Life Changing Experiences

Chapter 4
Well, time for the moment of truth. We approached the door to her house.
“Are you nervous?” I asked him.
“Very,” he responded quietly. “It’s not often people want to be my friend.”
“Don’t worry, Garfield. I at least know I want to be your friend if these two don’t,” I said in a… kind tone. A kind tone. Not a monotone. I haven’t heard myself speak like that for… the last time I spoke to my mother. He smiled a huge smile at me.
“Thanks, Rachel.”
“No problem,” I said again in my monotone. I finally knocked on the door. A whole minute passed. Then another minute. Then finally, the door opened. And there was standing Tara with a neutral face. It didn’t exhibit goofiness that it usually does. She stuck out her hand to Garfield.
“Tara.” Garfield didn’t take it though, but he only responded with his name.
“Garfield.” Tara nodded at him, and he in turn nodded back at her. Her face turned to me and she winked at me so Garfield couldn’t see. I glared at her…
“Hey, um… are we going in? It’s a little chilly out here,” Garfield interrupted our glaring contest. It was chilly. After all, it was December already.
“Oh of course!” screeched Tara in her most girlish voice she could muster. I walked inside, Garfield hesitantly behind me. He removed his shoes and I did the same. After that, I lead him upstairs into her bedroom. Now this is what I’ve been… not so looking forward to. Tara walked in, and there was Kitty sitting on her bed. She was looking as angry as ever still. I assume Tara calmed her down though. She has that affect on people.
“Hi,” Garfield said quietly to Kitty, who continued her glare at me. All she did was grunt in response. “So, I’m Garfield. Rachel told me a bit about you two. Tara and Kitty. Nice to meet you. Rachel is very kind to me and I hope you two are as well,” Garfield said. It was an interesting introduction. When he said the word nice, I felt my stomach tingle. It’s an odd feeling when someone talks about you being nice to them when you’re anything but. All Kitty did was nod, never breaking her glare. There was an awkward silence. “So, what do you girls do for fun around here?”
“Oh the usual. Steal stuff, beat people up, cause havoc and chaos wherever we walk,” Tara responded as if it were every day conversation.
“Tara, maybe it wasn’t a great idea to tell him in such a way where it’s as if we seem like the worst people in the world,” I said trying to defend us. Moreso myself, however.
“Why, Rae? We’re always causing havoc. That’s why we’re the feared three. No one comes within ten feet of us,” Kitty said this still with her glare. She was pissed at me more than any other time in her life. I don’t know why. It’s just a new friend… right? I looked at Garfield and he had an expression of deep thought on.
“Feared three? So, like, you’re supposed to be feared?” Garfield asked. All three of us nodded at the same time. But, something has been nagging in the back of my head recently. I don’t know exactly what it is yet, but every time I talk about being ‘feared’, I feel uncomfortable. It’s been very recently. To my, and the other girl’s surprise, he started laughing. I felt embarrassed. Why was he laughing? Why was I embarrassed? What are the other two going to do?
“Haven’t you heard of any so-called rumours about Tara, Rachel and Kitty? Or RTK as some might say it,” Tara said a little hostile to Garfield. He shook his head, probably missing the intimidation in her voice. “Well, 90 of those aren’t rumours. Anything you hear about us is probably true. We’re the talk of the school; hell, half the freakin’ city knows about us!” Tara smiled proudly and possibly smugly at her own words of how our reputation precedes us.
“Well, I haven’t heard anything about you.”
“What the hell do you do at school?!” Kitty shouted, obviously angry. Now she was taking her anger out on other people. God, she can really get on my nerves sometimes. Surprisingly, I did something I wouldn’t expect to for a million years. I defended him.
“Why are you snapping at him like that?” I said through clenched teeth, getting angry. She looked at me stupefied.
“Garfield,” Tara cut in. “Could you go downstairs and wait on the couch for five minutes? We need to talk in private,” Tara said uncharacteristically cold for her. “No one is home, so make yourself comfy,” she added just as darkly. I could hear Garfield gulp and he probably nodded, as I didn’t hear anything else. As I heard his footsteps slowly fade away, Tara moved behind me and shut her door. She looked at me deeply in my eyes.
