Stuck Between the Rivals

3: FROM B TO D

I needed to tell Julia about my free schedule.

Since I wasn't hanging out with Lucas on Saturday, it felt wrong not to tell her I was free. The guilt in my chest did not disappear. After all, she was my close friend and I knew that she wanted to hang out with me.

After leaving Lucas's house, I quickly searched for Julia in my contacts list. Once she answered her phone, I gave her a run down of the situation. About how Lucas cancelled our plans for his date. Just as I had expected, Julia was not happy with Lucas's actions. In fact, she was infuriated.

"What? He cancelled on you?"

I walked up the stairs and entered my room. The cool breeze tickled my skin from the open window. "Yeah, he's going on a date with Cassie Sanders."

There was a pause.

"Cassie Sanders," she repeated. "The girl who went from a B cup to a D cup over the summer right?"

"Maybe?" I answered. My brain held no knowledge about the development of Cassie's chest. All I knew was that she was Lucas's date this weekend. "I just heard from Lucas that she got prettier. In fact, he mentioned that he thought she was part of the top five prettiest girls in our school."

"Cassie did get really pretty," Julia agreed. There was a slight amount of distaste in her tone. "But that's not what's important right now. What's important is that Lucas ditched you to hang out with this girl he doesn't know well! Don't you feel angry about this? I know you are? That was a really big dick move on his part."

I shrugged while holding the phone close to my ear. A feeling of sadness took over my heart but I didn't let it faze me. Lucas has done so much for me, I shouldn't feel angry about such a tiny problem. "Yeah but I know Lucas well and I know he didn't mean to cancel. It's fine. Really."

I know Julia didn't like him one bit and him canceling furthered her hate towards him, but she did not know about the situation a few years ago. If she did, her option would be similar to mine.

Chills ran up my spine. I wanted to tell her so bad. Really. But the words always got stuck in my throat. It was not my story to tell.

"Fine my ass. That guy treats you for granted Liliana. Even as a friend, there's a limit to what I can handle." She snorted. "Besides, you were so set on hanging out with him. Why does he get to bail on you but you can't on him? Freaking hypocrite he is. "

"It's not him Julia," I said. After pacing around my room, I sat on my bed. With my fingers, I played with the hem of my blanket. "I don't like ditching people in general. I'm sure that if I ditched him, he would be as understanding as I am."

"Have you broke plans with him before?"

I thought for a moment and scratched my head nervously. "No?"

"Proves my point," she said.

Then there was a moment of silence. Julia was thinking hard; perhaps on what to say next. Possibly deciding if she should continue talking about Lucas or to change the subject. I played with a strand of my blonde hair while I waited for her to speak again.

"But anyways, him ditching you is good for us. Now, we can go to this party."

The party. Slight bitterness filled my mouth at the thought of it. I knew Lucas would not be content with my decision to go.

"Yeah about that... Do I have to go? Can't we hang out or something instead?"

"No." Her stance was firm. "You're going Liliana."

I scrunched my nose. "Why? Can't you invite someone else? I'm sure there are many people who would love to go to a party with you?"

"Liliana," she said with a sigh. "You know, sometimes... You're not going to agree with me no matter what I say but just sometimes... I think that Lucas is putting you in a bubble."

A bubble? I thought. What does Julia mean? There were times Lucas prevented me from doing things such as partying but that was because he cared for me. He didn't want me to be in a terrible environment. He worried for me. Plus, if Lucas didn't believe I would like partying, then he was probably right. He knew me like the back of his hand.

"He isn't," I insisted. "If this is about partying, Lucas is just looking out for me."

   He doesn't want me hurt.

"He's too protective. Almost as if he's trying to keep you all to himself."

But there's a reason for it... I thought. But I kept my thoughts to myself.

She continued: "Liliana, instead of relying on him to tell you what to do, I think that you need to experience and decide for yourself. All of your decisions revolve around him. It's not healthy. You're going to become an adult next year girl but I think your too dependent on him."

   There was a slight pause so she could catch her breath. "And I know partying isn't going to make you grow up or anything but I think its the first step of you making your own decisions and determining what you like and what you don't. As your other only friend please come just once."

Before this conversation, Julia had mentioned multiple times that she didn't like Lucas for his over-protectiveness. But I didn't know it was to this extent.

   As a friend, I was truly grateful for her looking out for me. I really was. Despite her discontent with the relationship between Lucas and I, she continued to support me. She always listened, no matter how repetitive my words were. But I couldn't relate to her concerns. In my eyes, I understood why he took these actions. He cared about me that much.

Maybe this party is good for me, I thought. I needed to show Julia that I wasn't dependent on Lucas as much as she thought. If I went to this party, she'd know that I can go against him and perhaps, then she would come to like him.

I really wanted my friends to get along.

"Okay," I whispered. "I'll go to the party."

There was a joyful scream at the end of the phone. My cheeks became rosy. Was she that happy? I only said yes to going to a party. It wasn't that big of a deal.

Nonetheless, my heart warmed up from her response.

"Honestly, I thought I was going to have to convince you a lot more but i'm so happy you agreed! I really am Liliana, you don't know how happy I am."

   I could hear laughter. "And girl, it's going to be so fun. The person throwing the party is my friend Charlie. He's a friend that I met at the gay club the other day. Really cool guy. He told me it was going to be a smaller party so don't worry about the police or anything. It's going to be fun I promise and I know your going to like him too."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "The club? Isn't it illegal."

There was a chuckle. "Oops? I used my sisters ID. But it is so hard to meet girls in this small ass town, you can't blame me for trying."

"Okay," I said with a giggle. "I understand where your coming from."

"But yeah, real cool guy and i'm pretty sure his friends are cool too..." The sound of Julia rummaging through something echoed through my phone speakers. "Which also reminds me. I'm going to dress you up real pretty for this party, make up and everything."

Make up? Dressing up? For some reason, a feeling of excitement arose in my chest. I couldn't believe it, was I looking forwards to this party? I wasn't necessarily excited to be surrounded by drunk teenagers, but getting a makeover sounded fun. Although I wasn't the make up type, I was sure Julia would turn me prettier than a princess.

Lucas was never wrong. But I couldn't help feel myself looking towards Saturday.