It Started with a Bet...

“Clarice, I need you to come over right now.” I tell her where I am and put my head back down on the table. Trevor left only minutes ago, and I’m ready to bawl my eyes out. This was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.

“What’s wrong?” She’s here like she’s been waiting in the parking lot. She sits next to me and puts and arm around me. Between tears and blowing my nose on the napkins from the dispenser on the table, I explain everything. I start with how I asked Trina if it was okay to love Trevor, explain her very obvious answer of “no” and how we moved and how I knew I would have to break it off with Trevor and how I ignored everyone for a week trying to work up the courage to tell him, and how Trevor just stopped by and said he loved me.

“Don’t tell me I’m wrong, okay?” I ask as I feel her tense up. “It sucks, but it’s the right thing to do, so don’t try to talk me out of it.” She rubs my back.

“I think you’ve got it all wrong, but…I have to admire you, Haley. That must have been…that must have been tough.” I nod.

“Harder than ignoring you guys for a week.”

“Haley, really. I think you’ve got it all wrong. But, if that’s what you’ve decided, then I guess I’ll have to support you, right?” I look up. She’s got this glint in her eye.

“Really?” She nods.

“I am your best living friend, correct? And as your blf, it is my duty to look out for Haley and her new year’s resolution.” I sit up and wipe my eyes. She looks like she’s planning something.

“Promise you won’t tell Trevor how I feel?” She nods.

“Promise. Now, does that mean you can hang out with us again?” I nod. It’ll suck, but I’ll have to get used to it. “I have to warn you though,” Clarice says. “Since you’ve been gone, Christa’s been hanging out with us more and more.” I feel a stab of jealousy go through me.

“Really?” Clarice nods.

“You should see the way she attaches herself to Trevor.”

Well it doesn’t matter, I think to myself, smugly. Because Trevor loves me not her. Damn it! I’m not supposed to care.

“Well maybe she’ll get what she wants this time, since I’ve stepped out.” Clarice eyes me.

“Yeah…sure.”

I go to bed that night, only to be treated to a horrible nightmare. You know how you’ll have a very fascinating or horrifying dream and you’ll wake up thinking about it and then while you’re trying to remember whether you were wearing your converse or heels, you’ve forgotten what the dream was about in the first place?

It was one of those.

So I woke up feeling like I was doing something wrong. Something very very wrong. And I’m sure it had something to do with my dream, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was.

Well, you dumped a guy you’re in love with.

Shut up.

I pour some cereal and drive myself to school. I thought Trevor wouldn’t speak to me, and I was right. But he doesn’t look half as upset as I thought he would. More like he's...thinking. That’s a good thing…right?

"Hey, Trevor." We're sitting in the cafeteria. I'm sitting next to Trevor like I normally do when I hear Christa's sickly sweet voice. She looks at me in surprise. I guess she thought we had fought or something.

"Haley, would you be a dear and move?" The table is full now, since we've started forcing Janice to sit with us. Janice just kind of glares at her. I wonder what got between them...

"Where do you want me to move to?" I ask quietly.

"She was here first," Clarice says with a glare.

"You're right. I'm so sorry. I guess...I'll just have to sit on someone's lap." I see her eyes flick over to Trevor. Part of me wants to flip her off but the other part wants her to go for it. The more I see him with other girls the more it'll hurt. And hurt can become anger. And anger will never become love.

"Hey, Clarice." Spike pulls her onto his lap and pats the space beside him.

"Come here, Haley." The part of me that still wants Trevor gives Spike a grateful glance. "Three," he mouths at me.

"What?" I ask, sitting down.

"Three godchildren." I look at him.

"You never delivered on the first one!" Spike looks confused.

"I never told you? She was clingy."

"Who was clingy?" Christa asks.

"The Saran-wrap saleswoman I broke up with," Spike says evenly, taking a bite out of Clarice's sandwich.

"Really?" Christa asks, as though she doesn't get the joke. Way to play dumb, Christa. Janice raises an eyebrow in disgust.

