He made a sound like he was in pain, his face screwed up in a grimace.
“Gotta be quicker than that,” Eric said.
Todd surged up but Eric twisted harder and he cried out again.
“Chill,” Eric said. “I’m on my way out.” He shoved Todd forward, who fell onto his knees and shook out his arm.
“Get him!” Aaron yelled.
Some of the other jocks in the room started forward.
Oh shit. Eric clearly knew some self-defense, he might even be able to punch, but there was no way he could defend himself against half a team of pissed off jocks.
“Wait!” I said and leapt between Eric and the advancing group.
They stopped and stared at me.
“We didn’t come here for a fight. We came here to party.”
“First you bring him, and then you defend him!” Todd yelled.
“She’s nothing but a traitor!” a new voice – a very familiar voice rang out.
Everyone turned around to see who was talking. A group of people parted and then Mandy appeared.
She was wearing the blue dress like we talked about on the phone, her lips candy pink and her hair looking super teased out.
“Mandy?” I said, thinking I was crazy for assuming that angry look on her face was for me.
“What’s the matter, Kelly?” she spat. “Run out of guys in your own circle to chew up and spit out?”
“What?” I echoed. Shock rippled through me as my mind went blank and I tried to make sense of her words.
“Please!” she yelled. “Don’t play stupid, everyone in this entire room knows exactly what I’m talking about.”
I glanced around. Girls were all nodding and even some of the guys.
“Maybe we should go talk,” I told her.
“We don’t need to talk,” she spat. “Just answer this one thing: Did you hit on Tad? Did you kiss him?”
All the blood drained from my face and pooled in the bottom of feet. I felt dizzy, unable to run away because my legs felt too heavy to lift.
“Mandy, no, I—” I whispered.
“Don’t lie! He told me! He told me before we got here. I confided in you. I told you he was acting weird. It’s because he was thinking of breaking up with me for you!”
Murmurs and voices rushed through the room. Though they were quiet sounds, they pressed into my ears like shrill screams and I wanted to slap my hands over my ears and run away.
“How could you?” she demanded. “We were best friends. I defended you. I knew what everyone says about you, but I didn’t think you’d do it to me.”
“What everyone says?” I said, blank.
“Kelly’s nothing but a man-eater,” Mandy said. “She chews up guys and spits them out.”
My mouth fell open.
And of course, just at that moment Brett materialized out of the group. He was holding a beer and looking at me with hurt, but also disgust.
To add to my humiliation Tad appeared, and right beside him was Brandon.
I think Brandon’s presence hurt the worst. I know I wasn’t with him, like, forever, but I actually liked him. He wasn’t part of this. If anything, he did to me what I….
My eyes flew to him. “Was I…?”
A glint came into his eye. “A lesson you never learned.”
My vision went blurry. I blinked back the tears threatening to spill over. I would not cry. I would not cry.
“How many boyfriends have you stolen, Kelly? Five? Ten?” Mandy pressed on. “Have you even told Brett that you’re done with him? Did you tell him you moved on to my boyfriend?”
This wasn’t supposed to happen. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
“And now you’ve moved on to the geeks!” Mandy kept going. I glanced around to see Eric was still standing there, stopped near the door and watching everything with hooded eyes. “Have you no respect at all?”
“Man-eater!” a girl in the back yelled.
I recognized her. I stole her boyfriend last year.
A cup of beer came flying out of nowhere and hit the floor at my feet. Beer splashed up all over my ankles and I jerked back.
“I did you a favor!” I shrieked. “If you had been dating anyone worth it he wouldn’t have been so easy to steal!”
“Man-eater!” someone else yelled.
“Get out, Kelly. No one wants you here,” Mandy said coldly.
I glanced at Tad and he turned his back. Then I looked at Brett, but he shook his head and turned to leave.
I was being ostracized by my own friends. By my own peers.
They called me a man-eater.
I spun and fled from the room, pushing past a few people and rushing around Eric. I left the front door open when I flung it open and rushed into the yard.
Tears blurred my vision, my heels sunk into the grass. Halfway to the sidewalk I saw a huge group of people. They all turned to stare.
I couldn’t face them. I couldn’t face anyone right now.
I ran away, along the thick hedge on the side of the yard and into the dark cover of the backyard. That’s how upset I was, I couldn’t even be afraid of the dark.
In fact, I was thankful for it.
It gave me a place to hide.
Man-eater.
In the center of the grass sitting under a large tree was a roughly built fort. It was dark, but I was close enough to see that it appeared to be constructed out of scrap wood and nails.
It looked like heaven to me.
The door creaked when I opened it but I didn’t hesitate. I rushed inside and let the door close me in.
I couldn’t see much of what was inside. It was so dark, it was sort of like a cell with a dirt floor. A creepy feeling spider-crawled up the back of my neck because of how inky black it was in here, but in that moment my pain was worse than my fear. Tears finally spilled over my cheeks and a sob caught in my throat.
