Ella continued to hang around with Brianna as a double agent so that she could get an inside look on all of the events. It had been Lena’s idea to make an anonymous movie of our revenge and send it to Brianna after everything was through. The sad part was that we hadn’t thought of the idea in time to record the actual revenge.
Exactly a month and two days after our late night revenge scheme, Brianna came to school looking utterly devastated. I didn’t know if it had to do with problems at home, or with the fact that her hair was frizzy, and a burnt shade of orange. She had tried to tuck a majority of her hair into the hood on the over-sized pink sweatshirt that she was wearing, but reddish-orange hair kept slipping out and was easily seen despite the hood.
Behind her stood Ella, Anya, and a shiny haired blonde who was about four inches shorter than the other girls. Ella’s naturally red hair framed her face in tight curls that stopped at her shoulders, and her eyes twinkled as she was obviously trying to hold back laughter. Anya looked worried as she glanced up and down the hallway seeing all of the attention that Brianna was getting. Most of the people in the hallway had stopped what they were doing and were blatantly staring in the direction of the four girls. Some were laughing, while others were whispering. Then there were the select few people who were just staring in shock.
Brianna’s baby blue eyes flitted around the hallway as she headed toward her locker, while her followers did what they do best; followed her.
“Nice hair,” someone joked, causing a few more laughs to bubble up from the ever growing throng of students.
Brianna swiped her manicured nails under her hood and tucked her hair back as her cheeks began to burn a deep shade of red. With Brianna blushing so flagrantly, she looked like an innocent little kid who had gotten caught doing something wrong. I was starting to feel bad for her when next to me Lena grabbed my arm and laughed loudly. Her laugh was a bit forced so that it came out louder than it naturally would have. “I can’t believe the henna worked!” she whisper-yelled at me.
I smirked. “It was a good idea.”
Lena’s eyes focused on Brianna as she made her way down the hallway and stopped at her locker. I thought I had even caught a glimpse of blue-stained teeth, but before I could be one hundred percent sure, her mouth was back to being pressed into a tight line. “Hell yeah it was. I can’t believe it took her so long to dye her hair though.”
“Hey, better late than never, right?”
“I guess.”
We lulled off into a silence as we focused all of our attention on Brianna as she turned the corner while a majority of our peers laughed behind her. Despite feeling a bit guilty about the situation, I couldn’t help the pride that swelled up inside of me for turning blonde, bitchy, Brianna into just bitchy Brianna.
“I wish the itching powder had worked.”
“I do too,” I agreed, turning toward my locker. “Has she just not worn any of the stuff I poured it on? How is that possible?” My locker clicked open after I enter the combination expertly. I switched out a few binders and closed it back. “I even poured it in her underwear drawer. Does she not wear underwear or something?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she’s been getting lucky. It’s just a matter of time really.”
We trudged off to our class, talking about Brianna’s hair the whole way there. Most of the conversations in the hallway were about her and her bad hair day. Lena was annoyed that by ruining Brianna’s hair, we had effectively made her even more of the talk of the school than she already had been.
Class passed by at a slower pace than usual, and by the time the bell rang to dismiss us to our buses, I was almost asleep on my desk. Lena had been paying attention to the lecture as if her life depended on it. As we made our way to the buses, she blabbed on about how interesting class had been and how great of a teacher Mr. Hernandez is for making math so interesting. If our teacher didn’t look so much like an Oompa Loompa I may have entertained the idea that she had a crush on him.
As we boarded the bus, we continued to talk about which classes we enjoyed the most and the least. I stopped focusing on what Lena was saying as we walked down the aisle, past Blake, and sat a few rows behind him. His head was tilted to the side and he was leaning up against the window, staring ahead. Suddenly, my urge to talk to him was overwhelming. I was the one after all who had put a stop to our relationship and friendship. At the moment, I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to why we weren’t even able to be friends anymore. People made mistakes, and I wasn’t ready to overlook his, but I didn’t want to cut him out of my life completely.
“You aren’t even listening to me,” Lena speculated.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I was just thinking.”
“About Blake. I know you were.” Lena swiped her vibrant hair so that it all fell over one shoulder.
“Yeah, I think I’m going to sit with him.”
Lena raised an eyebrow, her eyes widening. “Seriously?”
I nodded.
“Well damn. Go 'head, Forrester. Get yo' man.” She snapped her fingers and winked flirtatiously.
“Don’t ever do that again,” I joked. A smile tugged at the corners of my lips. “Sassy doesn’t work for you.”
Rolling her eyes, she smirked and shoved at my side, practically forcing me out of the seat. “Go already.”
I stood quickly just as the doors to the bus closed and I hurriedly walked the few seats to where Blake was sitting. He looked up at me, a look of pure confusion on his face.
“Can I sit here?” I asked. I was slightly worried that he was going to say no, but to my surprise, he moved his bag from the seat and smiled.
I graciously accepted the seat and placed my backpack in between my feet on the floor. “So, how’s it going? I haven’t talked to you in a while.”
He raised an eyebrow, giving me a small smile. “We talked last week.”
