Chapter 9. Tennis Court
The next day I was up and walking with Hanako around the park, having just enjoyed a ride in her purple bug. I was wearing casual white leggings with a pink tunic like dress meeting at mid-thighs and brown leather boots. My hair was fixed in a loose ponytail that laid on my back. Hanako wore a purple bow shirt, white skirt, and 5 inch stilettos which I insisted were the worst shoes to wear going to the park because we might start playing sports, but she insisted. She insisted on being taller than me, even though she was a small tiny girl.
We walked and talked about whatever, what her family was doing, what my family was up to, how Richard and I were, among other things. Then we got to the subject I had been avoiding the most and hoped she would never bring up.
"So..." Hanako started slow. "I heard you got a tutor!"
"No," I groaned. "No, no, no, no, no-"
"Wow, sheesh Andie. Drama Queen. Is he really that sexy?"
"What?!" I exclaimed, stopping in my tracks. A blush flourished to my face despite what she said being totally untrue. "How could you say that? No, no no no means I hate having a tutor, not the total opposite."
"Sure, sure. Calm down. I said he was sexy, not that you're going to marry him. You have Richard for that." She nudged my shoulder and gave me a wink.
"Psh." I nudged Hanako back. "You haven't even seen him, how would you know if he's sexy?"
"Because you haven't talked about your tutor once. You haven't even mentioned him. Heck, you didn't even say you had a tutor let alone whether it was a man or woman. You totally didn't even tell me a thing. Me, your best friend!"
"Ah, now who's being a Drama Queen?" I teased, trying to change the subject.
"Shuddup." Hanako narrowed her eyes.
"How'd you find out about him anyway?"
"Oh, a little bird flew to my windowsill and told me."
I narrowed my eyes. "My brother."
Hanako smiled. "You got me. So, tell me about the sexy, gorgeous tutor! Before I make you walk home."
"At least I'm not in heels. I'll be fine." I looked straight ahead and walked silently, pretending to be perfectly satisfied with walking home and determined not to talk about my hideous, non-sexy, non-gorgeous tutor!
"Wow, you're serious." Hanako realized.
"Wow, I am." I mocked sarcasm. If that's possible.
"Shuddup. Tell me what he said. He said something. Or he did something, something that made you all ticky."
"Ticky... He didn't say anything or do anything. He just taught me how to hate Chemistry even more. That's all."
"Riiight. And I'm supposed to believe that? Fess up, country girl!" Hanako poked my side and I giggled and exclaimed, jumping away from her.
"Jeez stop!"
She smacked me on the shoulder. "Not until you fess up!"
"Hey!" I smacked her back. Great, not the smacking competition. It is the most immature, nay funniest competition Hanako has to perform to pressure me into telling her exactly what she wants to hear.
She smacked my other shoulder and I winced in pain. I smacked her on the back and she smacked my hand instantly back. "Fess up!"
"Not until you get a black robe and cross necklace!" I shouted back, getting more humourously pissed off than anything.
"Oh, I'll become a nun if it means you'll tell me all your darkest secrets, Andrea Amaia Brighton!"
One great smack on my lower back! "Ow!" I stumbled forwards and turn to her, now with a serious look on my face, crossing my arms. "Okay okay you win. My tutor said that I'm failing chemistry not because it's any harder than calculus, but because of something else. Some personal problem. Psh as if."
Hanako just stared at me in total disbelief, jaw almost to the ground. "That's it?"
I nodded. "Yup, that's it."
"THAT'S IT?!" Hanako lifted her eyebrows. "What's the problem then?!"
"Are you serious? You're asking me?! I don't have any personal problems. It's just a stupid subject in school that I can't pass. What does it have to do with my personal life?! Wouldn't it affect all my grades, not just one?!"
"Yeah, you're right..." Hanako said slowly. "But still, are you having any problems with Richard? You didn't seem too enthusiastic talking about him earlier."
"Oh... his sister asked me to be her maid of honor at her wedding-"
"What?! And you didn't tell me this til now?!"
"I was shocked, so I totally forgot. Blah..." I sighed. "School is just so stressful for me at the moment." Yes, yes change the subject away from Richard and turn it into a school thing again.
"Well, when's the wedding?"
"I don't know yet." More like, I totally forgot when it was since I hadn't been paying attention.
"And what's this have to do with Richard?"
I sighed. "It's Richard's sister, so that's what it has to do with him." Yeah, and the fact that he said he had a surprise for ME, and it turns out its just bringing me to his sister's engagement party... some special feeling that is.
Giggling.
A faint giggling was in the wind, and it wasn't Hanako. Hanako and I stared at each other, wondering where that familiar sound was coming from. We both hinge-turned towards the tennis court merely twenty feet from where we're standing. Past the wired walls around the tennis court was a sidewalk with a boy and girl walking side by side, hand in hand. A couple in love it seems, well to my eyes. It was too far away to see their faces clearly but I could tell the girl was a bleach blonde and the guy had curly blond hair.
Hanako and I walked more down the sidewalk, getting closer to the tennis court.
Now I could clearly see the guy was wearing a Brunswick college hoodie. And the girl was wearing a cheerleader outfit, my school's cheerleader outfit.
No. It can't be.
