Drop Dead Bitches

Chapter 7: The Relationships
Caitlyn walked down the hall to her next class, trigonometry. Usually she’d walk with Theresa but she chose not to make any eye contact with her ever since Theresa blew up on her. She didn’t need Theresa or her issues.
“Hey, Caitlyn!”
Caitlyn spun around and there was Nick, running up toward her. Then she spotted Theresa walking by her with her new girl entourage. They all looked over at Caitlyn and giggled but Caitlyn couldn’t care less about them. She had her eyes on Theresa as she walked by her, the both of them glaring.
“What’s up?” Nick asked. “Caitlyn?”
“Yeah,” she sighed.
“Is there something wrong?”
“Uh, no. I have to get to class,” Caitlyn said, turning around and walking away.
“Okay,” Nick sighed, putting the invitation back into his bag.

Caitlyn walked into class right when the bell rang so everyone was already in their seats. She was about to walk to her seat but it was taken by one of Theresa’s girls. She paused, scanning the room for an empty desk.
“Caitlyn, there’s a desk behind Mark,” Ms. Parrish said, gesturing toward the seat.
Caitlyn looked over at the desk at the back of the room in the corner. In front of her seat was Mark Gates, he grinned at Caitlyn who watched as his double chin doubled in size. She shivered and trudged to her seat.
From across the room, she heard Theresa and her girls giggle.
Throughout the entire class, Caitlyn had to lean to the side to see what Ms. Parrish was doing up on the board since Mark was like a wall, blocking her view of everything.
She sighed in relief when the bell rang, anxious to get out of class but also anxious to get a word with Theresa.
“I need to talk to you,” Caitlyn said as Theresa walked out of class.
Theresa stopped walking and stood in front of Theresa. “You can go,” Theresa said to the girls, annoyed.
The two girls hurried down the halls to their next class.
“What’s going on, Theresa?”
“Oh please, not you too. Are you going to give me a long boring lecture that I’m sure I’m not going to listen to even if I wanted to? You and Colin are too much alike.”
“Colin already talked to you?”
“Yeah, and I’m pretty sure it’s because of something you said to him.”
“Look, I just want my best friend back,” Caitlyn said.
“And that’ll happen once you stop hanging around losers and realize what you’re doing.”
“…And what is that?”
“I said ‘realize’. Do the work yourself.” Theresa spun around, her brown locks barely touching Caitlyn as she walked off to her next class, her hips swinging back and forth as she walked.
Caitlyn sighed in frustration. What was going on?

When Theresa turned the corner, she looked back to make sure no one-especially Caitlyn-was watching her as she ran to the girls bathroom, her hands over her mouth.
She threw open the stall and knelt down in front of the toilet. She couldn’t control it anymore. It just kept coming out one hour after another or sometimes the intervals were shorter. She tears starting to fall from her face either because of the burning in her throat, the nausea, the thought of the baby growing in her stomach, or all the other problems in her life.
She sat down against the wall, shoving a big wad of cinnamon gum into her mouth. She remembered just a month ago, she’d do this because she wanted to. Because she was fat but now it was involuntary. She was doing it because the… thing growing inside of her. She refused to say or even think of the word.
And suddenly she broke down crying. What mess has she gotten herself into? Getting pregnant with a guy who wasn’t her boyfriend, cheating on her boyfriend, lying and alienating her friends, seducing her boyfriend to make him think it was his.
She shook her head in disgust. She couldn’t deny that she hated who she was turning into but she had no choice. There was no way to keep her social status and be the person she used to be at the same time. Look at Caitlyn! Her reputation is going down the drain faster than E’s did. The only difference was that Theresa had sabotaged E. Caitlyn was putting this on herself so she didn’t understand why Caitlyn was implying that it was her fault that their friendship was breaking. Caitlyn did the exact same thing to her!