“I mean really talked. Not about gym clothes and water temperature. Just about life.” I shrugged as I said the word “life” and hoped he would understand what I meant.
“Life, huh? Well, life’s treating me well. My mom’s pregnant.” Blake smiled at me, not the forced smiles that I had been receiving from him since we had broken up, but an actual full mouthed grin. His pale blue eyes were wide with joy, making him look like a little kid on Christmas morning.
My mouth opened a bit at the news. “She's pregnant?”
Blake nodded, still smiling hard.
The bus bounced to a stop and then began to move again as I returned his smile. “That’s so great, Blake. When did you find out?”
“She and dad told me last night. She’s three months along.”
“Is she excited? I distinctly remember your parents saying that you were their first and last kid.”
Blake chuckled, and scratched the back of his neck. “She’s super excited. Dad’s worried though. He keeps saying that we should go to baby care classes because he forgot how to change a diaper and hold a baby.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “Oh my gosh. He’ll be fine. Hopefully for his sake, the baby will be a boy though. Since he’s already had practice dealing with a son.”
Blake shrugged. “I kind of want a little sister though. When I first heard that she was pregnant, I just imagined having a little sister. I’d beat up any of the guys who even look at her.” Blake crossed his arms at the thought of his little sister’s future suitors.
“I don’t think you’d have to worry about that for a long time though,” I reassured him. “Besides, you may have a little brother in six months and you won’t even have to worry about it at all.”
“I guess so. I also want to see what I would have looked like if I had been a girl.” He smiled for a second, and then laughed, causing me to join in.
Through my chuckles, I managed, “I bet you’d have been a pretty girl!”
Blake smirked. “Think so?” I nodded and he replied with, “Thanks, Vi.”
“Yeah. I also think that if you do
end up with a little sister, you’d be a pretty good older brother.” Our eyes met, and I quickly looked at the back of the seat in front of me. “You know, since you’re really good with Lilly.”
The bus came to a stop, and the doors opened. Sitting and talking with Blake had been so easy that I didn’t even realize that we had already made it to his bus stop.
“I have to come and see her. I miss you and your family.”
The sincerity in his words made my thoughts go into overdrive as I stood up into the aisle to let him pass.
“I miss you and your family too.” I smiled awkwardly at him and then made my way back to Lena, who gave me a curious look.
I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly and leaned back in the seat, sighing. In the span of a few months I had lost my best friend and boyfriend. The only thing that made my realization easier was the fact that it hadn’t been my fault.
Still, it hurt all the same.
Chapter 29
“It smells like heaven in here,” Lena exclaimed as she sashayed through the front door and into the house.
“Uh, thanks,” I responded, not really knowing what was supposed to be said in response to such a statement. “What are you doing here?” I raised my eyebrows curiously, staring at my redheaded friend as she began to shrug off her trench coat and unwrap her scarf.
Draping her gray wool coat on the wooden rack, Lena turned toward me, a smirk shaping her pink lips. “Boy do I have news for you, Forrester. But first, my tongue is drier that the Gobi desert.” Lena raised her pale hand up to her throat and stuck her tongue out dramatically before turning and making her way down the hallway and into the kitchen.
As soon as we walked into the room, the sound of Christmas music filled my ears. My mom smiled at me and Lena as she backed away from the radio that sat on top of the island. She danced around the kitchen in her apron, singing along to “Santa Baby.” Placed on the counter next to the stove was a cookie sheet, filled with small balls of chocolate chip cookie dough.
“Hey girls!” she called to us in-between her singing.
“Hi, Mrs. F.,” Lena responded. It was as if Lena’s words had encouraged her in some way, because suddenly, Rose Forrester began to exaggerate her dance moves.
To my embarrassment, my mom danced her way over to us, throwing a few embellished hand movements into her routine while rolling her hips to the beat. Lena laughed, only encouraging her further as she swiveled her body around, raising her hands to form peace signs as she moved them past her eyes one at a time. I had the urge to run across the kitchen and yank the radio’s cord from the plug as my mom started to do the tootsie roll; her hands on her knees as she moved her legs in and out.
Next to me Lena was laughing so hard that she had keeled over, gripping her stomach. Her laughter only grew louder as Lilly came running into the room, her eyes wide, and a smile on her face as she began to copy our mother’s awful dance moves.
The two of them were now attempting to moonwalk, transitioning smoothly into the robot, where my mom took that as an opportunity to start doing the cabbage patch. She balled her hands up into fists, swinging her arms out in front of her in a circular motion. As her big finish, my white mother, a woman who I’ve compared to Wonder Bread in the past, began to do the running man. She was no longer matching the beat of the song, but with every new dance move her facial expressions became more and more animated; showing just how much fun she was having. Lilly’s pigtails bounced on top of her head as copied my mother’s eccentric movements.
When the song finally ended, Lena had tears dripping from her eyes, her body convulsing with silent laughter.
“Wondering where I learned how to dance like that?” my mom questioned, receiving a nod from Lena as she braced herself on her knees, and an excited Yes from Lilly.
