by Mia Archer
The woman shook her head and clicked her tongue a couple of times. “I can’t believe she would do something like that. She always seemed like such a nice girl. Is she not here today?”
“She seemed like a nice girl to a lot of people,” Zoey said. “I guess appearances can be deceiving though, and no, there’s not a chance she’s going to be here today. We kicked her out of the group.”
“Because of the money?”
“Not really, but that would’ve been enough to kick her out if we found it in time. But let’s talk about some other stuff. Looks like you’re going to have a good turnout here today! If we have enough people asking for pictures that’ll easily push us over the $5000 mark!”
“I really hope so,” Zoey said.
The lady seemed to notice me standing there for the first time. She looked up and jumped. Let out a little yelp.
“Oh my! You startled me! I don’t think we’ve met before,” the lady said. She walked forward and held out her hand. “I’m Susan. And you are?”
“Hailey,” I said.
Her eyes went wide and if anything the smile got bigger. “Oh, so you’re Hailey. I’ve heard lots of good things about you!”
I glanced past Susan to where Zoey looked like she was trying her best to sink into the ground. Her face was bright red and she was shaking her head back and forth and muttering something to herself. I turned my attention back to Susan.
“Really now? Well that’s good to know that they’re all good things, I suppose!”
“Right. I have some other things to attend to right now. I’ll leave the two of you to chat with each other,” Susan said.
She turned and left. I walked up to Zoey and punched her lightly in the shoulder.
“So you’ve been talking about me while I wasn’t around, huh?” I said.
“Maybe,” Zoey replied.
“Well let’s give them something else to talk about, how ‘bout?” I said.
“What are you…”
I didn’t give her a chance to finish the thought. I reached out and pulled her in for a kiss. She let out a surprised yelp but even that surprised yelp didn’t last for long as I planted my lips against hers. The plastic of her costume rattled against the foam of mine and that was what finally brought me back to reality and had me pulling away from the kiss.
It wouldn’t do for us to have a wardrobe malfunction right here in the middle of a charity event, after all. Talk about embarrassing! Especially on my first official time out with the group and all.
Though I’m sure there were a few guys who wouldn’t mind if we had a wardrobe malfunction judging from the odd looks we were getting. Right. Two girls kissing. Of course all the knuckle draggers would look at that and think about how hot it was.
It was pretty hot, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t trying to put on a show for anyone or anything.
“That was a nice way for you to say hello,” Zoey said.
“You’re telling me,” I said. “I think I’m going to greet you like that every time we meet.”
“I could get used to that,” Zoey said. “Natalie never…”
A look of pure panic passed across her face and her hand went up to her mouth. It was funny. A couple of days ago I might have gotten really upset that she brought up Natalie again, but now with the benefit of a little bit of time and a little bit of hanging out with her I wasn’t upset. She’d just gotten out of a relationship. It was only natural that she’d still bring up something that was such a huge touchstone in her life.
“Oh shit Hailey. I’m so sorry,” she said. “I just opened my mouth and it came out before…”
I held up a hand to stop her before she could really get going. “Zoey, calm down. It’s okay.”
That brought her up short. She cocked her head to the side and her eyes darted back and forth as she looked into my own. “Are you serious?”
“Totally serious,” I said. “Natalie was a big part of your life for a long time. Freaking out about it isn’t going to do anything but ruin any chance we might have, so I’m not going to freak out about it.”
Zoey grinned again. “I’m glad to hear you say that, but I promise any time I mention that psycho it’s totally an accident. I don’t still have any feelings for her or anything.”
“I know Zoey,” I said. I leaned in to kiss her again. “Just be glad the crazy bitch is out of your life and I’m in it now.”
“Now isn’t that interesting,” a familiar voice said from behind us. “Now you’re stealing my group, shacking up with the girl who broke us up, and you’re talking trash about me behind my back.”
I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut. I know I’d come to a big realization while I was chatting with Jake. I was okay with the idea of Natalie being a part of Zoey’s life in the abstract, but what I wasn’t cool with was Natalie showing up to a place where she clearly wasn’t invited or wanted. Couldn’t that girl take a fucking hint?
I balled my hand into a fist and turned around, fully intending to deck her. She stood on the other side of a rope blocking off the booth wearing her own costume and she had her arms crossed under her breasts as she looked between the two of us with a look that seemed to hold all the hatred in the world.
Almost all the hatred. I was feeling a bit of that myself. How dare she show up again and try to screw things up. I took a step forward, but then a hand wrapped around my arm and held me in place. I tried to pull free. I really wanted to tangle with this girl and I didn’t give a fuck that I was in my costume.
But there was that iron grip on my arm. I looked down and back. Blinked in surprise when I realized it was Zoey holding me back with her grip. She looked at me and there was a cold fury burning there behind her eyes. It was enough to make me want to take a step back. I looked between Zoey and Natalie.
“Let me handle this Hailey,” she said.
