Oh, Calamity

“You want me to what?” Zack asked Jack and I. Jack held back a laugh and I sighed.

“I want you to pretend to be into me and pretend to date me so I can get back at Alex for what he did to me.” It had only been two days since Alex broke up with me and got back together with Lisa and Jack and I decided to get back at him. I mean, who would he hate to see me date? One of his best friends of course, and that was why we were at Zack’s house trying to get him to go along with our scheme.

“Wait, so let me get this straight. Alex broke up with you, for Lisa, and you want me to help you make him jealous by pretending to like you, then eventually pretending to date you?”

“That would be correct, Merrick.” I said. Zack paced the room for a minute, trying to decide if this was a good idea. “No feelings, no strings attached, just pretend.”

“Okay I’ll do it.” Zack smiled. “Alex needs to be taken down a notch. He’s been an asshole to girls far too long for my liking.” You wouldn’t know it, but Zack talks. A lot. And he’s like really smart so it’s what made us a perfect team for this plan. I threw my arms around him and smiled.

“Thank you so much.” I said.

“Alright! So how are we going to do this thing? We can’t just have you two date right off the bat.” Jack said. We sat down and came up with a solid plan. Zack and I would flirt whenever band practice was happening and when I’m at lunch, I’ll pretend to text him and act all gooey-lovey-dovey at what he says. Since Zack doesn’t go to our school we would have to try hanging out every other day, meaning he would be coming to mine and Alex’s home more often.

“This is going to be great. Should we tell Rian and Kara?” I asked. Jack shook his head.

“If they knew then the secret could get out sooner than we’d like. It’s easier to just fool everyone, even Rian and Kara.” He said. I nodded and laid myself out on the floor. Jack was right, we couldn’t tell everyone in our circle but Alex. He would catch on eventually.

“I think I should drive you home, Kat.” Zack said and I looked up at him with confusion. “If Alex is home then we can start today.” My face lit up. It was a perfect idea.

“Alright, let’s go.”

-

“I’m home!” I said when I got inside the house, Zack behind me. Isobel came over and hugged me almost instantly.

“I’m so sorry about you and Alex.” I nearly choked when she said those words. I had forgotten that Jack had told her earlier about Alex and I. I hugged her back tightly and mumbled a thank you. When she let go she seemed to realize that I wasn’t alone. “Oh, Zack, I’m sorry I didn’t see you there.” He nodded and muttered a hello.

“Is it alright if we hang out for a while?” I asked, a hopeful look on my face.

“Of course, dear. Alex isn’t home so you can go downstairs to the basement.”

“Thank you, Isobel.” I smiled and we made our way to the basement. I called in for a pizza once settled in and we put in a random movie to pass the time. “I wonder when Alex will be home.” I thought out loud.

“It’s almost six o’clock, so he should be heading home soon.” Zack said.

“How would you know?” I arched an eyebrow.

“It’s the same routine he always has when he was dating…” He trailed off, realizing what he was about to say in front of me. I pushed my anger aside.

“When he was dating Lisa.” I said, surprised to find my voice so calm. Zack hesitated before speaking.

“Yeah, that. So he should be home soon.” I nodded and sure enough, five minutes later we heard Alex come through the front door. We heard the basement door open and heard footsteps. “Quick,” Zack whispered. “Come over here and sit in my lap.” I moved quickly and right when I was settled and turned to the TV, Alex entered the room. He froze when he saw me and Zack and I took it as a good sign. “Hey, Alex.” Zack said, giving him a smile.

“Hey, Zack,” Alex stepped into the room. “What are you guys doing?”

“Just watching a movie.” I smiled, snuggling closer to Zack. I couldn’t tell, but I think Alex was getting jealous. I certainly hoped he was.

“Oh, well, I guess I’ll just be upstairs then.” He said awkwardly before leaving. Once we heard the door close I got out of Zack’s lap and sat next to him.

“Do you think he bought it? I think he did.” I said excitedly.

“From the look on his face, I would say yeah, he bought it.” Zack grinned and we high fived.

-

Zack left later that night and the next morning I woke up feeling pretty good about myself. I know, I probably shouldn’t be feeling this good. I should be feeling guilty and horrible that I’m trying to get Alex jealous when he’s obviously so fucking happy with that bitch - I mean Lisa. I couldn’t help it, I loved this feeling. The feeling of getting the final word, getting what I want. I felt like I could do anything.

I walked into school with this feeling, only to have it come crashing down in between the end of second period and the beginning of 3rd.

“How’s it feel to be used just for sex?” Cassie smirked as she walked up to me at my locker.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I said, slamming my locker door and turning to face her.

“Alex? Duh. He was just using you.”

“I doubt that.”

