Stay With Them Tonight

“Who can tell me the function of a motherboard?” The teacher asked monotonously. I put my head down on my table behind the computer.

The girl to my left made a little huffing noise, like it offended her that I don’t pay attention in Computer Information Systems. Even the title is boring! I rolled my head back and forth, trying to lull myself to sleep.

I felt the point of a pencil poke me in the back, and I jumped up, looking around. I rolled my chair back towards Jason.

“What?” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth, still facing forward.

“Ryan told me to tell you that we’re going skating.” He was just by my ear, and I moved forward a little, pretending I was just rolling in the chair.

“Really! Where? In the new rink?” Someone had just opened a rink on Main Street, and everyone had been going lately.

It was Friday, a week after the “date,” and Jason and I had been civil. Just civil. We almost seemed like warring siblings.

My skin crawled at the thought of him being related to me in blood, and I was resolved to come up with a better comparison. Like two caterpillars both eating the same leaf. Except, it was normal for caterpillars to be on the same leaf. Hmm. Two wolves fighting for territory? But that was too . . . aggressive to be us. I don’t think I would go so far as to tear his throat out.

I think.

On a completely irrelevant note, Cass was coming over tonight and staying through the weekend. And it was tonight that the Luces were coming over. So on top of me and my parents, the guys were going to meet my crazy sister, with no Kelly to dilute the awkwardness. Well, it should be fun. Not.

I was idly spinning in my chair when the bell rang, and I rushed to grab my bag and hurry out.

Naturally, Jason fell in step beside me, as he did at the end of every elective. The only difference here is we had to go to lunch on Fridays before we could go home. He was becoming a presence that my senses were becoming accustomed to, like not feeling a necklace after it’s on long enough. When we got to the cafeteria, he went to find Ryan, but I found him at our table, and didn’t bother informing Jason of that. He went off in a totally separate direction, and I grinned as Kelly called out to me.

“Wasn’t that Jason? Where’s he going?”

“To find Ryan.” At his name, he brought his head up from intently discussing the first football game with Greg.

“But he’s . . .” She looked back and forth from Ryan, clearly sitting right in front of us, to my happy expression. “Nevermind,” she decided, shaking her head.

Ryan and Greg went back to talking and it was apparent they were becoming fast friends. Jason too, as I noticed when he came and did some hello guy-ritual with both of them. I scowled, wondering how Jason found Ryan so fast.

“Found Ryan, Allie.” His tone of voice said he knew that I had purposely not told him. And still, he looked like he had pulled one over on me, like he knew all along, when he most definitely didn’t. My brain hurt. He makes me feel like he always has the upper hand, when clearly I had gotten him this time.

“What was that, Stupid?” I asked, and was rewarded with his patented look of amusement.

“So skating?” I turned to Kelly as I pulled out an apple instead of going to get food.

“Yeah, do you have money?” Kelly asked.

“Enough, I think.” I munched on the apple.

Rachel was sitting with her old friends for the day, but I could tell it wasn’t going well. They were ganging up on her about something, and I pulled Kelly up with me and walked towards the table.

“-fucking slut!” I heard one girl exclaim as we came within hearing distance. They weren’t being very discreet.
“You’re always trying to-” another girl started in. She looked around and talked a little more quietly, obviously wondering what people would think. A few people lingered around, looking busy but not really doing anything.

“Holy shit guys, will you shut up for a second? It’s not like I abandoned you!” Rachel defended herself.

In the crowded lunchroom, we hadn’t been noticed yet. Still with my hand tugging Kelly along, I pulled her to sit down in a couple chairs near their table. We still heard everything, and I wondered what would happen with Rachel. I just didn’t want her to be without friends near. Obviously, these chicks were extremely pissed, and they were labeled the “bitches” of the schools.

Katie walked towards us, but I motioned for her to be nonchalant. She bent forward and darted towards us, slipping into another open seat across from us.

“What’s going on?” she asked quickly, leaning in conspiratorially.

“Rach is getting bitched out because she hasn’t been devoting every spare minute to them.” Kelly motioned with her eyebrows, whispering. Not that they were paying any attention, having too much fun tearing at Rachel, who looked pretty deflated.

I texted Rachel, but she just put her hand on her pocket to muffle the sound. I thought I might make it worse if I entered the conversation, but I really wanted to go in there and defend her. I would never be that harsh to a friend, unless they chopped off my arm or something. What- did they own her?