The giggling girl jumped onto the guy and kissed him. His arms wrapped around her lower back, holding her pressed to him, kissing her back just as excitedly. My heart sank to the bottom of the ocean like a heavy lead weight. My heart fell like a missile to earth. My face flushed, nausea creeping in my stomach like a tsunami, crashing into me. Hitting me with hard, painful, sick reality.
"Is that girl..." Hanako whispered in shock.
"Lacey?" I barely managed to say, voice squeaky like a mouse just caught in a mouse trap.
"And the guy..."
"Mhm..." I almost fainted just admitting it.
Without thinking. Totally without thinking, overwhelmed by feelings of disgust. Feelings of total betrayal. Feelings like wanting to sink a ship with him on it.
Again, without thinking!!! I pulled out my cell phone and hit the 1 for auto-dial.
"Woah, what are you doing?!" Hanako whispered to me.
I just raised my hand for her to hush. I heard ringing from the other line, cell to my ear. I stood in stone-still silence as I watched the kissing couple from afar, and waited. A second passed by and Lacey dropped from the college guy as he put his hand into his pocket, pulling out a cell phone.
"Andrea, honey!" Was the immediate answer.
I almost puked, putting my hand on my mouth then replying. "Richard, honey." I was so mockingly sweetly that I would have given the ocean cavities. I was hurt... I was in pain... I was partially in denial... I was totally, insanely in a mood for revenge.
"How are you, baby?" Richard asked.
I watched Lacey from afar watch Richard talk to me on the phone. Wow, she knew... she knew I was with him. Hell, everyone knows! And she... Gah, freaking Lacey stole my boyfriend!
"I have a surprise for you." I egged him.
"Ooh, you get new lingerie?" Wow. Talking to me like that right in front of Lacey?! I wanted to stomp on the ground and throw the cell phone to the ground. Or into his face!
"Turn to your right, darlin' and you will see." I answered back with almost gritted teeth, and made a smoochy kiss sound.
There was a pause of silence as his body turned slowly to his right. He saw me, I saw him. He stood very still and I glared, almost crunching the cell in my hand. "That's right. It's over." I madly said before hanging up.
"Let's go," I said to Hanako and turned abruptly.
Hanako and I rushed to her car as fast as we could. The best she could do was fast-walk while I practically marched back to the purple bug. I thought maybe Richard would follow me, try to explain what he was doing, why he was making out with the slut of the century. But no explanations could be had. He had betrayed my trust. I lost all respect for him.
Riiing.
I shut my cell phone off. "I'm not answering you stupid jerk-!" I rambled off a dozen more names to call him while I finally opened my friend's car door and shut it, locking it instantly. I looked out the window and still saw Richard and Lacey in the distance, and I was wrong. He hadn't ran after me. I saw the blurry vision of Lacey's arm on his shoulder and they were talking... talking about me. I wish they would argue about me and that he would break up with her. I wish that I could believe that she didn't seduce him.
Hanako got into her car and turned on the ignition. "Seat belt!"
Too angry, I jerked the seat belt over me, practically smashed the buckle into place. I was frowning, intensely. After Hanako started the car and drove out of the park I started my venting, not being able to hold it in.
"I trusted Richard completely! How could he do this to me? He brought me to his sister's engagement party for freaking sakes! Gah! Stupid Lacey! Freaking Slut Lacey!" I covered my face with my hands when the imagery of Lacey having sex with MY Richard popped up in my mind. "Damn, if they did more than making out! UGH!" I shuddered and almost smacked the dashboard.
"Sheesh, Andie-chan, bae. Calm down or I will run off the road. Shh..." Hanako did her best to calm me down.
She was right, I might run her off the road with my outbursts. So I did the saddest, most overwhelming and normal thing I could do at this point.
I started bawling my eyes out.
~10 Minutes Later, Back at my House~
"Andie!" My mom was the first voice I heard as I slammed the front door shut and rushed to the stairs. "Good, you're home, Richard called a few minutes ago-"
Her words cut short right as my hand grabbed the handrail. I almost ripped the handrail off the floor with my anger and tears. "Mum!" I barely let out, collapsing at the stairs. I knew I wouldn't make it to my room if my mom started talking to me.
"Oh, no." Mum whispered as she took me into her arms and rocked me gently. I felt her hands caress my hair as I only thought of Richard, only saw Richard, only heard Lacey's giggle! Lacey's damn giggle and that hoodie and everything else in that disgusting scene I had to witness. I cried into mum's shoulder, my chest heaving, whole body shaking as I couldn't barely breathe, couldn't barely accept reality.
After a minute of trying to calm me down mum finally asked. "Andie, what's wrong? What happened?"
"Rich-" I tried to say his entire name but I couldn't. I would take a few seconds, take a deep breath and try to calm down. "Rich-" I couldn't do it. I shook and cried every time I uttered even one syllable in his name. "He-" I sobbed and forced myself to stop crying enough to at least say one word every ten seconds. "Cheated." There, I said it. A cold, biting train wreck of horrible sensations rushed through my body and I couldn't breathe.
"Aw," My mum's voice was barely audible above all my loud bawling. Her hand on my back was barely soothing as I hiccuped and bawled, and hiccuped some more. "Just let it out, hon. He doesn't deserve a loyal loving girl like you."
If mum was trying to reassure me, it wasn't working. My eyes, cheeks, lips, nose were so puffy and swollen and soaked with tears I couldn't breathe. I don't know how long I cried until I passed out. But I did.
And sleep was my only solace.
Or at least I thought.