I thought about all the times Zoey had gotten mad at Natalie while I was there to witness it. How scary it was when she got good and angry. Only now I could think of nothing that would please me more than to see Zoey giving Natalie a bit of what she deserved.
So I stepped aside and got out of the way. It was time to watch the fireworks fly.
27: Throwdown
Zoey:
“Did you seriously come out here in costume when you knew you weren’t invited?” I asked.
It was weird. Every other time I’d argued with Natalie in the past week it had been a huge blowup. My rage had boiled close to the surface and I’d been almost ready to punch her out. That was how angry I was with her over everything she’d done to me.
Though I guess part of that was also how pissed off I was at all the time I’d wasted with her. Time I needed to make up for now. Time that was being wasted again because she kept showing up and screwing things up with me and Hailey.
“You don’t talk to me like that,” Natalie said. “You stole my group and you cheated on me with this…”
“Would you please just shut the fuck up?” I asked.
Again my voice was quiet. I felt calm. Cool. Collected. I felt like I wanted to scream at her, but I knew screaming at her wasn’t going to do a damn bit of good. Not when we were out here in the middle of a crowd. Screaming and yelling and making a scene in front of the nice charity people would only make it certain we wouldn’t get invited back to the nice charity event ever again.
“You…”
“You need to shut up,” I said. “You need to get the fuck out of here. I don’t know how many ways I can say this, but you were kicked out of the group. That doesn’t even have anything to do with you and me. You were taking money from the group. Oh yeah, I found out all about that when we sat down and looked at the books.”
“How dare you…”
“Natalie, could you please shut the fuck up?”
I turned and saw Cassie come up behind me. The rest of the girls formed up around us, and none of them looked too happy to see Natalie there. Hardly surprising considering most of them ended up
chipping in to make up the money that she stole. We were still trying to decide whether or not it was enough money to turn it into the cops, or if they’d even be interested in going after her.
“Cassie, you were always such a slut. I know you and Zoey were…”
“Are you really doing this Natalie?” Cassie asked. “The whole projection thing might’ve worked on Zoey here for awhile, but it sure as shit isn’t working on me. I’m going to give you to the count of ‘fuck off’ to get out of here before I knock out a few of your teeth and rip up that costume of yours. Good luck finding a replacement without access to the machine.”
Natalie looked at everyone lined up and arrayed against her. She was living off in her own world, but it seemed like reality was moving in on her even if it would be only for a moment.
“Look Natalie, I’m not sure what you were expecting when you came out here. Did you think everyone was going to fall all over themselves to welcome you back to the group or something? Well it’s not happening, and you need to leave before you cause a scene,” I said.
“You can’t kick me out of my group. This is my group! I founded it! I founded it and I can take it back from you!”
Her voice was getting louder. She was starting to do exactly the sort of thing I’d hoped to avoid. People were turning and looking at us, and why not? We were at a charity event where everyone was supposed to be having a good time and here she was screaming and melting down.
“You didn’t build this Natalie,” Heather said. “Zoey is the one who got everyone together in the first place. Cassie is the one who built the table along with some help from Lisa. I was the one who recruited Sierra and Thea. The only thing you ever did was hit on girls who came up to our booth and make us look bad in the process. We don’t need that.”
“Yeah, and we’re going to tell the cops all about what you did stealing money from the charity,” Lisa said.
I squeezed my eyes closed for a moment at that little interjection from Lisa. She’d been more pissed off than anyone else when she found out about the theft. Naturally she’ be the one to bring it up today. Not that I wanted her to bring it up. That was one little surprise I was hoping we could save for when we actually decided to press charges.
If we decided to press charges.
I opened my eyes. Looked up at Natalie. I met her gaze and held it.
“This isn’t about us anymore Natalie,” I said. “I guess in a way it never was. No one in this group wants you around anymore. No one in this group liked you when you were with us. So please do what we’ve all asked you and fuck off before you get hurt.”
Not that I thought we’d really get into a rumble or anything. The idea of a bunch of girls in these costumes getting into a fight with each other was laughable. None of us were going to risk breaking our costumes even if it did mean a chance to beat the snot out of Natalie after everything she put everyone through.
Natalie looked like she was on the verge of leaving when a voice interrupted.
“What is the problem here? I heard shouting,” Susan’s voice rang out through the crowd. She stepped through and for a wonder she actually looked angry. She was such a kind woman that I didn’t think I’d ever see her as furious as she was in that moment, but furious she was.
I suppose the old saying about being wary of the anger of a quiet man also applied to kindly older woman. She looked absolutely furious that someone would dare interrupt her charity event with shouting. She turned and put her hands on her hips when she saw Natalie standing there.
“Susan, I don’t know what these girls told you but it’s a lie,” Natalie said. “They’re trying to steal my group from me and…”
“Oh they told me all about who was doing the stealing in your group hon,” Susan said. The kind smile returned to her face and Natalie actually turned to hit me with a triumphant smile. I’m not sure what she thought was going to happen here. Even if she had Susan on her side it’s not like that would get her the group back.
