She Had Me At Bonjour

Hey, you’ve reached Marcus. I’m not here right now, so uh, leave a message.

I hung up the phone before the little beep even played. I don’t know how I’m going to tell Marcus, but the guilt is eating me alive. I think he’d understand.

Sighing, I set my phone on my nightstand. I looked around my room for something to do, but everything bored me. I’d done just about everything a lonely person could do in a week, and now all that’s left is sitting here.

My eyes trailed over to my desk where pictures of family and friends were. There was a picture and Marcus and I, Cree and I, Angela and I from high school, our whole little group at the mall in one of those photo booths, and a picture of my dad and I. I got up from my bed and grabbed the picture, hugging it to my chest. I feel like such a bad daughter; I haven’t visited him in a few weeks. He woke up for a few days, but slipped right back into a coma. I set the picture down and put on a pair of shoes.

“I’m going to see dad, Cree! You’re welcome to come along!” I yelled through her door. 30 seconds past by with no reply, so I turned on my heel to leave. That’s when I heard sniffles coming from her room. I barged through the door to see Cree, head in her hands and legs sprawled across the floor. She looked up and her eyes met mine.

“He’s gone. Krysh, dad’s gone.”

“He’s not at the hospital?”

“My god you’re so stupid! No, he’s dead!” Cree buried her face back in her hands and I dropped next to her, my eyes filling up with tears. I put my hand on her back but she flinched away, glaring at me.

“Seriously, just don’t touch me. Go back to your room and mope around.” I snatched my hand away and stood up, slamming the door on my way out. I paced around the living room for a bit before grabbing my keys and getting into my car. I had no idea where I was going, but I just drove.

Half an hour of mindless driving later, I ended up at Marcus’ house. I looked in the driveway to make sure he was there and saw his car, and next to it was Kara’s. I sighed in relief. Kara was going to find out anyways, so might as well tell her now.

I walked up the pathway to his house and knocked on the door, but no one answered. I sighed and took out my set of keys and found Marcus’, putting the key in the lock and opening the door. The house was silent except for the faint sound of music coming from his room. I opened the door to his room and my eyes bugged out of their sockets. There, on his bed, was Marcus and some girl, making out.

“Marcus?!” He broke apart from theslut girl and looked up, shock masking his other emotions.

“Krysha? What are you doing here?”

“Well, I was coming over because I was extremely sad about my dad dying today and I thought, “Oh, maybe my boyfriend could help me get through this!’ but I guess I don’t have a boyfriend now! How could you do this to me?”

“Boyfriend?! Marcus, what the fuck is going on here?!” The girl sat up and glared at Marcus.

“Krysha babe, I’m sorry!”

“No, Marcus, you’re not! You cheated on me!”

“Technically I cheated on Delaney with you.” He pointed to the girl next to him and she got even madder, if possible.

“You what?!” He turned his attention back to Delaney and stumbled on words.

“You’re such a douche, you know that Marcus? I should’ve listen to Rian, Kara, and Zack.” Delaney looked over at me. “Rian Dawson, Kara Diakoulas and Zack Merrick?” I nodded and her eyes lit up.

“Kara’s my sister!”

“She has a sister?!”

“Yeah! I’m Delaney, by the way.”

I smiled and waved. “I’m Krysha.” I turned over to Marcus and glared. “Fuck you Marcus. We’re over.”

“What she said!” Delaney got up from the bed and followed me out the door. She sighed and took out her phone, dialing a number and holding the phone to her ear.

“Kara? It’s Delaney. Yeah. I broke up with Marcus. Ha, yeah I know. He was cheating on me. How? His other girlfriend came over. Mhmm. I’m coming home, but can we go to the boy’s house?” She covered the bottom of her phone and looked at me. “Want to meet us at the guy’s house?” I nodded and she put the phone back to her ear. “She said yes. All right, I’ll tell her. See you in a few.” She hung up and smiled at me.

“It’s a deal. Oh and Kara says to bring your sister. I’ll see you there!” Delaney and I waved to each other and went our separate ways. When I got home, there was an extra car in the driveway. I walked in the house and into Cree’s room. She was sitting on her bed next to some guy and they were talking. She wasn’t crying again which was good.

“Cree? Kara wants you to come to the guy’s house with me.”

“Fine. Just wait in the car.” I could still hear the harshness of her voice. I shrugged and waited out in the car for her and this guy.

A few minutes later, the two of them came outside, holding hands. They got in the backseat together and I opened my mouth to ask about them holding hands, but Cree beat me to it.

“Don’t ask. You’ll find out later.” I nodded and backed out of the driveway.

_ _ _

Everyone was sitting around the living room; in chairs, on the floor, even on the table. Jack came in from the kitchen with a drink of some sort and sat on the table, crossing his legs. Kara pushed Delaney up in front of everyone and we looked at each other before she spoke.

“I’m Delaney, Kara’s sister, for those who didn’t know. And uh, I’m no longer dating Marcus.” She pointed to me and I let out the breath I’d been holding in.

“I’m Krysha, which you all I think know. And I’m no longer dating Marcus.” A few faces went from content to surprised. “I was going over to his house because I thought he could cheer me up – why I was sad is a different story – and I found him and Delaney together. The three of us argued and we both broke up with him.”

There was silence for a few seconds before someone started clapping. I looked over to the person clapping and saw Rian. Delaney and I smiled at each other and faced everyone to see them all with smiling faces as well.