“Then why did he have sex with Lisa and Brooke?” I raised a brow at her. “You haven’t heard? It happened at the new years party. He ended up sleeping with both of them. At. The. Same. Time.” She ticked off the last words one by one. Her smile was malicious and the look in her eyes told me that she was enjoying this.

“You’re lying. I said. I started to walk away but she quickly followed. I saw her mess with her phone for a minute and then she stepped in front of me, shoving the small device in my face. My face dropped. On the screen was a picture of Alex and Lisa. Having Sex.

“If I was lying, then I wouldn’t have proof. Brooke was so drunk, she wasn’t thinking right. Still, I have to give her credit for taking these pictures.” A devious smile was plastered on Cassie’s face and I couldn’t even let myself be angry at her. My anger, my sadness, was aimed at Alex. I walked away from Cassie, which soon turned into a fast walk, which turned into me running out of the school once again for the second day in a row.

I don’t know where I was running to, but I just knew I had to get away from that place. I finally stopped when I realized I reached the park just outside of Baltimore. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, so I sat down on the teeter totter. After a minute or so, someone came up to me.

“Hey, do you need some water?” I looked up to see a pink haired girl standing in front of me. She had a concerned look on her face and I nodded.

“Yeah.” I managed to say. My throat was so dry and water sounded wonderful.

“Come on then, we have some over here.” She smiled and helped me stand. She led me over to a group of four, two other girls and two guys. She took a bottle of water from a girl with black hair and purple tips and handed it to me. “Here, drink up.” I did.

“Thank you so much.” I said once I had finished off half of the bottle in under thirty seconds. We sat down under a big oak tree and the pink haired girl smiled at me.

“It’s no problem. We saw you run into the park as we were walking over to this tree and you looked like you were in bad shape so I decided to go over to you. My name is Mika, by the way.” She held out her hand and I shook it.

“I’m Katherine.” I smiled.

“Nice to meet you, Katherine. Oh, this is Stella,” She gestured to the girl with black hair and purple tips. “Jasey,” She gestured to the other girl in the group, who had a chocolate shade of brown hair. “Luke,” she pointed to the guy with dirty blonde hair. “And finally, Dylan.” She finished off with Dylan, who had black hair and gorgeous blue eyes. They all smiled their hello’s to me and I smiled back, nodding as a greeting.

“Nice to meet all of you.” I said. I was sitting next to Jasey, who was smiling like an idiot.

“So what made you run all the way here?” Mika asked. My smile fell.

“Well, my ex had broken up with me a few days ago,” I started. “And today I found out that he broke up with me because he cheated on me with his ex and another skank.” I held back my tears. I didn’t want to seem weak in front of these guys. Mika’s eyes widened, as well as Jasey’s and Stella’s. Luke and Dylan just looked pissed off.

“He seriously did that to you?” Stella asked angrily. I nodded. “That son of a bitch!”

“Why the fuck would he do that to you?” Dylan gritted his teeth.

“I don’t know, to be honest. The girl who told me said he was just using me. He’s known for sleeping around but I thought that had changed. I’m no better though.” I sighed.

“What do you mean?” Jasey questioned.

“It’s pretty bad, I don’t want to have you guys hate me.” I gave a small laugh.

“We won’t hate you. You can trust us.” Luke smiled at me and I decided that I could trust them.

“Well, I was dating this guy, Jack, and I thought I had gotten over my ex, Alex, who wasn’t my ex at the time, just a stupid crush. I ended up cheating on Jack for most of the relationship with Alex because, well, I love Alex and in my heart it felt right. It was wrong to cheat on Jack, and trust me, I tried to focus on him and only him, but Alex is the one who has my heart. Or, well, he did.” My hands were shaking and I was on the verge of crying. Jasey pulled me into a side hug, and I leaned my head onto her small shoulder.

“Wow. I mean, I don’t think cheating is right but you obviously love this guy a lot. You also didn’t want to hurt Jack, which is why you didn’t just break up with him. Right?” Stella asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “But in the end, he got hurt anyway.” I frowned.

“Yeah, that sucks.” Dylan frowned. “But hey, you ended up having an amazing relationship with a guy you truly loved. Even if it was just for a while.” I looked at him. He was right. Alex may have broken up with me, and where as I didn’t know if it was true that he used me, I did have an amazing time being with him for the past couple of months.

“You’re right, but I’m still depressed over it. Even more so now that I know the real reason why he broke up with me. To top it all off, I even had an anxiety attack yesterday just from seeing him. Worst part? We live together.” I didn’t know why I was telling this group of people everything, but it felt nice to talk to people who weren’t in my usual group of friends.

“Wait, you live together? Are you related?” Mika’s eyes were practically bugging out of her head. I quickly shook my head.