“Your fatass will never be caught near us ever again if you don’t do this,” Caitlyn had told her a couple years ago.
Theresa looked up at her who sat on the counter-top in Caitlyn’s bathroom.
“But I can’t!” Theresa protested once again.
“Okay, fine!” Caitlyn said, hopping off the counter. “If you want to be a hippo for the rest of your life then so be it. Just know that you aren’t eating lunch with us tomorrow. You can show yourself out.” Caitlyn tossed the plastic toothbrush into the garbage bin and shut the door as she walked out.
Theresa wiped her nose, taking a deep breath and reaching over into the garbage, pulling out the toothbrush. She wiped it with her shirt and leaned over the open toilet seat, her eyes squeezed shut. Hesitantly, she opened her mouth and placed the shaking toothbrush down her throat.

Theresa stood outside the girls bathroom and waiting. She looked to her right and there was Derek, walking down the hall toward her, his hands shoved into his coat pockets.
“Hey, what’s up?” Derek asked nervously.
“Derek, it’s getting worse,” Theresa mumbled, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m feeling sick everyday. I’m always have to throw up, I can’t keep any sort of food down, I always feel dizzy…. I don’t know what to do,” she whispered, a tear sliding down her cheek. “Derek, we have to do it.”
“No,” Derek firmly.
“There’s no other way,” Theresa cried. “I can’t keep this!”
“It’s not safe.”
“So what am I going to do? I can’t do it without my parents permission and I can’t tell them about it. Please, Derek. I’m miserable.”
“Look, I promised myself that I wouldn’t do anything stupid anymore. That I would focus on school and only school. The last thing I need is a distraction and this… this is definitely a distraction,” Derek hissed and started to walk back to class.
“Derek, come back here!” Theresa called. “We’re both in this. Together. This isn’t only my problem, it’s yours too!”
Derek stopped walking and paced back to Theresa. “My problem?” he laughed. “I didn’t want to do anything but you just had to beg me. You know what? I regret this. I regret all of it. I wish I would have never gotten close to you because all you do is bring me down with you. Theresa, your life revolves around betrayal, attention, drama, and nothing more.”

“Hey!” Colin called.
Alexis turned around and smiled widely when she saw him walking up from behind her, his jeans rolled up and shoes in his hands. “What’re you doing here?” she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. “I wanted to see you but your mom said you were at the beach so here I am!” he sat down beside Alexis and smiled at her.
“But the question is, what are you doing out here?”
“You know I like to watch the sunset at the beach. The colors in the sky, the way it reflects off the water, the cool ocean breeze. It’s so beautiful.”
“And you can’t forget how the sun looks like it’s sinking into the water,” Colin laughed. “But I didn’t mean it like that. Usually you’d come out here to think. Or to get stuff off of your mind.”
Alexis smiled. “Just some stuff going on. Nothing to talk about.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah,” she said, running her fingers through her hair.
“Okay.”
Alexis loved and also hated this about Colin. She loved that he always respected her privacy and space and when she doesn’t want to talk about something, he won’t push her to talk about it but at times she was just saying it was nothing so he could keep bothering her about it so she can tell him. She thought of it as a way of keeping her dignity.
“It’s Derek,” she confessed.
“Derek?” Colin asked, confused. “Derek De Luca?”
She nodded her head. Although she wanted to drop her head, she kept it held high.
“What did he do?” he asked.
“Derek and I… well, we kind of had a thing.” Alexis refused to look over at Colin to see his expression so she continued. “It was nothing big. We never kissed, held hands, none of that. But we did get pretty close and we’d visit each other everyday for almost a month since homecoming.
“But then I realized he was just… a distraction. I was letting him in, letting him change me, letting him see my core. I didn’t want that.”
“Why is it so hard for you to let people in?”
“You know I’ve always been that way.”
“No, I’ve always knew you had thick skin. You never let people take advantage of you, you’re always so confident, and you’re always focused on the goals you set. Was it that you didn’t want to let Derek in or that you couldn’t?”
Alexis shrugged her shoulders and sighed. “I don’t know!”
“Do you like Derek?”
She thought about it. “Yeah, I guess. I’m comfortable around him, I don’t always have to keep my guard up, and… he made me eat junk food,” she smiled.
“Junk food?!”
She laughed. “Yeah.”
“How was it?”
“It felt great. For once, I didn’t have to worry about my image because I knew Derek wouldn’t judge me. In a way, kind of like you.”
“That’s because I’m your best friend.”
Alexis looked down, letting her hair fall between her and Colin. “Yeah.”

