(Song, Tik Tok, by Ke$ha - it's Cara's ring tone)
The doorbell is what wakes me up from a deep, deep sleep.
"Who the hell is it at seven in the damn morning?"
Ring.
"Shut up!"
Riiiiing.
"Go away!"
When Cara's ringtone starts to play, I've had just about enough.
What could Cara possibly want from me at this time of day? It's so early! And I went to bed not long ago. What in the world is wrong with her?
"What do you want now?" I say into the phone angrily.
"Wow, chill much. We have school, you know that right?"
"What?" I yell, looking at my calendar to make sure she's joking, which of course she is.
"Hah. No, I just need you to come shopping with Janie, Chris and me. We're all getting our semi-formal dresses! And you're coming right? To semi-formal, I mean."
"I hate you. I practically just went to bed. I'll be out in twenty; I need a shower because I smell like cleaning supplies, vomit, beer and Missus Pussy Pants' fur, which by the way you should really clean, Cara."
Twenty minutes later, I'm out the door and in the car with my best friend and two people I can't stand. I'm waiting for this day to get better.
"Oh, you look adorable Khiara! All dressed up like you're something special," says Janie. I'm wearing skinny jeans, ballet flats and an oversized Flogging Molly tee shirt. My hair is pulled lazily into a messy bun and I'm not even wearing makeup. Yeah right Janie.
"Thanks," I reply, "but try not to compliment me too often today okay?"
Janie gives me a look that can be interpreted as, whatever or oh screw off. I'd like to think it means either or, just for the hell of it. Spice up my life with choices, and all that.
In the back, Chris is absolutely, one hundred percent unhappy about something. He doesn't even want to be looking for dresses, even though I'm sure on any other day he'd be happily running alongside Janie, whose pants he is dying to get into.
I lean forward in my seat, tired of looking at Janie's face, and look over to Cara. She's yapping on her phone, speaking to her latest boyfriend; if you could even call him that.
Cara's chewing gum loudly as she speaks and I'm tempted to smack her upside the head. "I know right?" Chew, "You're so amazing!" Chew, "I can't wait to see you! I brought people so we won't be alone and we'll have a double date." Chew, "Also, my best friend is coming, so you know, you get to meet her and stuff. Yeah, I know, but she's single. Maybe we could set her up with one of your friends. Okay," Chew, "I love you too. Bye!"
I take the sunglasses that are resting on her head and put them on my own face, "Cara, do you think you could chew louder, I can't hear you."
Cara smiles and blows a big bubble, "No problem Babe." The bubble pops loudly in my face.
We pull into the parking lot of the local shopping centre and find a parking space near the food court entrance. We all get out as Cara explains that we're meeting the guy who she was talking on the phone to, in the food court. I guess we're getting lunch. Or breakfast more appropriately since it's only about nine o'clock in the morning- it's a long drive from my house to the mall.
As we get inside I notice that Chris's face looks no different from when we were in the car. I wonder what's wrong with him, but I don't want to ask for fear of Janie yelling at me to stay out of their business. It's too early for yelling.
Both Chris and Janie come from a strict religious background, and while Chris is ready for everything, Janie wears a purity ring. They've been together for four years, that's a long time for any sex crazed seventeen-year-old boy to abstain from doing the deed; especially when his girlfriend is as good looking as Janie.
We walk to a table where Cara's latest boy toy is sitting reading a book that I've already read. Five times. It's one of my favourites, 'Pride and Prejudice' so I decide to actually try to like this boy.
"Tristan!" Cara yells as we walk into the food court.
Cara gestures to Chris and Janie, "The other couple I was talking about. This is Chris and Janie." Then she grabs my arm and pulls me forward, "This is my best friend in the whole world, better than ice cream with cherries and chocolate sauce on top, Khiara. She gets me out of trouble and I get her into it, but she somehow keeps coming back for more." She smiles at me, to see my reaction. I awkwardly smile back and she just looks thrilled.
"Everybody, this is Tristan. He's nice, he's gorgeous and he's smart. Also, he's super tall, it'll freak you out when he stands up."
Tristan gets up and shakes my hand. Cara's right, he is quite tall. He goes to shake Janie's hand, but Chris who reaches out his hand instead, pulls her away as if to communicate, back off.
Tristan's got dark brown hair that's been cropped pretty short, and he's got large muscles on his arms. He's pretty skinny in contrast to Cara, but she looks so happy. Maybe this is for real; maybe she's stopped being so damn-I won't say it. She is after all, my friend.