“No, not at all! My parents ended up dying in a car crash and Alex and his family took me in permanently. Before, I was just staying with them until my mom had found a safe place for us to move into, since my father was a rapist. When my parents died, it became a permanent home for me. I don’t have any other family members who are alive. At least, not that I know of.” I was kind of rambling, so I stopped myself before I could keep going.

“You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?” Luke gave me a sad smile.

“Yeah, I have.” Luke moved over to the other side of me and he and Jasey both hugged me.

“Well, we’re here for you.” Jasey said. Mika beamed.

“Guys, I think we have a new friend. That is, if she wants to hang out with lame-o’s like us.” She looked at me and I thought on it for a moment. These guys just listened to me and comforted me, without judging me and they think I’m cool enough to be friends with.

“Yeah, I’d love to be friends with you lame asses.” I laughed. They cheered and laughed along with me. A moment later, Jasey asked Mika a question.

“When are we going to smoke?”

“Smoke?” I asked. Mika nodded.

“We were coming over here to smoke some weed when we saw you running.”

“Oh.” Did I make the right choice by becoming friends with these guys?

“You can join us if you want, but if you aren’t comfortable with it we can just hold off until later.” Stella said.

“Well, I’m not sure. I’ve never smoked weed before, let alone a cigarette.” I said sheepishly, suddenly feeling not so cool.

“Really? Well, anything you’ve heard about it being horrible for you is false.” Luke said, and I was surprised he read my mind. I’ve always heard that it was so bad for you but I never thought much of it since I’ve never considered doing it. “It can actually be pretty good for you, depending on how often you smoke it. It can help you sleep, eat and relax. You don’t get hallucinations and you don’t become disoriented. If you do, then you probably got some that’s laced. The smoke can be bad for you, obviously, because it’s smoke but that’s only if you smoke it on an everyday basis. We usually just smoke a few times a week, and none of us have had any issues. Mostly it just chills you out and makes you hungry.”

“Sounds like you’ve done a lot of research.” I said. Dylan laughed.

“Not really, we just read some things on the internet and when we actually decided to try it, we found out that none of that stuff is true.” Jasey laughed. “We do have the occasional ‘what the fuck is that’ if we are really stoned, but that’s it. Usually that happens when it’s dark out and we think a tree is like something else.” I laughed.

“Real talk though, Kat. You don’t have to smoke if you don’t want to. We respect your opinions and decisions.” Mika grinned. Wow, I had no idea how nice these guys were. They were so open minded and they were smart too. Every stereotype there was about stoners, or well, people who smoke pot, was shattered for me. I decided that I might as well try it. Hell, I was sad and I needed to chill out. Plus, how do I know if I like it or not if I’ve never tried it? Once wasn’t going to hurt me.

“You know what, I’ll try it. Can’t say I’ll love it, but hey. I need to live a little.” All of their faces lit up with happiness and Mika pulled out a couple of joints. Jasey pulled out a small pipe, as well as Luke.

“Do you go to parties? Or drink?” Stella asked as she took a joint from Mika and passed it to me. I took it and nodded.

“My ex and our friends throw parties and go to parties all the time. I recently started drinking after I met them because they invited me to the parties.” Mika lit up her joint, took a deep drag and smiled.

“Well, then we will get along just fine. We all love a good party, though we don’t usually drink. Marijuana is much safer and less harmful. You’ve heard of all the deaths from alcohol right? There are no deaths for marijuana. More people die from choking than smoking weed.” She handed me her lighter and I lit up. I accidentally took in too much smoke, because I started coughing like I was dying. Dylan patted me on the back and gave me some water.

“You okay?” He asked and I nodded.

“So why don’t you guys drink and smoke?” I asked after I caught my breath. Mika laughed.

“That’s actually really dangerous, so we either stick to drinking or smoking. We don’t do both. We determine whether or not we are going to smoke or drink the day of the party by voting. Majority wins.” She took another drag and held in the smoke for a few seconds before blowing it out. She noticed me looking at her with a confused look. “Holding in the smoke for a few seconds helps get you high faster.”

“Oh.” I said, feeling so out of the loop on the whole smoking thing. I took another drag and this time I didn’t cough it all out. I held in it for ten seconds before releasing it. A thought hit me. “Isn’t this stuff illegal? What happens if we get caught?”

“The police don’t usually come down here often. Plus, we are far enough back that they wouldn’t be able to catch us when we run. We’ve never gotten caught before. Oh, we’re also out in an open area so the smoke goes away faster as well as the smell.” Luke smiled. I nodded in understanding and took another hit. I wasn’t sure if I was high yet, but I was hoping I’d get there. By the time we had all finished smoking what we wanted, four hours had passed. Yeah, you heard me right. We just talked and smoked for four hours.