Not that I thought for a moment that she had Susan on her side. The charity organizer might be smiling, but there was a dangerous gleam in her eyes that said Natalie was moving onto shaky ground. No wonder considering the hundreds of dollars she’d skimmed off the top of our donations.
“I know all about how you were stealing money that was meant to go to the kids. So you can turn around and leave my charity now, or I can call the nice police officers working the event over here and they can escort you away in the back of one of their squad cars. How’s that sound?”
Natalie looked at everyone surrounding her. I wondered if the bubble she live in where she could never do any wrong would extend to allowing herself to be escorted away by the cops. Surely even she wouldn’t go that far.
She turned and glared daggers at me one final time. “Fine. This isn’t worth all the trouble. I’ll start my own group.”
Natalie turned and stalked off towards the crowd. More people were staring now and taking pictures, and so there were more than a few cameras running when she hit a bad spot in the grass underfoot and went falling straight forward. I heard the dreaded sound of plastic cracking, the sure sign that something had just gone kaput on a costume. All around me the other girls in the group breathed in sharply at that sound.
When she stood she was holding part of her top in place. The crack was pretty obvious, right down the side of one of the cups, and I could see the bra underneath. She turned back to our booth one final time.
“You hear me! I’ll start my own group and we’ll do way better than you bitches!”
I flinched. Not so much because she was screaming at us as because of what she was screaming at us. That really wasn’t the sort of language you should use around kids. Apparently the cops Susan had threatened to bring along to talk to her thought the same thing because they materialized out of the crowd and each of them put a hand on her arm as they started pulling her towards one of the exits.
I sighed in relief. I still couldn’t believe she would even come out here in the first place, but that had gone about as well as could be expected, all things considered. No one got into a fight, after all, and the only person who ended up with a broken costume was Natalie.
“I’d like to see her start a new group or fix that costume without access to my workshop,” Cassie muttered.
“Well that was unfortunate,” Susan said.
“Susan, look, I’m so sorry about…”
Susan waved a dismissive hand and the smile I always saw there was back on her face. “Don’t you worry about it at all dear,” she said. “I know you can’t control where she shows up. Hopefully Dan and Reg will have a nice chat with her about showing up where she’s not wanted and that will be that.”
“Maybe,” I said.
I was relieved that she didn’t blame us for anything that just happened, but at the same time I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wouldn’t be the last time we heard from Natalie. There were other groups around the country who had to deal with drama like this and it was never pretty. Still, there was nothing for it but to soldier on and keep doing the good work we were doing.
I looked around at all the kids we were raising money for. They were the real reason we were doing this. Them and the friends I’d made. Them and the one girl who might be more than a friend if I played my cards right.
I turned to face Hailey, though I was afraid I’d see her retreating back to her car like she had before whenever Natalie came up. To my surprise she was right there smiling back at me.
“I think you handled yourself well there,” she said. “You didn’t fly off the handle this time.”
“Believe me I wanted to,” I said. “But I don’t think that would’ve helped anything.”
“You’re probably right. You did a lot better being the calm collected one and letting her be the psycho. It really turned the crowd in your favor. That Susan lady too.”
“So you’re not upset or anything?”
“Y’know I like to think I’
ve learned a thing or two over the past week,” Hailey said.
“Really now? And are those things good for me?”
“Maybe,” she said. “A couple of things are good for you. Like I’ve learned that you’re not Natalie. When you do nice things you’re never doing it with strings attached, and I shouldn’t have let the zap she put on me in that hotel room get in the way of how I felt about you.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “It was getting exhausting trying to do nice things for you.”
Hailey stuck her tongue out at me. Okay. A little immature, but I probably deserved that. Still, it was the truth. It had been exhausting trying to do nice things for her and wondering if she was going to fly off the handle. It was nice to know that wasn’t going to happen anymore. Or at least if it did happen she knew what she was doing.
“So what’s the other thing you learned that’s good for me?” I asked.
She moved in close and put her arm around me. I smiled and shivered at feeling her so close to me. I was never going to get tired of that. After so long being rejected by Natalie this was like walking through the desert and finding an oasis of affection that I’d desperately needed and never realized.
“You can’t control what Natalie does. She’s like a force of nature. All we can do is react to her and try to do damage control,” Hailey said.
I shook my head. “Y’know you probably have no idea just how right you are. I have a feeling she’s going to try and start a group of her own or something. We’re going to be dealing with her and her drama for a good little while to come.”
“That’s fine with me,” Hailey said. “As long as we’re dealing with it together?”
I grinned down at her. “Y’know I think I like the sound of that.”
I did like the sound of that. We’d been through a lot over the past week. It had been a whirlwind. A roller coaster. But here at the end it was the two of us standing together arm in arm. We were still at the beginning of whatever this was, but it was a good beginning.