“Rae, what the hell is wrong with you?” she asked sincerely.
“You’re not acting like yourself,” Kitty said angrily. Okay, so what is this? Good cop, bad cop?
“What do you mean?” I asked in monotone again.
“Well,” Tara started in her gentle tone again. “You invited Garfield over without any consent from either of us.”
“And what the hell happened to our pact?!” Kitty yelled unnecessarily loudly. Damn, I forgot all about it…
Wait. Forgot about it? How? I never, ever forgot it in the past.
“Moreso,” Tara again said. “What freaks me out the most is that you’re kind to Garfield. You defended him. You just… I don’t know. Treat him… better,” Tara finished quietly, turning away. She probably had tears in her eyes. Kitty just had her glare at me still on. I sighed. I didn’t know what was going on. But I think I have a concept. I’m… starting to grow up.
“You know, I need to think this through better. Garfield and I are going to leave. I think I need to have alone time with him to process what’s going on. Maybe I’ll be able to know for sure tomorrow,” I explained. The two girls in unison nodded, Kitty’s glare finally fading. Good, I need to figure out what’s wrong with me. If I am growing up, then I’m not ready for it yet. I nodded once to each of my friend’s, and I left to the primary floor, where I saw Garfield sitting down in the couch.
“Listen, Garfield,” I said as I approached him. He looked at me, eyes and face serious. He probably was bracing himself for bad news. “You and are I going to leave this house, and just go hang out by ourselves. Is that okay with you?” He doesn’t need to know the truth yet.
“Alright, sounds good.” That was unexpected. I at least expected him to question why. But he got up and we went to the door, got our shoes on and exited. No Tara to show me, or us, out today. We walked down the street in comfortable silence for a while, until he finally broke it. “They don’t like me, do they?”
“I can’t say if they like you yet or not. But, what I can say they don’t like is my behaviour.”
“What do you mean?” I sighed. Am I ready to tell him more about myself? After a few moments of walking contemplating, I decided yes. Friends tell each other things about themselves.
“Well, I’m not acting like my every day self. Normally, I don’t stand up for people. In fact, I’m the one putting them down. So to defend someone isn’t my style. I’m like… well, I guess you could say the bully.” It wasn’t the first time I referred to myself as the bully. But it was the first time I felt ashamed. I didn’t know why. What’s wrong?
“I think I understand. They wanted to talk to you about that without having to also have me there. Because… it’s up to you to decide if you want to tell me this.” Wow, he was smarter than I thought at first. He caught on quickly. He stopped walking and looked at me. I looked at him and nodded. We stood in awkward silence, holding each other’s gaze. I looked away, scolding myself for looking into his eyes for so long. Our walk continued.
“Garfield, I want to ask. Why are you in detention for?”
“Oh that… well, I didn’t do anything. Some punk framed me. I think his name was Devin. I can’t remember exactly though. He did it for no reason. I don’t even know what exactly he did. I just know I was standing near a crying girl with a… condom in my hand, and a teacher saw me,” he finished the end quietly.
“Why the hell were you standing with a condom in front of a crying girl?”
“I don’t know. Devin told me to hold it, I didn’t even know what it was nor did I bother reading the package. Next thing I know, he’s gone and there’s this crying girl next to me. A teacher walks by, sees it, and throws me in detention. I’m just glad I didn’t get anything worse than that,” he explained. So that’s why he seemed so happy to only be in detention. “Hey, Rachel don’t take this personally but I’m going home. I have something… important I have to do.” He explained this almost too fast to catch. I stopped myself from cringing. Not because he was leaving, but because of… “So, I’ll see you tomorrow in detention? We can hang out tomorrow, I’m free all day.”
“It sounds great, Garfield.” I smiled again at him as he smiled at me, and he went towards the bus station and I went towards my home.