The next day after cheer practice, Caitlyn and Stacy, a girl from the team, went shopping at Fashion Island. Fashion Island was Caitlyn and Theresa’s place to shop and they always went there together but since Theresa didn’t need Caitlyn, Caitlyn didn’t need Theresa. Unfortunately, most of the girls that Caitlyn did like on the team turned their backs on her and now followed Theresa. Stacy was the only decent girl left that Caitlyn would ever want to be caught with shopping at Fashion Island.
“This place is fantastic,” Stacy said. “I’ve only been here two times. The first was when I first moved to Newport and me and my family was looking around the city and the second because I was asking for directions. I didn’t buy anything though. It’s way to expensive. Well, I’m not saying that I’m poor or anything and that I can’t afford all this stuff because I can but it’s just really pricey.”
Since Caitlyn asked Stacy to go shopping with her, Stacy couldn’t stop talking. Caitlyn thought she would have gotten the hint since Caitlyn barely responded to her that she wasn’t interested in speaking to her but obviously Amy was in her own little world.
“So what’s up with you and Theresa?”
And for the first time, that actually caught her attention. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, come on! You know what I mean. Everyone knows there’s drama between you two.”
“What’re people saying?” Caitlyn asked.
Stacy laughed nervously. “I already said too much,” she said as she looked away.
“Okay, I guess you can hitch your own ride home,” Caitlyn said, walking away.
“No, wait!” Stacy called, rushing after her.
Caitlyn spun around and waited for the petite girl with a blonde pixie cut to spill the beans.
“I just hear people gossiping and stuff. It really isn’t that big of a deal!”
“Gossiping about what?”
“Just stuff!”
“What kind of stuff?” Caitlyn obviously wasn’t going to give up.
Stacy sighed in defeat. “They’re just saying how you two are enemies now. Kind of like you and Alexis and Alexis and Theresa!”
“But Alexis and Theresa are friends….”
“Not from what I hear.”
“And what do you hear?”
“I’m not exactly sure. I’m hearing all sorts of things but I’m going to tell you this because you’re my friend. You’re Caitlyn DuPaul, the queen B of Newport Harbor. Always was and always will be but it seems as if you’re slacking off all of a sudden. You’re slipping, Caitlyn. It seems as if the race for queen B is between Theresa and Alexis now. Theresa wanting it more than anything and Alexis… well, she’s just gliding to the top effortlessly and without a care. You just need to get your priorities straight and realize what you really want.”
“Nick!” Caitlyn exclaimed.
“You want Nick…?”
“No, it’s Nick!” Caitlyn walked past Stacy and rushed toward Nick who sat on a bench by himself.
Caitlyn creeped up behind him and right before she put her hands over his eyes, he spun around and grabbed her wrists.
“Hello there,” he said and smiled, letting her go.
“How’d you know I was coming?” she frowned.
“Nick! It’s Nick!” he cried, mimicking her.
She glared at him. “I do not talk like that!”
She chuckled.
“So what’re you doing here…?”
“What do you mean?”
“Fashion Island? I never thought I’d ever catch you at a place like this!”
“Because of the car I drive?” he asked. “And my social status? And my appearance?”
“No, no! That’s not what I meant!”
He laughed. “It’s fine. I’m actually here with my mom, sister, and my cousin. They’re dress shopping.”
“For what?”
“My sister is getting married.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, in early July next summer.”
“Oh, okay. So do you usually shop around here? Or is it just this one time for your sister?”
“I’m not much of a shopper,” he chuckled.
“I can tell,” she said, examining his clothes.
“Ouch,” he joked.
She laughed. “I didn’t mean it like that!”
“Yes she did,” Stacy said, popping in between them. “Come on, Caitlyn. He have more important things to do.” She looked at Nick in disgust.
“Stacy!” Caitlyn exclaimed.
Nick chuckled. “It’s fine, Caitlyn. They’re finished anyways.” He pointed to the three women walking out of Neiman Marcus, Nick’s mother, cousin, and sister.
She was absolutely beautiful. Her thick and silky hair flowed down her back to her hips, her green eyes were framed with long lashes and bold eyebrows.
I was easily able to spot her mother that Nick looked very much like. Dark brown hair, grey eyes, and the same nose and lips.
Their cousin on the other hand obviously had the genes from the wrong side of the family.
“Done so soon?” Nick asked.
“Bridget found a lovely dress,” his mom responded.
“Oh! Mom, Hannah, Bridget, this is my friend Caitlyn.”
Stacy cleared her throat from behind Caitlyn.
Nick ignored her and Stacy frowned. “Caitlyn, this is my mom, my cousin Hannah, and my sister Bridget.”
Caitlyn’s eyes widened. The ugly one was his sister?!

