These Four Words

It was two weeks after the party. After they all got home that night, Sarah was quiet and just went to bed. She woke up hungover and threw up the entire content of her stomach into the toilet. She had never been so drunk in her entire life. It wasn’t fun.

The boys asked why she drank so much but she just shrugged and it was left at that.

As for the kiss, it also wasn’t mentioned again.

Sarah went on with the best friend act and tried her best to forget all about it.

“Hey, the guys are going to the pool. Wanna come?” John asks looking up from a text on his phone.

Sarah nods and goes upstairs to grab a swimsuit. John had been at her house for the past two hours watching reruns of old shows and she could use an excuse to leave the house. Plus she wanted to see Eric. She had always thought he was cute, and it wasn’t until now that she truly gave up all hope on John. So she bit by bit started liking Eric more.

“Who is going to be there?” Sarah asks nonchalantly.

“All of the usual. Halvo, Tim, Jared, Ken, you know.” John said back to her. “Hurry up, we have to stop by my house so I can get my suit. I’ll drive.”

Sarah never understood why there was a public pool in her area when every single house for the most part had their own pool.

On the walk over, John fessed up about the party that Sarah was all but trying to forget about.

“I hooked up with Caroline that night.” He says wincing as if she was going to hit him.

“And you are now just telling me?” Sarah says with disbelief. “John that was around two weeks ago.” She scoffs.

“I know. I know. I just didn’t know how you would take it, and well I am mentioning it because she is going to be at the pool today.” He said rushing the latter part of the sentence.

“What? You invited her?” Sarah said not believing that her best friend would do such a thing.

“Not exactly, she kind of invited me and I invited everyone else so that you wouldn’t be mad.” John confesses. “Please, just be civil.” He pleads.

Sarah laughs at the idea of her being the uncivil one. Sarah was never rude.

“Wow John, you really are something.” She says hiding her disappointment and frustration.

“I owe you. Ice cream on me later.” John promises holding out his pinky. She grabs it with her own and they shake bringing a smile to her face.

“You better believe you are paying!” Sarah says with a chuckle. “And I am getting a TON of toppings.”

Once at the pool, they make their way to their usual spot near the deep end.

“Hey!” Sarah says as she goes in to hug all of the guys, hugging Eric a bit longer than the rest. “So where is the queen?” She says in reference to Caroline.

“Using the bathroom. You should see what she is wearing.” Tim says while high fiving Kennedy.

“Hey!” John says jokingly.

“Who wants to swim with me?” Sarah asks, taking off her cover up and jumping in not waiting for a response.

As she rises to the surface she sees three boys jumping in after her.

“Race you to the other side of the pool!” Kennedy says to everyone.

Sarah was incredibly competitive, and a pretty good swimmer, so she swam as fast as she could. She ended up winning by a fair distance.

“You cheated!” Eric says with a pout.

“And how did I cheat?” Sarah laughs.

“You are smaller than us. Some physics thing was involved.” He saw his weak logic and covered it up by saying, “I don’t know I did bad in that class!” The whole group laughs at the silly kid.

“Look.” Tim points in the direction of the bathroom. John and Caroline were standing outside of it kissing. Sarah couldn’t believe their public display of affection. She thought that was so low class. Especially since they weren’t dating.

Kennedy said “lucky” the second Sarah said “gross.”

To avert everyone’s attention, Sarah jumped on Eric. This created an all out splash fight.

Sarah was glad to be with her friends and block out the fact that her best friend didn’t feel the same way about her.

After swimming for another hour, they all get out of the pool and go dry off.

John and Caroline are back at the chairs, Caroline tanning and John trying to talk to her.

“We are going to get some food. You in?” Tim asks John.

“I’m not hungry.” Caroline answers for him.

“How about you Caroline, you want some food?” Eric jokes mocking her for responding to a question directed towards John.

“Precious.” Caroline sneers.

The boys and Sarah walk away leaving them to whatever it was they were doing.

“She’s pretty, but her personality sucks.” Tim commented. Sarah nodded her head in agreement.

“There must be some redeeming quality about her, I mean why else would John like her?” Sarah said naively.

The group started laughing and her comment earned her a pat on the head from Kennedy.

“You’re a good girl, you know that Sarah?”

Sarah didn’t respond and silently thought to herself, ‘so I have been told.’

The boys bought two large fries to share between the four of them. Sarah shared with Eric.

“So, Sarah. How is Evan?” Eric asks. He wasn’t trying to be a jerk, he wanted to know if she was talking to him.

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him in a long time. John kind of ruined that one for me.” Sarah says trailing off towards the end.

“What did he do?” He asked with a chuckle. He knew how protective John was of his best friend. He often made fun of him for it. Eric had asked if John had any feelings for her, but the answer was always no. Eric felt an attraction to Sarah. He just wanted to make sure he wasn’t stepping on any toes.

“He kissed me in front of Evan to ‘mark his territory.’ I haven’t heard from him since.” Sarah said with a sigh not wanting to revisit how she felt that night.

“He kissed you?! I knew he was in love with you!” Kennedy yells from the other side of the table.

“The thing is, he doesn’t. He told me afterwards that it was his plan to keep Evan away, and then he went looking for Caroline. So I hung outside by myself.”

“Ouch. Do you like him?” Tim asks.

“I don’t think our friendship allows for feelings like that. We are just friends and that’s all we will ever be.” Sarah hoped she wasn’t being too dramatic or that they could see her true feelings.

“John is a terd anyway.” Eric said pulling her into a side hug. Sarah felt good to be in his arms if even just for a second.

“I am gone for five minutes and you are already pulling moves on my girl?” John said as he approached the table.

Caroline comes out from his shadow and scoffs.

“Did you guys really eat all of those fries? Sarah, you should probably watch your intake.” Caroline said. Sarah didn’t understand what her issue was. She had never said anything to Caroline before.

“She actually ate all of the fries. Every last one.” Eric says as he reaches down to pat Sarah’s stomach. She opened her mouth in shock and play hit him on the arm.

“I bet.” Caroline said.

Sarah was waiting for John to back her up, but he didn’t.

“Caroline can you stop being such a bitch?” Eric said to her.

Everyone at the table was shocked to hear something like that come out of Halvo’s mouth.

No one said anything and Caroline turned on her heel to walk away. John gave him a look, but didn’t chase after her. Instead he pulled up a chair and started chomping down on leftover fries.

“Aren’t you going to go after her, John?” Sarah asked confused.

“Nah, no one treats my best friend like that.” John says with a grin. Sarah thought the gesture was sweet, but she wondered where that attitude was a few seconds ago when Caroline was being rude.

Sarah needed to get herself mentally where she was before the whole kiss fiasco. Before, she knew she would not be analyzing anything as thoroughly as she was now.