"Yeah," Spike says, flipping his wrist gay-ly. "And so shallow. I could, like, totally see through her." We all chuckle, but Janice is still stoic.

"Just like we can all see through you," she says to Christa icily, taking a sip of her water.

"What are you talking about?" Christa asks, mid-giggle. But there's a steely showdown beginning in her eyes.

"Hey, Haley," Janice says, leaning over to take the subway sandwich I bought on my way to school. "I'd like to be full."

“Trevor, you never told us how Haley saved your ass,” says Clarice. She’s only taken one bite of her sandwich so far. Trevor slides in next to Janice, who’s eating a salad she brought from a deli or something.

“You’re not hungry?” I ask, unwrapping my hunk of a sandwich.

“I like to be fit,” Janice says. I nod and take a monster bite of my sandwich.

“Well, if you’d like to be full just ask and I’ll give you a bite.” Janice glares while the boy next to me holds his fist out for punching.

Being filled with testosterone, the guys at the table completely miss the subtlety of this new Female Alliance of Kickassness. Clarice looks from me to Janice and claps her hands excitedly.

"I knew you'd come around!" Janice gives her a look and Clarice shuts up. Spike looks from me to Christa to Janice to Clarice. He lifts a hand to massage his temple and looks imploringly at the other guys.

"Okay, I'm lost. Is anyone else lost?" Matt makes a 'duh' face.

"Janice has finally realized that full is better than flat." Everyone turns to stare at him.

"Matt, I'm your friend and all," begins Corey, "but you're an idiot."

"Amen," Spike says with a laugh.

"Trevor, I don't understand. What's going on?" Christa asks, pouting and moving closer to him. Trevor hasn't said anything this entire time. He's been staring off into space. Not that I noticed, really.

"I don't know, Christa. I wasn't paying attention." He tries to scoot further down the bench, but she just follows him, her eyes on her food as though what she's doing is totally subtle.

"Hey, I love you too, man, but I try to save my lap for the ladies," Matt protests finally with a laugh. Trevor chuckles half-heartedly and turns to Christa.

"Could you move down?" She turns slowly, her eyes wide.

"Sorry? Oh, move! Of course!" She smiles prettily and scoots down a bit.

"You know you could have dragged up a chair like I did," says Corey from his chair at the end of the table. The rest of us are sitting on the benches attached to the sides.

"I would but there aren't any more," Christa says with a pout.

"That's because I didn't want you sitting here and moved it." Janice says coldly.

"Oh, Janice, you're so funny. It's amazing these people let you hang out with them." Janice raises an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, do they even know what happened on the day of the field trip?" I wonder what Christa has up her sleeve now. I punched her in the face too, so it's not like she can pretend to be blameless.

"Who was the one to set up Clarice and Matt's little 3 hour imprisonment? Who set up the stickynote escapade? Who came up with the idea of saying they saw Haley in Corey's car?" Christa shakes her head slowly and puts on an innocent look of remorse.

"And all those tortures by period? I don't know how you came up with them. I mean, I did tell you those were a little overboard. Especially that picture of Haley and Spike. But still..."

"Creative genius, right?" Janice says with a dangerous smile. She takes a leans forward slightly. "If that's what I did to her, imagine what I can do to you. After all, Haley didn't even make me legitimately angry." Christa's eyes go wide, but she doesn't say anything. The rest of us aren't really sure what to do.

We all knew, obviously, that Janice had been partially behind everything. But when Christa phrased it like that, it made us seem like real losers for pulling Janice into our circle. After all, Christa had been just as much of a bitch and we weren't forcing her to hang out with us. The bell rang, but no one moved.

"You know the difference between you and Janice, Christa?" Clarice asks finally, breaking the concentration between them.

"What?" Christa asks finally, that stickily sweet smile pasted back on her face. Clarice gets up and puts a hand on Janice's shoulder.

"Janice is our friend." And with that, she grabs Spike's hand and they leave.