The Ugly Truth

I returned to my house. It was getting dark out and I really hoped they were home by now.

Once again, I rang the doorbell, waiting for no one to answer. But this time, the door opened, by itself. Like it does in scary movies. My house was completely dark and I was frankly frightened.

“Hello?” I called out, like all those dumb scary movie characters that always enter the spooky basement or open the wrong door and end up getting killed.

I reached for the light switch and turned on the light. I expected there to be a murderer bearing a bloody knife. But instead, there was my family, with a whole bunch of other people and a big banner that read Welcome home Lindsay!

My mom came and hugged me and said she had missed me. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out who the heck all those people were. These welcome things are usually only with your family but my parents had gone all out and organized a full fledged party.

It finally sunk in where I knew the majority of the crowd from. They had been my classmates. And they all stared at me dumbstruck.

Luckily, they hadn’t invited everyone. The preps weren’t there, which didn’t mean they weren’t invited. They probably didn’t want to come, which suited me just fine. Mostly they were just the normal, nice girls who attended because they felt bad saying no.

After greeting the people I knew the most and awkwardly saying hi to those I didn’t and receiving the amazed you’ve changed so much! remarks, I stepped outside for a bit.

I’ve never really liked awkward get togethers and that one was actually an underestimation of the expression.

I sat on our patio chairs, admiring the way the pool looked when the lights inside it where turned on. For some reason I had always loved that.

“Hey, Lindsay,” someone said from behind.

I turned around, surprised, and there was Riley. I hadn’t seen him in ages, since he had moved away at the end of our sophomore year. He looked better than ever.

“Riley?”

He smiled and approached me.

“What are you doing here?”
“I decided to spend the summer here at my grandparent’s.”

“That’s great… How’s life?”

“Pretty good. Yours?”

“It’s going great actually.”

“You look pretty different from the last time I saw you.”

“Yeah… Luckily.”

He frowned.

“Remember that time in ninth grade in Ceramics that you were doing that project and you accidentally threw all that mushy clay on me?” Riley asked me, a smile on his lips.

“Yeah, I didn’t think you’d remember.”

“How could I not? You ruined my favorite shirt.”

Once he saw my face of horror, he grinned and said he was only joking.

“I sucked at Ceramics,” I replied.

“Who didn’t?”

I got up and edged closer to the pool.

“Nice weather to take a dip,” Riley said.

“Maybe we should,” I replied, kicking off my sandals and sitting on the edge of the pool, my feet dipped in.

He quickly joined me, copying my position.

“You know, I meant a real dip, but this works too,” he teased.

“Who says I won’t take a real dip?”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Would too.”

“Seriously?”
“Definitely.”

“Okay then,” he said, nudging me with his arm from behind so I fell right into the pool.

As my head emerged from the water, I saw him still sitting there, smiling.

“What was that for?” I asked, feigning I was angry.

“You said you wanted to, so I just helped you along.”

“Oh, really. Well, now it’s your turn. You said it was nice weather to take a dip so you’ll have to do it too.”

I swam to where he was.

“I think I’d rather just stay dry, thanks.”

He wasn’t going to get his way. It was his fault I was all wet so he would be too.

“I don’t believe I asked you, Riley,” I said, grabbing his arm and pulling it.

It was a hard task because he was a lot stronger than me but he eventually threw himself in, tired of seeing me struggling.

“Are you happy now?”

“I most definitely am happy,” I replied.

And I was. I hadn’t had that much fun in a while. There’s just something so entertaining about doing something you’re not supposed to. Feeling that sensation of knowing you could be caught at any moment and have no logical explanation as to what exactly you were doing.

And that was exactly what happened. Except the worst possible person showed up.

“Lindsay!”

As soon as I had heard that voice, I froze. It was Caroline, one of the girls from the horrible mall experience.

“Hi,” I said, giving her a little wave.

“And, Riley, is that you?”

Now she was at the edge of the pool staring down at us and frowning.
“It’s me.”

“I haven’t seen you in ages!”

“Yeah…” he replied, in a bored tone.

“So are you guys going to stay in there or come out and greet me?” she asked in a sugary tone that made me want to vomit.

We had no choice but to get out of the pool.

Caroline looked exactly the same. Perfect blonde hair, perfect tan skin, perfect clothes. She was so perfect it was disgusting.

“Lindsay! You’ve lost so much weight. It was about time you did.”

I wasn’t sure if to thank her or slap her so I just smiled politely.

“Don’t you remember how chubby you were back then? It was a wonder you found any clothes to fit you. And don’t get me started on that hair…”

I was starting to feel the same way I felt back in high school.

“Caroline,” Riley said in what seemed like an irritated tone.

Was he actually defending me? Maybe he was just tired of hearing her put down other people. Or maybe he was getting bored of the conversation.

“And have you had your first kiss yet? I mean, if you hadn’t gotten it by junior year, it’s pretty impossible you’ve gotten it already, right?”

She was right. I hadn’t had my first kiss and it embarrassed me tremendously. But I couldn’t do anything about it. I wanted it to be special and for that, I’d have to wait.

“I-”

“Would stop it already?” Riley interrupted, to my relief.

“Stop what? We’re just talking,” Caroline replied, batting her eyelashes.

“Stop putting other people down because you’re jealous of them.”

Jealous of me? I almost wanted to laugh. Caroline envying me was like Paul McCartney envying Justin Bieber.

“I am not jealous of her,” Caroline replied, with an angry look on her face.

Riley only grinned, which only made Caroline madder. Before we could stab at her anymore, she walked off swearing we’d pay for this.

“Thanks,” I said to Riley in an almost inaudible voice.

“No problem.”

As I looked down at my shoes, I remembered we were wet.

“We should go get changed. I can throw your things in the dryer, if you want.”

“Yeah, it is a bit chilly with these wet clothes on.”

So we entered my house. Luckily the stairs that led to the bedrooms upstairs are before the living room, so we could sneak up them without being seen in our gloriously soaked clothing.

I gave him an oversized pink tee I used as a pijama and a wide pair of sweats I never used.

“How do I look?” he asked, laughing.

“You’re definitely at your best.”

“We should be heading downstairs as soon as the clothes is ready,” I said halfheartedly.

It was just so nice laughing there with him without anyone interrupting. I didn’t want that moment to end.

“Do you really want to go down there?” he ased, looking me in the eyes and smiling lopsidedly.

“No,” I admitted to his beautiful green eyes.

“Then let’s just stay here.”

“Okay.”

We spent the rest of the time joking and catching up. It was amazing how alike we still were.

I think that was the day that I realized how hard I was falling for him.