“I once saw a dolphin slap a five year old.” Jasey said and I laughed. Everything was funny to me and suddenly I was starving. Mika seemed to have read my mind because she suggested that we should get food soon. Everyone agreed and once we sprayed ourselves with some perfume and cologne, we headed off to the little diner just on the edge of the city. The more we talked and got to know each other, the more I came to like this group of people.

Mika had a pretty good life, but she struggles with depression just like me. She’s been doing better lately, enough that she got taken off her meds. She told me she has some bad days, but overall her attitude was positive. She was bullied a lot in grade school which she thinks is the root of her depression, but it didn’t start affecting her until after she got her heart broken in the 7th grade. She grew more depressed last year, but has recently started making changes in her life that has gotten her to where she is now.

Jasey was a rich kid, but you’d never guess it. She was the provider for most of the weed, and she had a job at a bakery. She’s loved baking since she was old enough to actually cook and it was her dream to open up her own bakery one day. She believed in a higher power, but she wasn’t sure if it was God and she fully supported same sex marriage. She was really open minded, as well as selfless. She told me that every friday morning before school she gives fifty dollars to any homeless person she comes across so that they can have a few meals and possibly some new clothing. She was anything but snobby.

Stella was in the middle. She wasn’t poor, but she wasn’t rich. Her parents worked typical nine-to-five jobs and made enough to pay rent, have groceries and pay the bills. Stella also had a job, working at a local coffee shop and she pays for most of her things. Needless to say, she’s very proud of herself for being able to provide for herself, and her family if needed. She was also very dirty minded, and acted a lot like Jack. Surprisingly, she was single. You wouldn’t have guessed it, with how gorgeous she was.

Dylan and Luke were best friends, like brothers. They’ve known each other since kindergarten and met Mika, Jasey and Stella in elementary school. Dylan worked as a waiter at a local restaurant and Luke was loaded just like Jasey. Luke preferred to not work for his money, but like Jasey he was also selfless with his money. He donated to charities regularly and always offered to pay for meals, as well as he gave money to the homeless whenever he could. I soon learned that none of them were in relationships.

“How? I thought at least Dylan and Stella would have someone.” I asked, shocked at how none of these amazing people were in relationships.

“Nope. Usually one of us would be in a relationship but lately none of us have been interested in anyone.” Mika shrugged. We left soon after that and they all walked me home. “This is where you live?” Mika asked.

“Yeah. This is my home. If you want, you guys can come hang out.” I smiled and they all nodded. Apparently their parents were fine with them staying out until late and those who worked were off today. “Wait,” I said once we were downstairs. “Why weren’t you guys in school?”

“We’re all freshmen in college.” Luke said.

“Really? Well I feel lame now.” I said.

“Why?”

“Cause I’m only a junior in highschool.” I blushed.

“We don’t care, Katherine.” Dylan laughed. “Besides, we’re only a couple years apart. Jasey, Stella and I are 18. Mika and Luke are 19. It’s not like we’re 30 and trying to hang out with you.” I laughed.

“That’s true. Do you guys want to watch a movie? I can make us some popcorn.” I asked as I walked over to the DVD shelf next to the TV.

“Sure, why not?” I heard Jasey say. “Do you have Mean Girls?” I nodded and put in the disk once I found it.

“I’ll be right back.” I said. I hurried upstairs and went into the kitchen. I put in a bag of popcorn in the microwave and waited. I heard the front door open, and heard Isobel and Peter talking. They stopped when they walked into the kitchen and saw me.

“Katherine, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in school?” Isobel asked.

“I know, I’m sorry. I almost had another panic attack though so I ran out before I could. I should have told you.” She sighed.

“It’s alright. It’s a Friday so I will let it slide, but on Monday you need to go to school and stay the entire day.”

“Deal.” I smiled. “Oh, and I have some friends over.” Isobel nodded and the microwave dinged. I quickly poured the contents into a bowl and hurried back downstairs. Everyone seemed delighted at the smell and sight of the popcorn and immediately started eating it. Halfway through the movie, I texted Zack and asked him to come over right after school. Alex would be home around four-thirty today, instead of the usually six o’clock so I needed Zack here for when he came home.

“So, guys,” I said, grabbing everyone’s attention.

“Yeah?”

“I’m having a friend of mine coming over. His name is Zack and well, he’s my pretend crush right now.”

“Pretend crush?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I asked Zack to be my pretend crush-slash-eventually becoming my pretend boyfriend, so I can make Alex jealous. I want him to hurt as much as I have.” I said, my tone angry as I said those last words.

“Alright. We’ll play along. That jerk deserves it.” Mika smiled and I nodded. This was going to be fun.