My cheeks still burned in embarrassment at how horrible her dance moves had been and I had trouble hiding my shocked expression when she said, “I was captain of my high school’s dance team. We were third best in states.” Dark brown hair that had managed to fall loose from her bun while she danced, framed her pale face, making her look younger than she actually was.
“Wow, I wonder what your competition looked like.”
My mom shook her head, ignoring my insult. “What are you girls up to?”
Lena composed herself, standing up and wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. “I invited myself over for cookies,” she said raising her eyebrow suggestively and licking her lips.
My mom chuckled in response. “Well after I pop them in the oven, and add some finishing touches, feel free to help yourself. This is the only time of the year that the girls are allowed to have any kind of holiday dessert that they want.” She turned her head to look at Lilly and me. “A little trans-fat this time of year won’t kill you guys, huh?”
Lilly answered for both of us as she shook her head furiously.
The song “All I Want For Christmas” came on, stealing away my mom’s attention.
“Mama Forrester should be a comedian,” Lena joked as she went to grab a cup from the dish drying rack. She tucked her unruly hair behind her ears so that she was able to bend slightly to fill the cup up with water from the refrigerator.
“All I want for Christmas, is you, baby,” Lena mumbled, holding the ‘u’ sound in ‘you’ to match the song.
I following Lena’s trail as she left the kitchen and pounded up the staircase to my bedroom. Opening the door, she flipped on the light switch and went to sit down on my bed.
I pushed the door shut behind us and joined Lena where she sat, looking at her curiously. “So what was it that you wanted to tell me?”
Lena raised her pointer finger, telling me to hold on for a moment as she gulped down a mouthful of water. When she finished drinking, she set the glass down on top of my bedside table and bit her lip as she eyed me. It seemed as if she was calculating something in her mind before she said, “My parents are getting a divorce.”
My mouth opened a bit to form a small ‘o’ shape. “What?”
Shrugging, Lena began to play with the frayed spot on her distressed jeans. “It was bound to happen sometime.”
“Man that sucks.” As the words unfolded from my mouth, I realized how insensitive they were. “Everything will be fine though,” I encouraged.
“Oh trust me, Forrester, I’m happier than I am sad. I’ll still get to see both of my parents, and there will be no more arguments. Sounds like literal perfection to me.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
I smiled. “For some reason I thought that you were going to be telling me bad news.”
From the way that Lena’s face shifted, I instantly knew that there was more to the story.
“About that,” she began uneasily. “My mom and dad can’t afford the house without each other’s financial help, even though my dad paid for most of everything anyway. So they’re selling the house. My dad’s going to look for something smaller that’s in the area, and my mom’s decided to move back to California to stay with my grandparents.”
My eyes widened at the thought that Lena could potentially be moving back to California. I had only known her for three months now, but in that short time span we had come to be very close. She was the first real girlfriend that I’d had in years, and now she was possibly moving away.
“Chill, Violet, I’m staying to live with my dad.” She smirked at me, rolling her eyes as if she had been able to read my mind.
“And Ella?”
“She hasn’t decided yet. She doesn’t want mom to be alone, but she’d rather live with dad. She also misses Cali and our grandparents, but it’s not like we won’t be visiting mom every summer. I think she’s going to end up staying here too, but who knows. She’s always been protective of our mom.”
“I hope she stays.” The words surprised even myself as they spilled from my mouth.
“Oh do you?”
I paused, thinking for a moment before I
nodded my head. “I really do. You’d hate being here without her.”
Lena tilted her head, raising a shapely eyebrow at me. “And?” she prompted.
I sighed. “And she’s not so bad after all. I actually think she’s kind of cool.”
“I thought you did,” Lena joked. “She’s just easily influenced. Hopefully she grows out of that though.”
“She will.”
Leaning forward, Lena laid out across the bed on her stomach, holding her chin in her hands. Her expression changed as she began to speak. “So what are you going to do about Brianna? All we’ve done is change her hair color.”
My lips curved upwards into a small smile. “Yeah but we made her hair flaming red. That’s the worst.”
Lena’s eyes turned to slits. “Nothing is wrong with red hair.”
“Hey, you and I both know that gingers have no souls.”
Trying to hide her laugh, Lena coughed loudly. “Sure they don’t,” she mumbled sarcastically.
“They don’t,” I assured her before returning to our original topic. “We can always give Ella’s idea a shot.”
Lena shook her head. “Ella’s idea is evil. I want Brianna to suffer, but I don’t want to hit her that low.”
“I guess you’re right,” I agreed, swiping my hair off of my face.
“Oh, and Ella got my shoe from Brianna’s house so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Thank God. I was so sure that Brianna was going to find that and trace the footprint or something.” I laughed at my paranoia.
Lena rolled her eyes in response. “No worries there. She’ll never know a thing.” Lena yawned, her mouth open so wide that her hand couldn’t cover it completely. “What’s going to happen with you and Blake?”
I shrugged. I truly didn’t know. I was hoping that we would get back together, but start off slowly. Not jump into anything.”
“So what’s stopping you?”
Better Than Revenge (Sweet Secrets #1) Page 22