“Hey, your friends are here,” the first blonde I heard sneered, noticing us. She looked at me like she would like to stomp me with her four inch heels. I narrowed my eyes at her, standing up and going to stand behind Rachel.

“We’re better friends than you, obviously,” I scoffed, folding my arms.

“Rachel Anne, tell these bitches to go away.” The same girl glared at me, clearly expecting Rachel to do her bidding.

“Too scared to do it yourself?” Kelly asked, putting her hand on her hip and leaning on the table. “Try it.” She stared directly into the girl’s eyes, but the girl wouldn’t back down.

“Caroline, just hold on-” Rachel started. Why wasn’t she telling Caroline off? Katie put her hand on Rachel’s arm, and Rachel slightly shifted away. I stared at her with wide eyes.

“What, are you going to make me?!” Caroline switched her angry face to Rachel. This was eerily similar to a fight I had seen in a movie for middle schoolers, and I had had enough of the drama.

I helped Rachel stand up, wanting to be done with this. We would probably skip skating today, opting instead to go to one of our houses and talk to Rachel.

“Rachel, you don’t need this. Nobody should tell you who to be friends with-” I started an angry tirade as I put my hand on her back, guiding her away.

“Then stop!” she jerked away from me, stumbling back and knocking into Katie and Kelly. They tried to balance her, but she just ripped herself away from their arms, too. “I don’t need you telling me what to do.” She looked away, rubbing her arm distractedly as tears welled up in her eyes. “Any of you!

"I know who my friends are.” She continued rubbing her arm, getting faster. It was a nervous gesture that I noticed she did sometimes. Despite all she had just said, I smiled a little, hoping she would choose us.

“I’ve been really stupid lately. I just- I need to get back to them. I’ve known them for a long time. So-” she blinked quickly, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “Bye."

She didn’t look at any of us as she turned and sat back down at the table with her friends. I shook my head at her, although she didn’t turn around to see it. I spun and started walking away, fighting tears myself.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, I raged at myself. Why did I think she would choose us? I ignored everyone and walked right out of the cafeteria, and then out of the school.

“Because you thought she was different than them,” an internal voice answered.

*****

I sat in the car, waiting for the others, knowing they wouldn’t come out for a few more minutes. Somebody knocked on the window right next to me, and I hit my head on the roof. I opened the door while rubbing my head, but Greg was already walking to the other side. He got in the passenger seat of my truck, and we both stared forward for a minute.

“Sorry,” he said suddenly.

I gave a half-hearted laugh. “For what?”

“I thought she was better, too.” His reply was solemn, and I turned my head to face him, too lazy to lift it from the headrest. I smiled at him as he did the same.

“Allie?” I was distracted, plotting smashing eggs on her pillow. Rachel. I sighed. Did she think we were disposable?

“Yeah, Greg?”
“I think we should get her back.” His voice didn’t sound hopeful, just thoughtful.

“She made her choice. It wasn’t us,” I pointed out. I turned back a fraction, barely looking at him. “I don’t trust her anymore, Greg. That wasn’t the way to do it.” My voice was unforgiving, thinking about how horrible she was when we cared about her.

“What did she say?” he asked. He had been too far away to hear anything, still at the table with Ryan and Jason.

“You probably already heard a lot of it from Kelly and Katie. She didn’t say much, but enough for us to realize that we’re not her friends. And she just turned and sat down, like it was nothing.” I brightened slightly at the idea that it was only the second week of school and there was still plenty that could happen.

“She’ll come back.”

“I don’t know, Greg.” I said, full of thought. Suddenly, I remembered. “Are we still going skating?”

“Yeah. The others figured it would be a stress-reliever.”

“Okay. Can you go get my stuff? I don’t want to go back in there.” I frowned, thinking of what I might do to Rachel.

“Alright. I’ll be back out in a second.” He opened the car door and walked back into the school. I envied his nonchalance.

I closed my eyes and reclined my chair. Cass would be waiting when I got home, and I didn’t want to be in a bad mood since I hadn’t seen her since spring break, over four months ago.

Three doors opened almost simultaneously with Kelly, Jason, and Ryan piling in. Greg threw my bag at Jason, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to me. I smiled at him before he went to his own car, and we pulled out of the parking lot single file.