Song of the chapter - Heart Attack by Demi Lovatto
The long weekend had finally arrived. It helped that Seth spent most of it gone, who knows where. Most likely at one of his douche bag friends houses. Well, I shouldn't be so judgmental. Just because they hang with the king of all douches, Seth, doesn't mean they are also a douche.
Whatever, I was just thankful for the break. What I was really happy about was the sleepover that Robin planned for us at her house. Our whole crew was going. If you could call the five of us a crew, that is. I don't know if there was a minimum number requirement to officially be considered a "crew" but I didn't care. Every high school student should have one, no matter the size.
So our crew was hanging out, Netflix bingeing on something awesome, eating as much junk food as we could stuff into our bodies and being generally annoying to any adults we may encounter. You know, the usual.
It was Saturday night, all five of us were hanging out in Robin's bedroom just being weird. And apparently I'm basically an expert at weirdness. Robin was putting makeup on Judy, but it looked ridiculous. She had used electric blue eyeshadow from her eyelashes to her eyebrows. It wasn't cute, but we were all laughing hysterically when Judy batted her eyelashes like the most attractive woman on the planet.
Christy was getting all of the nail polish set up. I didn't even want to know what crazy color combinations she had planned. Stacy had braided my hair. It sort of looked like a crazy little kid, with little braids going in every direction. Then she put glitter lotion all over my face. Yeah, I was rocking that sleepover. Judy and I started taking selfies and making duck faces. It was funny at the time. I guess you had to be there.
We were in the middle of our photo shoot when the doorbell rang. I took a look around and realized that our whole crew was already there.
"Who's that?" I wondered.
"Oh, it must be Bella. I asked her to come over too," Robin explained.
Bella from the beach. Bella that played on club soccer. Bella that knew TJ. That Bella. Oh dang! I was thinking about TJ again after successfully removing him from my subconscious for the last 12 hours.
"Hey girls! What's up?" Bella entered Robin's room with a bit of flare. For an athlete she was pretty graceful.
"Hey, you made it! I wasn't sure if you were gonna come." Robin gave her a hug and took her bags.
Robin had a pretty big bedroom. It was super girly, unlike mine, with cream and lavender as the color palate. She had a really comfy bed, big enough for three of us to sleep in if we wanted. She also had a little couch and plenty of floor space for all of us to spread out. Her mom hired a decorator to give the room a bit of French inspiration. So it was basically every teenage girls dream come true.
Her family had a decent amount of money and I was surprised she wasn't more popular than she was. You know how high school politics seem to go, the rich, athletic and beautiful are on top. The rest fight it out for a spot in the middle. Then there's those of us who have no fight left after the perils of middle school. That's where the nobody's fall, namely me. And for some reason Robin was there with us. I wasn't going to complain, she was a good friend, and I was happy to have her.
"How was the party?" Robin asked Bella.
"Good, sad, fun. All of the above," Bella responded.
"What party?" I interjected. It wasn't really any of my business but that's me, nosy.
"The coaches had a going away party for TJ. He already officially moved but he came back for the party. Goodbyes are always a little sad, even if I didn't know him that well."
"Oh, yeah they are." I didn't know what else to say. But my heart was beating rapidly at the thought that she had just seen him. I wasn't going to ask about him though. I thought that would sound too desperate or something.
"Speaking of TJ," Bella started, "He asked about you," she said with a little smirk.
I had a hard time disguising my shock. Because my eyes opened wide and my chin dropped.
"He did?" was the only response I could give. I was lucky to even get that out. My mouth had gone completely dry.
"Yeah, he wanted your number but I didn't have it. Would you have wanted me to give it to him if I did?" She was fishing. It felt like junior high when a boy gets his friends to find out if a girl liked him.
I just shrugged my shoulders. This was uncharted territory for me. I had no idea how to respond. If I said yes, then I was admitting interest. I didn't even know this guy so I had no clue if it would be a huge mistake. I already had enough heartbreak from the non interest of nice boys. What would happen to my heart after a boy had actual interest in me?
Was I strong enough to handle that?
"Come on, Mal! You know you liked him!" Robin exclaimed.
"I don't know him, how could I like him?"
"You didn't know Luke when you started crushing on him. What's the difference?"
The difference was I wasn't starting to crush on TJ, he was just replacing my crush on imaginary Tyler. The daydream was getting all mixed up with reality and it confused me. I was smart enough to figure out that my imaginary feelings ran pretty deep. That would push my actual feelings forward too quickly. Well, too quickly to be a good idea anyway.
"Hello! Did you hear anything I just said Mallory?" Bella snapped her fingers in my face.
"What was that?" I had been lost in my thoughts for a while. Embarrassing. I could feel the blush on my cheeks. Betrayal from my own nervous system. Thanks a lot.
"I said that TJ is a really nice guy. If you would give him a chance, I think you'd like him. That's all I'm going to tell you. If you want to know more about him, ask him yourself." Bella ended her little rant by crossing her arms across her chest. Was I being reprimanded?
"Oh, Mal? By the way, I just sent him your picture," Robin said while waving her phone at me.
"What? What picture?" I couldn't believe these girls!
"One of the pics you and Judy were just taking." She smirked.
"WHAT?!?!" Those were hideous. I looked like trash! Not trashy, but like actual trash, something you would throw away. I still had glitter all over my face and those stupid braids sticking every-which-way. How could my supposed 'bestie' do that to me?
"Kidding. But at least now we know that you do actually like him," Robin said with one eyebrow raised.
She got me. That little devil. My overreaction gave me away and there was no denying interest in this mystery boy plopped into my lap by the good graces of some higher power. What had I gotten myself into?
"Fine. I like him. But it's really superficial right now because like I said, I don't even know him. So don't go trying any big matchmaking because who knows when I'll even see him, if ever. He moved, he's not on the radar anymore." I tried to sound firm.
