Nothing Goes As Orchestrated

"How can you even say that Spongebob is better than Ninja Turtles? What is wrong with you? Even Raphael totally owns Spongebob and no one likes Raphael."

Cassie, Angie, Rian and Jack were sitting around the girls' house having what had just turned into a heated discussion about cartoon characters. And the words Jack had just uttered might as well have been blasphemy.

"Dude, Spongebob is genius," Jack said.

"Oh no, here we go," Rian mumbled upon seeing the look on Cassie's face.

"How is Spongebob genius? He doesn't do anything except laugh that incessantly obnoxious laugh and be generally annoying. There is no value whatsoever in that cartoon. He's not even a real sea creature! Kids are going to think that a sea sponge looks just like that when it really doesn't! At least Ninja Turtles actually look like turtles," she ranted. Jack just stared at her with a blank expression, prompting her to say, "Of course, you're entitled to your opinion, Jack, but you're also entitled to be wrong."

Jack opened his mouth to reply just as the door bell rang. Without a word, Cassie stood and went over to the door, not bothering to see who was there before opening it. Her jaw nearly hit the floor when she saw the girl standing in front of her.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked.

"Well, that depends. Are you going to stab me or rip my eyes out or anything along those lines?" Cassie replied.

Chelley shook her head, "No, Cassie. I just want to talk to you," she said.

"Alright," Cassie said after a moment, stepping aside and pulling the door open all the way, "Come in. Jack, Rian and Angie are here, so maybe we could talk out back."

"Sounds good," the smaller girl agreed.

"Did you want anything to eat or drink before we go out there?" Cassie asked.

Chelley shook her head, "No, thank you. I'm fine," she said politely.

Cassie led Chelley through the house, earning strange looks from her friends. No one said anything though. When they got outside, Cassie motioned for Chelley to have a seat as she walked around the table and sat down.

"No drowning me in the pool either, please," Cassie said.

A smile broke across Chelley's face and she chuckled quietly, "Cassie, I just want to talk," she reiterated.

With a nod, Cassie sat back in the chair, "Okay, what's up?" she asked.

"Alex told me everything," she began, "Well, sort of."

Cassie nodded, "I know. He told me," she said.

Chelley sighed, "I was really mad at him at first, and I was hurt. I know it's only been a couple of days, but I realized something," she said.

"And what's that?" Cassie asked, her eyebrow raising.

"I didn't love him," she said, "I wanted to, but after being together for over three months, those feelings just weren't there. Sure, I liked him. I liked him a whole lot. But the chemistry wasn't there."

"Okay," Cassie said cautiously, "Forgive me if I'm missing the point, but why did you want to talk to me?" she asked.

She was silent for a moment and looked down at the table before answering, "I just, um, I kind of wanted to hear your side of this. I guess it's not really my business, but I just want to know how things went down," she said.

Cassie shifted, suddenly feeling uncomfortable, "Chelley, if you're not mad at Alex anymore, I don't want to say anything that's going to make you hate him. That's not really fair to either of you," she said, "How did you find out that Alex and I dated anyway?"

"Jack told me. He said it wasn't fair what Alex was doing to a great girl like me."

A sigh escaped Cassie's lips and she nodded, "Jack told you. Great. That's going to go over so fucking well," she mumbled to herself, "Look, I know this is probably going to sound corny, but Alex did care about you. He took it pretty hard when you broke up with him the other day. I'm not saying this so you'll feel sorry for him because he's the one who messed up, but I don't think he even realized it until the shit hit the fan. And because of that, I just don't really see how anything good can come from me telling you my side," she said.

"I understand where you're coming from, Cassie. I really do. But I still want to know. I'm not going to hate Alex. Like I said, I liked him a lot, but I wasn't thinking in terms of the long run. He's in a band. I probably should've expected to be cheated on at some point. And I probably should've realized how he felt about you just by the way he always looked at you. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, you know?"

With another sigh, Cassie nodded but stayed silent otherwise. She really didn't want to explain everything to Chelley. But she felt bad for the girl. She didn't deserve what Alex had done to her any more than Matt deserved the position Cassie had put him in.

"Cassie, please," Chelley said.

"Alright," Cassie agreed, "But before I do, I really need to tell you that I'm sorry. I knew what I was doing was wrong. And I tried a couple times to tell Alex we had to stop, but something kept pulling me back to him."

The small girl across the table nodded and Cassie began to explain what had happened between her and Alex in the last month. She left out the graphic details, doing her best to spare the girl's feelings. And the entire time, she couldn't help but think in the back of her mind about how angry Alex would probably be with her for telling Chelley.

When she finished, Chelley was quiet. "Are you okay?" Cassie asked.

She nodded, "Surprisingly, yes," she said, pausing for a moment before continuing, "I can't say I know a whole lot about you, but I really feel like you and Alex are more suited for each other than he and I ever could be. And I really appreciate that you were honest with me."

"I really had no reason not to be, Chelley. Everything was pretty much already out there."

"Can I be honest with you now?" Chelley asked.

Cassie swallowed hard, fearing what would come next, but nodded anyway, "Sure," she said.

"I think I like Jack," she said.

Cassie's eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the confession, "Jack? Really?" she asked and Chelley nodded, "Wow. Um, he hasn't mention anything but from what you said earlier, it's possible he likes you too. Do you want to stay and hang out for awhile?"

"You don't think that would be weird?" Chelley asked.

"I don't know. I think there's only one way to find out. If it gets too awkward, you can leave. No one is going to hold you hostage here," Cassie said with a shrug, "Well, Jack might. But I've taken him down twice and I can do it again if need be."

Chelley laughed, "You seem like a really cool person, Cassie. If circumstances were different, I would say that I want to hang out with you sometime," she said.

"Give it time. Anything can happen," she replied, as she stood up, "I don't mean to be rude, but I need to go make a phone call."

The girls went inside and Chelley joined Jack, Rian and Angie in the living room. Cassie mentioned that she was going to hang out for awhile before disappearing up to her room. She sat on the bed for a minute before dialing a very familiar number and leaving a message once the voice mail came on. A minute later, her phone rang.

"Hey you," she said, answering the call.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Um, I just wanted you to know that Chelley came over to talk to me. Everything's fine, but I just thought you should have a heads up so whenever you come back, it's not a surprise if someone mentions that she was here."

"Oh, okay. What'd she want to talk to you about?"

Cassie sighed, "Well, she wanted to know my side of things," she said.

"Did you tell her?" he asked.

After hesitating for a moment, she sighed again, "Yeah, I did. Don't get mad. I felt really bad for her. And the good news is that she's not mad. At you or at me. She's okay now. I know that sounds weird but it requires a bit of explanation and maybe you should talk to her about that."

"Yeah, sure Cassandra, I'll get right on that. Are you two best buds now?" he asked.

"Don't be that way, Alex. I know this probably wasn't what you wanted to hear, but I thought I was doing you a favor by telling you so you didn't hear it from someone else," she snapped.

Alex sighed loudly, "You don't really have a right to be having an attitude with me right now. It wasn't your place to get involved in this," he said.

"How is it not my place when she comes to me and asks? She made it my place."

He sighed again, "Fine, whatever. I don't really want to fight with you. So, whatever. It's fine. Thanks for telling me," he said.

Cassie sighed also, "I'm sorry," she said, "I, um, I miss you. Do you know when you're coming back?" she asked.

"Soon," he said, "I actually just remembered today that we have a show in Vegas in a few days. You should come with the guys if you can get away from work for a couple days."

"I'll see what I can do," she said.

"Okay, cool," he said, "And I miss you too, just for the record."