My Popular Targets

Chapter 13: Begging For Comfort

That night I fell asleep in Anthony's bed after we hugged. Being the gentleman he is,  he slept on the floor. We never did talk about his dad even though I was curious, I didn't press for answers. He was his happy self in school. Who was I to ruined that?

Then came the last day; of classes, horrible teachers and disgusting-looking yet edible lunches, for Christmas break. Even though it was only two weeks, my spirits were through the roof because I knew this was the closest to summer I was going to get for now. 

This Christmas I had three wishes.

-To stop being a coward and tell the targets the real reason I became friends with them.They deserved the truth.

-Become as  close as I was with Wendy and Nicole. Even since I met the targets, I dropped them like they were hot.

And last but certainly not least...

-Confront David. I needed to hear the truth no matter how much it would hurt.

But knowing me, I would probably find some way to transfer this into my New Year's resolution... then something else.

Amy surprised me by waiting after my seventh hour for me on the last day.She invited me to her annual  "Before Christmas Dinner" on Christmas Eve with her family. I was told by her to wear a simple dress: nothing too fancy or too casual.

"It might be a dinner party, but we will be sitting around the table trying to be a normal family"  she said that day, her voice cracking at the end. I turned to her to ask if she was OK but before I could, she gave me a stern look and told me that I can go now. All I did was sigh and walk away because I should of known she wouldn't break down in front of me.

And now? Now I was standing on Amy's front door, Christmas Eve, smoothing out my plain black dress trying to look more presentable for the "dinner party".  I debated some more if I was ready to go in. To meet Amy's parents, family and close friends. I decided I wasn't and was about to "abort mission" when I turned around and came face-to-face with Anthony looking handsome and breath-taking. The way his hair slicked back instead of being it's usually spiked, his eyes look more piercing than ever before, the way his shoulders looked broader in the suit he was wearing and the way the blonde girl that he kissed during truth or dare clung to his arm.

Wait what?!

"Hey Sophie. Going somewhere?" he asked with amusement in his voice but I was going to make him make a fool out of me.

"Yea" I answered confidently "I think I dropped my keys and I was just going to look for them"

"Did you realized that before or after you been standing here for the last ten minutes?" He retorted somehow making it sound more like a statement than a question. I realized now that he caught me and I couldn't lie anymore so I switched the subject over to him.

"So aren't you going to introduce me to your date?" I asked him raising an eyebrow.

"Oh this is awkward. I thought you knew each other. Well Sophie, this is Bianca. Bianca? Sophie"

She waved hi to me and I returned a smile. 

"Well we better go inside before someone tries to escape"Anthony said before winking at me. In the corner of my eye, I could have have sworn I saw Bianca twitch.

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The seating chart for around the table on the left side was Amy, Grace Bianca, Anthony, me, an young couple with a five year old boy in between them then two very serious looking men and one serious looking woman. On the right side it was Sarah, two girls around Sarah"s age, an elderly couple which I assumed were Amy and Sarah's grandparents and another set of two with serious looking men and women. While Amy"s father, Mr White sat at the head of the table between Sarah and Amy leaving at least ten chairs unseated. I was surprised to see this room unfilled, maybe the White's considered these people their closest family.