too many questions in one single hour. Frustrated, I switched off my phone and decided to take a nap.

Waking up an hour later, I called up Hannah because I really wanted to talk to her about what had happened in school today. After two rings she picked up.

"Hello?" said an unfamiliar voice of a girl. I knew it wasn't her mom because then I would have recognised it right away.

"Umm, who's this?" I asked.

"It's Amelia. Hannah's in the washroom," she said coldly. Gone was her fake beaming tone.

"Can you just tell her to call me back?"

"Kay," she replied and cut the call.

What the hell!