“So how’s you and Theresa?” Ryan asked, pouring himself a drink.
Colin shrugged his shoulders. “No better than before.”
“Have you even spoken to her since the party?”
He scoffed. “Hardly! I’m ready to talk but whenever I make eye contact she just looks away!”
“Do you think she’s hinting something?”
“I don’t even know what’s up with her,” he said, shaking his head. “But I guess whenever she’s ready to talk, she will.”
“What exactly happened at the party?” Ryan asked.
“It was nothing.” He looked away.
At the back of Colin’s head, the events played in his head. Everything was all blurry but he knew some of what happened. Theresa got him drunk, brought him to his car, locked the doors so he couldn’t get out, and the rest was absolutely awful. Not the fact that he saw Theresa naked but what he did to her. He didn’t mean to but it was the only thing left to do. He had to make her stop so he had to knock her out in self defense. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in the front seat and waking up in his bedroom but how? Whoever brought him home obviously knew more than they had to.

“Coming!” Alexis called as she went down the stairs to open the front door who’s door belling hasn’t ceased since it woke her up. Since her parents were in Virginia visiting her grandparents, she was the only one who could get the door. But who could be here at two in the morning on a Saturday night?
She stood on her toes to look through the hole and her forehead wrinkled in confusion as she opened the door. “Derek, what’re you doing here?” she sighed, wrapping her arms around herself as the cold night air came in.
Derek took one long stop forehead and suddenly his lips crushed hers. Her eyes widened in shock and at first she tried pushing him away but a couple seconds later found herself wrapping her arms around him.
After coming to her sense, she pushed him away. “What’re you doing?!” she gasped.
“Tell me you didn’t feel anything and I promise I’ll stop bothering you.”
Alexis pulled her robe back onto her shoulders and pushed her hair behind her ears, looking down at the ground. “Derek, I…-”
“Just tell me and I’ll leave… or I can stay.”
Alexis looked up at him and felt herself melt under his green eyes filled with profound sincerity. Something never in her life thought she’d see in the eyes of Derek De Luca. Derek… he made her happy and she couldn’t deny that. But there was something that held her back and it just wouldn’t be fair to him.
Alexis looked down at her feet and squeezed her eyes shut. “I didn’t feel anything,” she whispered.
Derek pursed his lips together and nodded his head. “Okay,” he murmured. “I’ll see you later.”
She nodded her head, refusing to look up at him as she shut the door.
She turned around, her back against the door as she held her head up high, fighting the overwhelming sensation of tears. She didn’t understand why she felt like this but all she knew was that she regretted leaving the two people that meant a lot to her. Derek and Colin.

Drama, drama, drama. That’s all that ever goes on in the life of these bitches. In retrospect, I’m glad I’m no longer apart of their entourage. Things have changed, I’ve grown, and I’ve learned. Learned to never let a couple of stuck-up people turn me into a robot. Who’s your puppet master now, bitches?!