"So, this is Khiara," he says in a voice that I can only describe as velvety smooth. "It's very nice to finally meet you, I've heard so much about you." In the past twenty-four hours Cara and I have known each other, I think.
I nervously smile up at him, "Yeah? Well I've not heard anything about you, so it's really nice to meet you, and I hope we'll get to know each other better today. You seem like a really good catch for Cara. You see, she's a bit promiscuous and I'm hoping this is going to be a long term relationship for you guys," Oh no, I'm rambling. "So it's just really great to meet you, I already said that didn't I, and uhh..."
Cara pats me on the back a little too hard. "She does that when she's nervous. She just runs her mouth, if I were as promiscuous as she says I think you'd have already known that, seeing as we've been together for a whole month already." I guess she's still the Cara I know and love; though I wish she'd just quit hurting innocent guys like him. And she kept him from me...I wonder what that's all about?
"I guess Cara told me about you before, but I have a hard time listening, always in my own little world... and such..." I say, trying to salvage the mess I'm sure I've created.
Seemingly unaware of what's just gone down, Tristan simply smiles. "Cara's changed a lot since we first met. I know she wouldn't do anything to hurt me." Oh contraire good sir...she was making out with a guy just a day ago.
"Well then let's get moving already!" says Janie, rather impatiently.
We walk around the mall looking for dresses, and I nod nonchalantly at everything Cara and Janie pick out for me. Tristan seems to disappear at times, but always returns when I least expect it. Chris just stands there with that same expression on his face, and again I wonder what his problem is.
At one point, I decide to ask because it's just pissing me off not knowing. "Chris, what's up with the miserable face? Do you not enjoy seeing your girlfriend in revealing dresses? Or is my loser presence starting to give you a headache?"
Shaking his head he says, "That's not it, Janie's a babe, don't get me wrong here. I just can't stand Cara. I can't be around her, but she's Janie's friend so I have to act like I enjoy her company. It's not you that I hate even though most of the time I act like I do for Janie's sake, but for some reason Janie hates your guts."
"Why do you hate Cara so much?" I ask feeling obliged to do so, also ignoring the obvious- of course Janie hates my guts. It's not hard to tell.
Chris smiles a sad smile that reminds me of Cael, "Because she hurts guys like me. I used to be the biggest geek until High School. But when I met Janie, who was the nicest and prettiest girl I'd seen since, well, you know, ever, I just knew I had to be with her. She had moved here from Georgia and right away she became the most popular girl in school. She was in the same church as me and everything. I had to get to know her better, but not as me. Not the real me."
He sighs, "That summer I bulked up, I lifted weights, I swam for hours and I ran like nobody's business. When grade six rolled around, I joined the local football team. My dad was so proud of me, finally becoming the Chris he wanted me to be, not a nerd that was in love with Star Wars. By the time we were all in High School, I got up the courage to talk to her. She didn't even know who I was, only that I was hot and on the football team and in the same church as her. We went out on the weekends, and I always brought her home for curfew. She seemed so nice at the time..."
I smile at him and ask, "What happened? How'd she get to be the Janie we all love to hate today?"
"Popularity, I suppose. She's nice underneath it all, really. She's just mean to you because you're prettier than her, and don't tell her I said that or she'll dump me like last year's clothing. I'm not saying she's not hot, because she is. But you're just something else. You're genuine I guess. You don't have to fake who you are like the rest of us. Janie acts the way she does because she's tired of being her, but at the same time she wants to devote herself to The Lord, just like a good Catholic girl should. It's all very confusing Khiara, and I don't expect you to forgive her for being so nasty to you. Just that you understand why she is the way she is."
Nodding my head I let out a long deep breath that I didn't know I was holding. "I understand, and yeah, I still don't forgive her. I know what you mean when you say Cara hurts 'guys like you'. But I know why, and even though I don't condone it I can't stop her from dating people. She's had a hard time with men, it's no secret. I don't expect you to start liking her or feeling sorry for her because she has daddy issues, but well, just to understand why."
What I don't tell Chris is that Cara and I found her father hanging from his closet in his study, with dried tearstains on his cheeks, and a look of pure hopelessness on his face. Not long after he was buried her mother brought in her boyfriend, who she'd been seeing at the same time as Cara's father. That arrangement didn't last long though. He's in jail under molestation charges- you can guess why. That's the reason she hurts guys like Chris, because all of the men in her life betrayed her or left her, and she's trying to find a way to deal with that. I don't even think she knows that herself, or at least she can't admit it to herself yet, and every time I try to bring it up she gets really upset.