I felt along the wall as I moved, then slid down onto my butt in the dirt. My face buried itself in my hands and I let out the cries I was holding back.
Here I was. The most popular girl at school, who was apparently the most talked about and quite possibly the most hated.
I was sitting in a prison crying.
A prison of my own making.
Whoa – when you are shocked, surprised, or any emotion really.
I can’t say I didn’t see this coming.
Maybe not tonight. Maybe not in this way.
It had only been a matter of time until Kelly found out what everyone really thought of her.
Most would argue she deserved it. The head of that argument would be Mandy, Kelly’s supposed best friend.
In fact, it seemed everyone in that entire room tonight thought Kelly deserved what was flung at her.
Except for me.
Even though she didn’t speak up when they called me a charity case. Even though she refused to tell people I was staying at her house and that we used to be best friends. Even though she kissed me back but then refused to act like it mattered.
Like I mattered.
I still felt bad.
Maybe because as a “geek” I knew what it was like to get made fun of. Maybe I understood how it felt to be an outcast.
Or maybe it was just because I liked her.
Like really liked her.
Kelly did treat people not so good and she kinda did deserve that nickname. I don’t think she deserved to be humiliated tonight.
I stepped out of the door not long after she did. The second she ran out, the party resumed, like nothing had happened at all.
I stared at Mandy for a few minutes before I went. She must have felt my stare because she glared back. Her glare didn’t last though.
It slid away to reveal pain.
I don’t know if it was pain from finding out her boyfriend wanted to ditch her for Kelly or pain that she’d just paid her best friend back in the worst way possible.
I couldn’t help it.
The pain I saw in Mandy
’s eyes just wasn’t enough.
She watched me approach and lifted her chin to meet my eyes.
“Feel better now?” I asked.
Anger snapped back over her features but she didn’t agree. Because really, Mandy didn’t feel better. I’d stand here and argue that she likely felt worse.
I leaned down beside her ear. “So tell me? How is what you did tonight any less worse than what she did to you?”
She sucked in a breath.
“Exactly,” I whispered.
There was a crowd of people on the sidewalk. As soon as I saw them, I knew Kelly hadn’t gone for the car.
The wind kicked up, pulling at my hair and clothes, as I walked toward the back yard. I glanced up at the sky. There was barely a single star in sight.
The sky felt low, like it was pressing down upon us. In the distance, a low rumble of thunder rolled through the night. Within minutes it would likely be raining.
The second I stepped behind the house, I knew where she’d gone.
I’d had a fort like this in my backyard when we were young. It was still there. It was weathered and beaten now, and I never went inside. Hell, most the time I avoided looking at it.
But I would never tear it down.
Kelly and I spent a lot of time in that fort. Playing games, eating Oreos and a secret stash of candy. She liked to draw on the wood walls with pink chalk. I wondered if I went inside if any of her markings would still be there.
Likely, some would be. But they’d be changed.
Just like the girl who put them there.
Another gust of wind shook the leaves overhead as I ducked inside the door. “Kelly?”
“Go away.” Her voice was thick with tears and her nose sounded stuffy.
“I can’t. You’re my ride.”
She made a choked sound and started crying more.
I shuffled from foot to foot and looked at her huddled shape in the dark. I probably wouldn’t be able to see her at all if wasn’t for all her blond hair.
Thunder boomed overhead and shook the sky.
Even though it was loud, I heard Kelly shriek and saw her jump.
“It’s gonna storm,” I said.
Duh.
I stepped close and towered over her. “C’mon, let’s go before it starts.”
Another loud clap of thunder smacked through the sky and she jolted again.
I sat down close beside her, so she was sitting sideways between my legs.
“I don’t want to go out there.” Her voice was muffled against her arm because her head was dipped into it.
The first splattering of raindrops slapped against the roof of the fort, sounding like they weighed a thousand tons. They were followed seconds later by a heavy downpour that pounded against the wood structure as the wind continued to blow.
Muted shrieks from people out in the front yard echoed, and I imagined everyone was running for the inside of the house.
“You knew what they all called me,” she accused.
“It’s not exactly a secret.”
“Was to me,” she muttered.
“Can you honestly say you didn’t know people whispered and talked? That everyone stared at you because of more than just your clothes?”
“I thought they were just jealous.”
“And now that you know differently?” I asked.
She started crying again. I didn’t like to hear her cry. I liked it so much better when she smiled.
On impulse I reached out and she leaned toward me. I scooted just a little closer and held her against my chest. She buried her face in the crook of my arm and continued to cry.
The rain didn’t let up at all. The sound of it drowned out most of the sounds she made, but I felt her shaking against me. Every so often, thunder would rumble and she would scoot just a little bit closer into my body.
I liked it.
A short while later, she lifted her head and looked up at me. Her makeup smeared in heavy rings around her eyes and streaked down her creamy cheeks. She kinda looked like a raccoon, but I didn’t think she’d appreciate that observation so I didn’t point it out.