Cree stood up and ran into Delaney’s now vacant spot and straightened up, nudging my side. “We still have something else we need to say.” Everyone quieted down and focused their attention on us.

“Well, I went to Marcus’ house because our… dad died this morning.” I felt my eyes water and looked over to see Cree with a stone cold expression on her face. She probably cried enough today.

“Oh you guys, I’m so sorry.” Kara’s voice was quieter as usual. She was the only one who spoke up, everyone else looked at us with enough sympathy in their eyes to cure cancer.

Cree looked at me and I took that as my queue to sit down. I took a seat in between Delaney and Alex. The guy who had been with Cree the whole time got up and stood next to her, grabbing her hand in his. She smiled a little smile and projected her voice above a whisper.

“This is Conner. He’s my, uh, my boyfriend.” They earned some congratulations from everyone except Alex, who sat next to me with an unamused expression. He was clenching his fists and probably trying to keep himself for blowing up in front of everyone. It was extremely obvious that Alex had even a little crush on Cree, but of course, the girl who is always being crushed on never notices. I swear, there’s so much sexual tension between them, it’s scary.

_ _ _

Sitting out around the pool on a hot, sunny Summer day after just breaking up with your tool of a boyfriend and finding out your dad died that morning is probably the best and worst way to spend a Saturday. But everyone including Juliana was here, and the all the events of earlier just faded away as quickly as they were told.

To be honest, Juliana wasn’t bad at all. She was really sweet and crazy at the same time, which was entertaining. She had come over when she found out from Marcus – who she ran into sometime during the day – about our break-up.

“I made mini-sandwiches for everyone!” Angela came outside with a tray full of mini-sandwiches and Jack trailing behind.

“I helped!” Jack stole a sandwich and popped it in his mouth, frowning at Angela.

“Okay, you cut up one sandwich, then started dancing and singing to Dancing Queen by ABBA. You’re so much help.”

Juliana leaned over to me and giggled. “They’re so cute together, it’s not even funny.”

“I know. And it’s even better that Jack is like, almost a foot taller. It makes the bickering even cuter.”

“I can hear everything you’re saying.” We looked up to see Angela, for once, towering over us with the plate in her hands. “I was going to offer you guys some sandwiches, but now I’m not gonna!” She stuck out her tongue and stomped over to a still pissed off looking Alex, who grabbed three sandwiches and stuffed them in his mouth. He was glaring at the back of Cree and Conner’s heads, who were sitting side-by-side on the edge of the pool.

Juliana leaned over to me again. “Looks like Cree’s not the only oblivious one in the group.” She snickered and looked at me when I didn’t laugh.

“I don’t get it. Who’s the other oblivious one?”

“Uhm, Angela?” She said hesitantly. I looked over at Jack and Angela and thought about it. She didn’t seem too oblivious to Jack liking her, in fact, she seemed like she enjoyed the fact that he liked her.

I shrugged and took a sip of my water bottle, scanning the backyard. Juliana and I were in two lounge chairs by the door, Alex was sitting alone on the wicker loveseat, glaring at Conner and Cree who were still sitting at the edge of the pool. Rian, Kara, and Delaney were talking to Flyzik who came over about an hour ago around the unlit fire pit, Angela was setting down the tray and dipping a foot into the pool, and Jack was talking a mile a minute to Zack who had been silent the whole day aside from the occasional laughter when Jack would say something funny. I watched as he laughed at something, his shoulders shaking a bit and his eyes squinting in the slightest. A hand blocked my vision and snapped in my face, clearing my thoughts. I looked over at Juliana who was smirking at me.

“Were you staring at Zack?” She whispered. I shook my head and she just laughed at me. “You were! Oh my god do you like him?” I shook my head even harder this time. “AHH I KNEW IT!”

“Juliana don’t scream! I don’t!” I yelled back at her. She got up from the chair and danced around chanting, “I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT!” I covered my face with my palms as everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Juliana and I like we were insane.

“JULIANA TUESDAY NICHOLES, IT’S NOT NICE TO YELL!” Jack yelled from across the yard. Juliana stopped and looked at Jack, sticking her tongue out at him.

“I CAN DO WHAT A WANT, BARAKITTEN!” She ran over to Jack and pushed him in the pool, laughing like a maniac. She narrowed her eyes at me and smiled a Cheshire smile.

“Oh Krysha! You’re the only one besides mopey Alex who hasn’t been in the pool yet. But I’m afraid that Alex will like, shank me if I go near him. So guess what? You’re going in!” She ran over to me before I could get up and run inside. She picked me up bridal style and walked to the edge of the pool, laughing like a villain.

“Juliana don’t! She’s wearing my dress!” Kara screamed from her seat. Juliana put me down and grabbed my arms, pulling the dress over my shoulders and throwing it on the lounge chair. She picked me up and again laughed like before. She was about to throw me in when we both ended up falling in, Juliana screaming and my eyes widening as we crashing into the water. We resurfaced and saw Alex standing where Juliana was before, smirking.

“I’m not mopey, and I probably would have shanked you, biatch!” Alex laughed his own villain laugh and walked inside.

“What the fuck just happened?” Cree’s eyebrows were furrowed and she was gaping, the most confused face ever taking over her features. We all started laughing as music started blaring from some speakers outside and Alex came back out.

“Party time, losers!”