Abercrombie & Bitch

Monday, April 20, 7:26pm – Bedroom window leading onto the roof

“Are you sure this is safe?” Zach asked hesitantly, eyeing the three-foot drop.

I rolled my eyes and offered my hand to him. “Of course it’s safe, you baby. Remember when you climbed it in third grade? How is this any different?”

I was trying to persuade him to come out onto my roof, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. The thing was flat to begin with! There was nothing for him to slip on, and yet here he was, freaking out because of… oh, yeah. Vertigo.

“It – ugh!” He took a shaky breath and hopped up to the little ledge with ease. So all that freaking out had been for nothing. Fabulous.

I took my big bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from him and jammed a giant spoonful into my mouth. I wasn’t exactly considered skinny – in fact, Lindsey always said I was fat. I can’t honestly sit here and tell you “my metabolism’s extremely fast” or that “I don’t care what other people think if I eat like a pig”, because the truth is, I do care. I’m just not, you know, really that concerned about it. I’m not obese, or anything like that, but you’ll never catch me in a bikini.

Zach stared at me like I was from another planet.

“Wha?” I asked through another mouthful.

He just laughed. “Nothing. I’ve just never seen a girl eat like that before.”

“Yeah, you have,” I reasoned, taking another bite, “I ate like this when-”

But I decided to stop myself. It was no use bringing up stuff from the past, anyway. I mean, what did I think it was going to do? All of the sudden Zach and I would be best friends like we used to be? Doubtful.

And what the heck was with him earlier? It was like I had something on my face… and he wanted to lick it off… At least, that’s what I convinced myself. Because Zach Sinclair certainly wouldn’t be interested in me that way.

“…When I was in the cafeteria this afternoon,” I finished, swirling the ice cream around in the bowl. “Yeah.”

“Okay…” He cleared his throat awkwardly and placed his finished bowl next to him. Yeah, and I’m the pig. “So… the talent show… I kind of lied.”

“About what?”

He shifted his position a little bit, trying to get more comfortable. “Well, the show’s actually the Sunday after prom. But auditions are in a week, so I was half-telling the truth.”

I chuckled. “I still don’t see why you’re helping me to begin with. I mean, won’t you be completely humiliated if anyone knew you’d associated with me in any way?”

“I don’t know,” he said slowly after a moment, staring up at the sky. “I do need the credit, same as you, if you’d believe it. And my friends… well, they don’t mind you, obviously. Mika even helped you with the Bryce thing this afternoon, so why does it matter?”

I shrugged and stared up at the stars. It was a very clear night, and I could see everything really well. Sometimes I came out onto this roof to escape my sister, even for a few minutes until Meg found me. She was surprisingly good at that, for a three-year-old.

“It doesn’t.”

It was simple. None of this mattered to me. In fact, the less Zach Sinclair mattered to me, the better. We’d tried this already, and look how brilliantly that worked. He came away with an enemy, and I ended up with a broken heart… All because my ex-best friend decided I wasn’t good enough for him. So why’d he change his mind now?

Exactly. He wouldn’t. And there was no way in hell I was about to be played again.

-[-]-

Tuesday, April 21, 8:53am – 1st period PE
Riley snapped her fingers in front of my face to get my attention. “Miranda? Yoo-hoo. You there?”

I blinked a few times against the sun, trying to focus on PE class. I wasn’t doing so well. But can you blame me? It was hockey for crying out loud! Personally, I don’t think the teachers minded that I wasn’t paying attention. Let’s just say it was not a good idea to put a hockey stick in my hands and expect me to hit a puck with it. Because I can think of a much better use…

“Uh, yeah,” I muttered, eyeing the other players on my team boredly and trying to get into the game. “I think.”

Donelle snorted, something very common for her. “Of course you were.”

Riley rolled her eyes. “Oh, like you were doing anything but staring at Bryce’s ass, Elle.” That earned her a hard whack on the back of the head. Note to self: never mess with a nerd with a hockey stick. “What?! I thought we all knew she had the hots for him!” Donelle swung at her again, but Riley ducked this time. She popped back up. “Ha! You mi – OW!”

Donelle smirked and cocked the stick at her side. I was clutching my own sides, trying not to laugh but failing. Seriously, I was almost rolling on the ground.

“It’s not funny!” Riley whined, rubbing the spot on her back that Donelle hit.

I nodded, wiping the tears from my eyes. “Au contraire. It was very funny.” I let out another giggle just as Riley stomped away angrily to chase after the little rubber puck.

Donelle was staring at the ground, shuffling her feet.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, tapping her foot with my stick, “You look a little… depressed.”

She sighed and took a step back, narrowly missing a stray hockey stick. “I just… Riley was right,” she said quickly, avoiding my gaze, “I did – do – kind of like Bryce. I swear to God, I’ll never do anything, but-”

I chuckled and held up a hand to stop her. “Elle, calm down. If you like him… I’d tell you to go for it if I wasn’t afraid you were going to end up like…” See? I’m nice to my friends. It’s just lying, backstabbing exes that piss me off.

She looked up and smiled sadly. “I know. I’m really sorry about that, by the way.”

“I’m over it,” I replied, shrugging.

And you know what? I was. Because no way was I going to let something like that ruin my senior year. My grades have already screwed it up enough, thank you very much. I figured that even though I wouldn’t personally let Bryce anywhere within ten feet of me for the rest of my life… If Donelle really liked him, then I wasn’t going to stop her. All I could do was be there for her when – if – he broke her heart.

“Really?”

I smiled. “Sure.”

“Hello, ladies,” an incredibly arrogant voice sang from behind us. “Danielle. Miranda.”

“It’s Donelle,” she corrected bitterly, turning around to face the newcomer. “God, how many times – Oh. Hey, uh, Zach.”

I rolled my eyes. “What do you want, Sinclair?”

He flipped his dirty blonde hair out of his eyes. “Nothing, bitch,” he said, trying to hint at something with his facial expression. I didn’t know what it was, but it made him look kind of constipated. I giggled.

“Hey, I knew that way before you did.”

Elle just scoffed. “By the way, Miranda, I tried to call you last night and you didn’t pick up. Did you drop your phone in Brutus’s dog bowl again at work?”

“That was one time! Are you ever going to let that go?!” I groaned. “For your information, I was hanging out with Zach last night.”

Crap. Double crap. I hadn’t meant to say that. I’d planned to keep both Donelle and Riley in the dark about this whole situation. This is not good.

Zach’s head snapped towards me so fast I’m surprised his neck didn’t crack.

Donelle looked at me incredulously and gestured to Zach. “Why in the world would you willingly hang out with him?”

My brain was literally on the verge of frying, trying to come up with a decent excuse. It was my big mouth that got me into this mess, and it’s what’s going to get me out. At least, I hope. I sent Zach a pleading glance. His face lit up like he had an idea.

“I-”

He cut me off by flinging and arm around my shoulders. “We’re dating!”

What. The. Hell. Just. Happened.