Cross My Heart and Hope You Cry | The Clique Fanfiction

23

Main Street

Ben's Ice Cream

Saturday, September 20th

2:01 PM

Dylan had felt like a fifth wheel ever since Claire came into the picture a year ago. It wasn't necessarily her fault, per se, but it was definitely her entrance into their lives that had sent things spiraling downwards into something she didn't think could be salvaged any longer. Before Claire had moved to Westchester their dynamics were simple, straightforward; all four of them were best friends, of course, but Alicia and Massie had gravitated towards one another while she and Kristen had formed a closer bond. Two sets of two—it was easy.

And then it was revealed that Kristen wasn't rich as she'd claimed from the very start, so while they still talked and gossiped and texted pictures of funny things they saw on the day-to-day, sometimes it was awkward for her, because she realized that the things they used to talk about, Kristen had never really been able to relate to. She had just been faking. She wasn't sure if she was more hurt at the fact that Kristen thought her so pretentious that she thought she would've stopped being friends with her once she realized she wasn't in the top 1%, or at the fact that their entire relationship up to that point had been built on a lie. Then Claire joined the Pretty Committee, and since they both came from that same middle class life it made sense that they had bonded, but it made that hurt in her chest bloom even further, from the flickering flame of a candle to a wildfire. Now, it was two sets of two . . . and a lone fifth. It was hard to break into Massie and Alicia's dynamic as it had been cultivated over a year, but it was even harder to relate to Kristen and Claire, so she just hovered along the edge, flitting from place to place.

She would be lying if she said she hadn't been a little bit happy when Claire left their group, even though Massie seemed so broken up over it. She'd never gotten very close to the girl anyway; Claire had stuck mostly to Kristen and Massie so while they were friends in a sense, it was more like they were mutual friends—friends because their friends were friends. With her exit Dylan thought they'd go back to that sixth grade dynamic (those two sets of two) but it seemed impossible. The dynamics had shifted; she and Kristen no longer worked as a set anymore.

She had wondered, laying in that sleeping bag last night with the soft breaths of her sleeping friends around her, if the Pretty Committee would've worked if she had left the group instead of Claire. Just the very thought had made her breath hitch in her throat and she bit down harshly on her knuckles to stop the strangled cry that suddenly wanted to push past her lips. She'd never felt as jealous as she had in that very moment, because suddenly a fierce envy, and an even fiercer anger, grew in the pit of her stomach towards the blonde Floridian girl that was sleeping in the guesthouse she could see through Massie's window. Claire had had everything she wanted —she'd been part of a set— and still, she'd thrown it all away, and for what, for Cam? They boy that wouldn't even look in her direction (and definitely wouldn't now). Claire had stampeded into their group, swept around it like a tornado leaving nothing but destruction, and then had walked out like it was no big deal. She'd ruined them and didn't even seem to care.

And now, as she stared at the backs of Kristen and Claire as they left the ice cream parlour, arms linked in friendship like they used to do, she thinks that last night's thoughts were right, because Kristen and Claire were still a match set even outside of the Pretty Committee. She imagined that—a Pretty Committee without her. They'd all sit together at Table 18 in the lunchroom and she'd be watching them from afar with a longing look in her eyes. During sleepovers Alicia and Massie would dress them up like dolls and they'd spend hours laughing at the ridiculous combinations they would come up with before the next morning they'd be sent away with a bundle of clothes. On theme park rides Alicia and Massie would take the first row and Claire and Kristen the second; four, the perfect number for any amusement park. Sometimes at the mall they'd split up, so Kristen and Claire could check out the newest Gap sale and Massie and Alicia would go to Fendi, but all four of them would go to Hollister together to gaze at the cute boys and Claire would comment about how good Massie would look in this or that and Massie would vehemently deny it and then get chased around the store till they were all kicked out, clutching their sides in laughter.