Bella had a strange look on her face. "I have a feeling you'll be seeing him sooner than you think."
That was it. I was so done with that conversation. "Whatever. We have bigger issues to discuss. Namely, Operation Take Down Seth."
"Right. What's the plan, people. His ego needs deflating." Stacy jumped in. I think she had a little crush on him from middle school. She was a sophomore and Seth was a freshman so they had spent a couple of years on that campus together. He obviously hadn't been interested in her.
"I'm not too sure, any thoughts?" I threw out to the group. I really didn't know what we could do to get him back. But it was Bella to the rescue.
"Do nothing. Just watch him squirm waiting for you to pounce. Act like you are about to pull something, but then do nothing." Bella had a little grin. Something told me she had a bit of a mean streak.
"Really? Do nothing? Do you think he will be that unnerved?" Christy threw out there. As the other senior of the group, she didn't get too involved in our drama and crushes. Christy was pretty level headed and studious. Looking back, I wished she had rubbed off on me a little more than she did. But Robin was much more vocal and outgoing so I tended to follow along with her.
"I think it's brilliant. If we all give him those looks that only a woman scorned can give, he'll be so thrown off base that he won't know which end is up." Robin was rubbing her hands together at the thought of this non-evil evil plan.
"I'm not so sure. He doesn't seem to let anything rattle him. Even when my dad was grounding him he didn't seem too upset. Plus, I still don't know how he knew about Luke and Bryan. Or why he would make up the whole Dylan crush." That confused me the most. Unless he was trying to fuel Mia's anger as well.
Sheesh, what HAD I gotten myself into!
"Who cares how he found out. Just change the passcode on your phone and laptop." Robin dismissed my arguments, as usual.
"Um, I don't have my own laptop Robin. Not all of us have millionaire parents."
"Whatever. Just change the codes on whatever devices you own and keep them with you at all times. Even when you're sleeping."
Fine. I'd try it. But when it blew up in our faces, I was so going to say I told you so.
The rest of the sleepover went as you would expect. Crazy nail polish, pizza and ice cream, Supernatural on Netflix, and very little sleep. We ended up falling asleep around 6 am and not waking up until noon. Six hours a happy teenager did not make. That's when the "annoy the hell out of the adults" portion of the party occurred. I practically growled at my parents when I got home and retreated to my lair for the remainder of the day.
The next morning, I woke up to a peaceful home. It was our Monday off of school for the break in semester. I always thought it was strange to be on a Monday instead of a Friday, but whatever. I wasn't the one making those dumb decisions, I was just going to enjoy the day off before heading back into hell.
By ten in the morning I was lounging in my PJs in front of the TV. The remote in one hand and a steaming cup of sweet, creamy coffee in the other. I spent the next while channel surfing to see that absolutely nothing was on worth watching. Not even some really bad B-movie that I could mock. Boring.
I was just about to pull up Netflix when I heard the front door open. In walked the maker of my most recent doom and his henchmen. Also known as Seth. That meant one thing: stupid boys had invaded my peaceful afternoon to kill zombies and otherwise make my life miserable.
It occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity to start in on our plan to mess with his head. I was curious to see if it would work.
As he entered the back room, he called me out using his most favorite nickname. "Loser, get out so we can enjoy ourselves." He really was a huge douche.
"I'd be happy to. Is there anything I can get you guys?" I directed that last part to his friends, not to Seth. I was pleased to see his eyebrows scrunch together. I might have been on to something.
"Uh, sure... Mallory?" One of the guys replied, obviously unsure if he had my name right. I snuck a quick glance at Seth and he still had that confused look on his face.
"How about something to drink. You guys want Coke?" This was actually kind of fun. I could tell that Seth was trying to figure out what I was up to. The funny thing was, that was all I was up to; making him wonder what I was up to. It was literally too easy.
The group of them all mutter affirmative responses. I headed out to the garage to grab some cold cans of soda from the extra fridge. Returning to hand out the drinks, I made sure to give Seth his very last, adding, "Have fun. I'll be in my room if you need anything."
It was all I could do not to leave with an evil laugh as I retreated to my room. Oh man, I was gonna have a good time with that. He was completely lost and I had him on his toes for sure.
When I got to my room, I heard the infamous squish of zombie brains so I shut my door. I figured it was as good a time as any to catch up on my reading. I grabbed the book I was into at the time and got comfortable in my bed. But before I opened to the chapter I was on, I decided to send the girls a quick text about the most recent Seth encounter.
*Operation TDS is in full swing. Stage one complete - confuse the hell out of Seth*
The responses were immediate:
*He bought it?* came from Christy
*Awesome!!* was what Stacy replied. She added a little smiling devil emoji too.
*Mwuhaaa* came from Judy. She was a little firecracker when she wanted to be.
*I am sooo forwarding this to Bella. She is brilliant!* Robin of course.
Part of me was shocked that he seemed so thrown off. The other part of me knew he was too caught up in his own world to read my motives and intentions. He just wasn't that insightful, evidenced by his choice to "poke the sleeping bear"
Me. I was the sleeping bear. I had been poked. By my own brother. And now he was going to find out what happened when you poked a bear. He would be watching his back, waiting for the claws to strike.
I could hardly wait to find out how long he would be waiting for it to happen.
^^^^^
Well I have officially caught up to my works... Meaning I haven't been able to write ahead of my posts. That creates a ton of anxiety in me TBH. I am still holding to my goal of two posts per month, hopefully increasing to once a week ASAP 😁
It's a work in progress kind of thing. Now that I've got a cast and I'm building a playlist, I've got fingers crossed that this will start to flow. Plus I'm not allowing myself to start any new works until THIS ONE is finished.