We stare at each other for a while and Cara breaks the silence. "Oh this is just perfect! I'm getting this one!"
And just as quickly as it started, our little heart to heart ended.
"Great!" Janie runs up to Chris and gives him a big hug, "What do you think about my dress choice?" She's wearing a golden ball gown, the typical dress that girls would choose for a semi-formal dance such as the one we're going to.
He says enthusiastically, "You're stunning-" but catches himself, "I mean, you look really hot, Babe."
On Cara, is a dress the colour of a Granny Smith apple. It has layers of ribbon falling down from her chest and down her sides. There is a huge bow at the back of it, and it looks terrible on her. How am I going to tell her that the dress she chose completely does nothing for her?
Awkwardly, I put my hand on her shoulder and say, "Erm, Cara...that dress...you're really going to wear that?"
Cara laughs heartily, "No I've got the same dress as Janie but in red, this is disgusting, but I wanted to get your attention. I've found the perfect dress for you," she grabs my arm, walks me to one of the changing rooms and throws me in, "it's in there, Babe. I think you'll love it."
Sighing, I turn to look at the dress. It's gorgeous, elegant and fairy-like all at once. It's strapless, and goes down to, I estimate, just above the knees. The chest area has green and purple sequins, and just below that is a ribbon the colour of green leaves, that goes all the way around. In the middle of that ribbon is a flower of the same colour. Below that, is where the dress truly begins. From the waist down, layers of pink and light green mesh cover silk, which is a darker green, the same as the ribbon on the chest area.
After I've put it on, I walk out of the dressing room and Cara squeals, "Oh, I knew that would look fabulous on you! I'm buying, my treat!" and takes out her wallet, "how much is it?
Checking the tag I almost die. "It's six-hundred dollars..."
Standing at the cash, Cara says, "Don't worry! I've got it, let me just swipe my credit card annnd..."
Smugly, the cashier looks at Cara and says, "Declined."
Cara doesn't even look defeated and begins to pull out one of her spare cards but I stop her before she can swipe it. "Cara, buy your dress. It's no big deal, I'll buy myself something cheaper later on."
She smiles at me. "You're sure? I wanted to buy you a dress as a thank you gift for being such a good friend..." but I nod my head and tell her to buy her dress. Gratefully, she hugs me and does just that. I think I just remembered why I'm her friend in the first place. At times when she's being like this, it's easy to remember, but at other times, it's also easy to forget.
After both Cara's and Janie's dresses are purchased, we decide to get some lunch. As we walk back to the food court, my stomach grumbles like mad and I frown. I really have to eat more these days. I decide that I want to get some pizza and a large coke. Make that two large cokes- I'm parched.
After we have all ordered our respective meals, we decide to sit where Tristan was sitting when we met him. While walking to our seats, I notice that my shoe's broken. I sigh and bend down to examine it, placing my food on the table next to me. This is a huge mistake; next thing I know, I'm being tripped over and ice coffee has been spilled all over my shirt.
I turn around to give the person a piece of my mind, but everything I was about to say dies in my throat. There, on the floor next to me, is Cael. He's wearing a black hoodie and the same pants he wore when we met yesterday.
When he notices that it's me, whatever he was about to say dies in his throat as well. Instead, his eyes go huge and his face reddens.
Scrambling to his feet, he says, "Khiara! Oh my God, I'm so sorry about this."
He helps me up and passes me a napkin, as if it were a peace offering. I'm just smiling like an idiot. Reaching for the napkin, I realize it's soaked as well. His face is a mirror image of my own.
"Cael, that napkin's, uhh, kinda soaked." I say, and his face reddens even more than I thought possible. "It's okay. I'm in my hobo clothes anyway."
All of a sudden, I realize that Cara and the others, well mostly Cara, are waiting for me. Cael takes off his hoodie and hands it over to me. "You'd look better in it than me anyway, and it's the least I could do. Just take your shirt off in the bathroom and change into it, but before you do that, I think you should probably explain what's going on to your friends. Two of them look really annoyed at having to wait."
Laughing, I say, "Oh, no. If anything, Janie wants me to leave and Chris wants to leave himself."
Cael digests this and asks quietly, "Do you want to hang out then?" and I wish so bad that I could say yes. Because I really do want to hang out with him. But I told Cara that I'd spend the day with her, and so I have to.
I begin to explain to him, "Cael, I really wish I could say yes. But, the truth is, Cara wants me to-" but he cuts me off, "It's no problem. I get it; she's your friend. Well, I don't want to keep you, so I'll watch your tray while you change."