“Why aren’t you mad like the rest of them?” she asked, her voice hoarse. “You deserve to be.”
Another strong gust of wind blew and the little fort rocked with it. The whites of Kelly’s eyes grew larger and she glanced around nervously.
Pulling back from her slightly, I slid my jean jacket off. As I wrapped the coat around her shoulders and pulled it close beneath her chin, I said, “Were you really going to stop them tonight, you know, from beating me up?”
I thought about the way she’d jumped right in between me and the jocks, like she alone could stop what a group wanted to do.
She nodded. “I never should have let it get even that far. I should have stood up for you the minute Todd started acting like a jerk. I shouldn’t have let him drag you in to the party… I shouldn’t have let them make fun of you.”
“You did though.”
“I’m so sorry, Eric.”
“You saying that because you really mean it, or because you just got treated the same way?” I asked.
“Both.” Her shoulders sank. “I felt bad about it the entire time, but still I didn’t say anything. I was too scared. Scared they’d…”
“Treat you the same?”
She nodded and more tears fell down her cheeks.
“I got so caught up in being the most popular. In being the girl everyone wanted me to be. I was good at it too, so good I lost myself. I became someone I didn’t really want to be, but the only person I knew how to be.”
I wiped away one of her tears and she turned her face toward mine.
“I never even liked any of those guys,” she admitted. “I only took their interest because I could. Because it made sure I stayed at the top. If I wasn’t at the top, I wouldn’t know how to be anywhere else.”
“I knew the girl you were before you were at the top,” I told her.
She made a sound. “You didn’t stick around for her.”
I drew back, surprised. “What?”
She glanced up at the surprise in my tone. “You stopped coming over. You stopped calling to hang out. When I saw you in school, you would go the other way. I asked my mom about you, more than once. She always just said to give you time. Eventually I stopped asking.”
“You think I blew you off?” I echoed.
“Well didn’t you?” she demanded. “Or is that somehow my fault too?”
I never really thought about it from her point of view. It was just one day we were friends and the next my world fell apart. I did stop coming over, I stopped wanting to hang out. Being around Kelly and her perfect family was too hard.
By the time I was a little older, a little more on solid ground, it was too late.
She had new friends. Better friends.
“I tried to sit with you one day at lunch, a long time ago,” I said, thinking back to that day in fourth grade. “I came over to your table and you looked at me like I was a stranger. Like you didn’t even know me.”
“I remember,” she whispered. “I didn’t know you anymore. That was years later. You hurt me.”
I guess I did.
All these years I blamed her for changing, but I had changed too. I might even have changed first.
“My parents got divorced,” I said, as a bitter taste filled my mouth.
“I know. My mom told me one of the times I asked about you. She said you needed time. I waited, but eventually I realized you weren’t coming back.”
I nodded. “She tell you anything else?”
Thunder rolled over head and she glanced up and then back at me. “No.”
I nodded. “Your mom is a good lady. I can see why she kept it all to herself.”
“What?”
“The gossip. The truth.”
She just stared at me waiting, like she had in fact been waiting for an explanation, even after all these years.
“M
y father had an affair with his receptionist. My mother found out when she took him a surprise lunch to his office and found them…” I cleared my throat. “On his desk.”
Kelly gasped. “No!”
I nodded. “He’d been seeing her a while. The baseball games he missed, the dinners. He even missed my birthday party,”
“I remember that,” she murmured.
“He was with her.”
“I had no idea.”
“No one did except some of the people at the dealership. But it was swept under the rug because he’s so successful. No one wanted to talk against him.”
“So they covered it up.”
“Pretty much. And my mom suffered for it.”
“You did too,”
Her soft reply pierced my chest and I pushed on. “He left us. He walked out and married his secretary. He left mom with the house mainly because I think he knew people would talk if he didn’t. Mom never said anything all these years because she didn’t want gossip going around; she was trying to protect me.”
“But the damage was already done.”
It’s like she knew. She knew how I felt without me having to say it.
“People had to have talked…” she murmured trying to work it out in her mind.
“They did. But not for very long. He moved across town with his new wife and eventually people forgot.”
“You don’t ever see him?” she asked.
I shook my head. “The other day in the kitchen, when I was on the phone?”
She nodded.
“I called him to ask for money for the plumbing repairs. It was more than Mom can afford, and she was talking about getting another job.”
“Eric,” Kelly said softly, and put her hand over mine.
I pulled back though. I didn’t want her pity.
“That was the first time I’d talked to him in over a year.”
“Guess that explains why you were so upset.”
“I shouldn’t have taken it out on you,” I apologized.
“Are you kidding? I deserved a lot worse than that.”
I half smiled. “Yeah, you kinda do.”
“You weren’t supposed to agree.” She poked me in the middle.
I laughed.
1982: Maneater (Love in the 80s #3) Page 8