Life, Love, & Lemons

Wild Streak

Our group decided to have dinner at, Mongiat, an Italian restaurant that was in a terrible neighborhood, but had the best food in town. It looked like half of our school was already at the restaurant when we got there, so I was pretty glad that Gabby included me in the reservations when she made them months ago.

I was in the group with Gabby and some of her other friends on the pom squad, but the last person I expected to see sitting at the end of our table was my former BFF, Taylor.

I grabbed Gabby's arm and pulled her around the corner near the restrooms as soon as I saw Taylor. "You didn't tell me that Taylor was going to be here!" I tried not to scream.

"She bit her bottom lip. "I guess I forgot about one of the guys needed a date and Brett volunteered her."

"Ugh!" I stomped my foot.

"Oh come on Bee, it won't be that bad you can just ignore her," she pleaded pulling me toward the table.

"Easy for you to say," I muttered and took my place next to Brett.

"Hey, Bee, long time no see." Taylor put on her best fake smile. Her bright yellow, sequined dress probably cost more than a month's rent.

"Hey Taylor." I looked around the table for someone else to talk to.

"Where's your date?" She smacked her lips.

"He couldn't make it." I was still searching, wishing that Brett and Gabby weren't deep in conversations with other people.

"Nice dress, but it looks really familiar like you wore it two years ago." The sarcasm just dripped from her voice as she took a sip of her drink.

That actually caught some people's attention. They tried not to stare, but when two girls are getting catty it's kind of hard not to watch.

"Hey Bentley," I turned around to see Grant walk up with his arm around Roxy. I had absolutely no idea they were together, or at least going to Homecoming together. He was dressed in all black with some plaid suspenders to match Roxy's very short plaid dress.

"Oh, hey Grant, hey Roxy," I smiled up at them. It's not like Grant and I were usually on that much of speaking terms, or Roxy for that matter.

"Well we just saw you sitting over here and wished you would have told us you were coming here. We would have made you sit with our table." Grant smiled.

"Well, um, it's not like Kai's with me or anything you know he couldn't make it..."

Roxy waved her hand, making her dozens of bangles jangle. "Just because Kai isn't here doesn't mean you can't sit with your friends."

Did Roxy just talk to me? And did she just say that I was her friend?

"Well, we should get going," Grant said and held up his keys. "Gotta meet up with some people before the dance, but you better save a dance for me, Homecoming Queen." Grant grinned.

"Bye Bentley," Roxy waved and winked at me as they left.

At that time I realized that the whole table was really watching me now. They all were pretending to be doing something else as soon as I turned back to the table. Well everyone except for Taylor. She even ignored her date, Steve who was one of the pom girl's brothers or something, when he tried to engage her in conversation.

"Wow, Bentley, really moving up in the world. Last season's dress and hanging out with a bunch of pot heads. I can't say that I'm surprised though. You always had a bit of a wild streak." She crossed her arms with that smug smirk on her face.

I rolled my eyes. "Really Taylor? Are we going to play this petty I'm better than you bull that we've been doing since grade school because it's really getting old."

She scoffed. "Whatever. Don't act like you're better than me because you learned to live with being poor or whatever."

"Ugh, Taylor you are something else, but I have a lot better things to do than fight with you." I took a drink of my water and turned toward Brett, trying to break into him and Gabby's conversation.

"This conversation isn't over, slut." She hissed.

I turned back toward Taylor a lot sharper than I intended.

"Um excuse me? You're calling me a slut?" I tried not to laugh. This was the same girl that dated my ex-boyfriend right after me and was infamous for her escapades in the Janitor's closet.

"Well you're the reason why Jake and me broke up. You want to have your punk boy and your old life too, well you can't and you never will." She pounded her fist on the table, making everyone stare at us.

"Taylor can we not do this?" I whispered.

"What are you afraid to be exposed for the person you really are? You know you blamed everything on your Dad losing his job, but you didn't have to change like you did. I mean, I knew you were always jealous of me, but this takes it to the extreme," she practically screamed.

I let out a deep breath, counting to three before I spoke. I couldn't deny that I was angry, but I had to think if it was really going to be worth fighting with Taylor. "You're right Taylor."

She had a genuine look of shock on her face. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean well not about the Jake part, but I have changed and I did blame all my problems on Dad's lay off when instead of blaming everything on him I should have been trying to help instead of playing the blame game. Blaming people and trying to make them look bad for your own selfish gain is never a good thing."

I put my hands down in my lap. "I may never be able to be that same girl I was a year ago, but I think that everything I've been through has made me a more understanding person. And if that makes me a bad person or someone you don't want to be friends with than there is nothing I can do that will change your mind."

Taylor didn't bother me for the rest of dinner.