Three's A Crowd

“That was a joke, right?” Jez insisted, looking at me as if I’d completely lost my mind. “You’re kidding? It was a good one, but please don’t do that. You almost gave me a premature heart attack there.”

I stared at her, shaking my head slowly. “No, it’s not a joke. C’mon! You know that we’re pretty good singers. You’re better than me, but…” Quickly, I stood up to try to give myself the illusion of having a bit more power. Arguing with her like this wasn’t easy, since I usually tried to go along with what she wanted so that she’d be happy. But I actually felt strongly about this, joining a club.

“Look,” she sighed, trying to calm her temper, “I get that you don’t want to be slushied. I don’t want to have to punch someone out every fucking day because they think it’s cool to shove that artificial shit in your face. But you do realize that Glee kids get those, too, right?”

Hm. Point. But I wasn’t about to give up now. “Please, Jez? It’s worth a shot! There are football players in Glee who can-”

“Give the other football players heads-up about where you’ll be so that they can improve their slushie accuracy?”

“No, but they can tell Karofsky to stop or something? I don’t know. I just know that I’m sick and tired of being looked down on. I’m sick of being looked at like I’m last year’s rubbish. And I’m SO sick of being on the outside of everything!”

When the words left my mouth, my eyes widened. I’d never spoken so strongly about something, so emotionally. It was true…but I’d never admitted it out loud.

A lump was forming in my throat as I ended the conversation, whispering, “No matter where I go, I’m just always on the outside looking in.”

For a long time, Jez stared at me, gnawing on the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. I think it was the fact that I felt (and must have looked) like I was going to burst into tears at any second that finally made her throw her hands up in the air and yell, “FINE! You win. Fine. We’ll audition for the damn Glee Club.”

“Thank you!” I screamed, jumping up and down and clapping. After throwing my arms around her quickly, my words started flowing a million words a minute. “Oh my God, what song are we going to do? I think we should audition together, since I’ll choke if I have to do it alone.” My eyes widened. “Everyone’s going to be watching us. I might choke anyway.”

“It was your idea,” Jez shrugged. “So if you choke, it’s your fault.”

“Thanks for the support. But you didn’t answer me! What song should we do?”

She sighed. “Why do I have to choose?”

“Because I came up with the idea of joining, so it’s time for your contribution.” Cocking my head to the side, I grinned broadly as she rolled her eyes and reached for her iPod.

The light illuminated her face in a slightly creepy way as she scrolled through the bajillion songs, trying to look for one that we could sing for our audition.

“What about…a Christina Aguilera song?”

“We can’t sing that together, though…”

“Right, right.” And then it was back to the iPod, song after song flickering in front of her eyes before she finally looked up and smiled. “I’m thinkin’ Untouched by The Veronicas.”

I thought about that for a second. “I love the song! We should totally do it.” Even though it didn’t really fit with my personality…it would work. I could make it work.

“Alright, well,” Jez expressed with a smile, leaning back to stretch as she yawned at an obnoxious volume, “I’m gonna get to sleep. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

“’Night,” I nodded before turning and walking out of her room, going directly to mine.

For a couple minutes, I stared in the mirror. Maybe, finally, I’d belong somewhere. Maybe I’d feel like I wasn’t the most messed-up person on the planet.

Even though I probably was.

* * *

A scream escaped my lips as I sat up in bed, sweat layering my skin like a thermal blanket. My hands ran down my face, relieved that there was no swelling, no blood.

Slowly, I tried to take deep, dramatic breaths, my chest heaving in and out, ignoring how shuddered they sounded.

After a while, my heart started to slow, and I realized that the scream must have been an extension of my dream, not a real thing. If I had shouted like that, I felt like someone would have checked on me to make sure I was okay.

At least…I hoped they would.

* * *

“Another nightmare?” Jez questioned the next morning at breakfast, eating a bacon-wrapped-pancake thing.

Blushing slightly, I poured myself some cereal and milk before sliding into the seat next to her. “Uh, yeah.”

She didn’t prod any further for details, which I appreciated. For the duration of breakfast, I was quiet, the images of my dreams still haunting me in little flashes.

But everything seemed better again as Jez and I stepped outside, the bright sunlight snapping me back to reality. That was behind me, and it was time for school. Time to get slushied.

Thinking about the freezing drink dripping off my hair and down my back, I shivered a little, and the clothes in my bag felt heavier, a burden that I couldn’t wait to get rid of.

Thankfully, I didn’t get slushied that morning. Maybe they’d decided to target that girl…Rachel…or something. My eyebrows pulled together as I tried to remember. Yeah, I was pretty sure that was her name.

At lunch, I settled at the table next to Jez, who was staring across the cafeteria with a far-off look on her face.

“Jez?” I voiced, watching her face. No change. She was completely out of it. “What are you even looking at?”

Putting my sandwich back down on the wax paper, I followed her gaze across the room. “Um…ew, Jez.” She was staring right at Karofsky, not a speck of hate on her face.

“What?” She snapped awake and realized what she was doing. “Oh, gross. It’s not what you think.”

“Really? Because it looks like you’re daydreaming about…Karofsky…which makes me kind of nauseas.”

“As if Karofsky would be so lucky.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s a long story.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her, which she tried to imitate, but failed. “Fine. Don’t tell me. I just sit here and wonder about what, possibly, could be going through your head when you gaze at that gorilla.” To emphasize my statement, I let out a dramatic sigh and plopped my cheek down on my hand.

“Eva?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

Scoffing, I pretended to be hurt before turning back to my lunch. It was obvious that she wasn’t going to share what she was thinking. That was annoying, since I was naturally very curious (way better word than nosy).

Lunch was pretty quiet, since the gears were going constantly in Jez’s head, making it impossible for her to spare some words for me, her best friend. Apparently, I just wasn’t as important.

But the quiet made my dreams come back, so I pulled a book out of my bag and started to read a little bit. Too bad I only got through a page or something when the bell sounded through the cafeteria, signaling the end of lunch.

Karofsky was right next to Jez as we were walking out of the doors into the hallway, and he must have bumped into Jez or something because she shoved him into the wall. “Don’t fucking touch me, Karofsky. Unless you wanna be castrated.”

“Try me, bitch,” he fired back, shoving her back.

And so the fight started, Jez landing way more good punches than Karofsky did, considering she was fast enough to dodge all but two swings. Even then, he only got her cheek, so it was purpling slightly, but there was no major damage.

Karofsky, however…he wasn’t lookin’ so good. His upper cheek was swelling already, and his nose had turned into a blood faucet at some point. Plus, his lip had been split open.

Sighing, I finally took Jez’s arm and started to pull her away. “Alright, that’s enough. If it gets too much worse, Figgins is going to give you detention or something.

“Oh, no…” she trailed off sarcastically.

“I’M GOING TO GET YOU, KERRIGAN!” Karofsky screamed from behind us, wiping off under his nose with the back of his hand, which did nothing but spread the blood all over his face.

Overcome with a wave of fury, Jez turned around and threatened back, “TRY ME, KAROFSKY! JUST FUCKING TRY ME!”

Oh, lord.