You Stole My Heart

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Catfight

After a date like that, and after a first kiss, there really is only one thing a teenage girl can do.

"Aww, our little girl is growing up, Blake!" Carley coos, and I roll my eyes.

"I thought I asked you to let me talk to the guy first?"

"I'm sorry, daddy" I bat my eyelashes at my overprotective friend, but he just grunts. Carley ignores our interaction and asks casually;

"So...was there any lip action?"

"With tongue." I confirm.

"Ew, guys, do you have to do this now?" I turn to Blake in astonishment.

"Yeah, kinda tmi on the tongue part, Honey." Carley starts peeling off her chipped black nail polish.

"Excuse me? After all the times I've had to watch you guys shove each other's tongues down your throats?"

"What an inviting idea," Carley turns her mischievous eyes on her boyfriend. Please tell me they're not gonna...

"I couldn't agree more," Blake pulls her closer to him and next thing I know, they're pressed up against the wall. My bedroom wall.

"Hypocrites." I mutter.

Moments later, my mother knocks on my bedroom door, and in the blink of an eye, Carley's on the other side of the room, as far away from Blake as possible.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Blake sweetie, you know I have no problem with you sleeping over, as-"

"As long as it's not in Sarah's bedroom with the girls. I know Mrs. Campbell, I was just about to head to the guest bedroom." Blake smiles sweetly at my mom, and I bite my lip, resisting the urge to explain to Blake that that's where my mom's been sleeping.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry. I know that's where you usually sleep, but, well..."

"It's being renovated. All the furnitures in storage, so unless you want to sleep on the floor inhaling paint fumes..." I jump in to my mothers rescue. Usually she doesn't approve of lying, but she shoots me a grateful look.

"Oh, I know. Remember that time in freshman year when we all carried down our mattresses and just crashed in front of the TV?" Carley chimes in.

"That's a great idea, you guys are welcome to use the spare mattresses out of the attic."

And so we do.

Soon we're all sprawled out on our makeshift beds watching The Lord Of The Rings; Return of The King, when Carley pauses it, right in the middle of Frodo's struggle to release the ring into the Fires of Mordor.

"He said he loves me!" She bursts, as if she's been holding in that one sentence since she and Blake got here after their all-day date.

"No way!" I don't like to brag...but, I should totally win an Oscar for best Surprised reaction to news your best friend told you that you already knew about. We squeal and do the whole jumping-up-and-down-on-the-bed-in-exitement thing, and then we sort of dog pile Blake.

"Hey, hey, if I knew you were going to ambush me, I wouldn't have said anything." Blake's voice is muffled from under Carley's body.

I climb off, and suddenly realize that we're not little kids anymore, and that position that Blake and Carley are in, is so not appropriate.

"Alright, Red, get off of the boy before I have to call in the big guns!" I order, shoving Carley onto the mattress farthest from Blake. I sit myself between them and refuse to allow any contact between the two, acting as their personal chaperone.

***

Back at school. We're still not allowed in the Science department, but the rest of the building has been declared safe. I saunter in on Monday morning, ready to knock Shane's socks off when he sees we go to the same school. I decided to play it safe with a simple outfit of skinny jeans, a form-fitting black top that in gold cursive letters declares "Smart is Sexy" and some Converse high tops. Paired with some gold hoop earrings, and the faintest shimmer of gold on my eyelids, and today I am too cool for school.

"Hey, Skittles!" Zac calls from across the hall.

"Sarah!" Shane's dark eyes light up with excitement when he sees me.

"Bitch." Sabrina's marching towards me with a look that could kill an elephant.

Crap.

Shane and Zac reach me at the exact same time, but Blake-taking on his unofficial duty as my body guard, intercepts Shane and drags him off so that he can 'put him in his place'.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him," Carley darts off after our respective boyfriends.

"Hey Skittles!" Zac picks me up in a lung-crushing hug, grinning so wide he might just split his face in two. "I can't wait for that assignment back. I swear, if we didn't get an A I'll cry."

I snort, although I really want to know what's going on with Shane and Blake.

"Yeah, big tough football star Zac, can cry."

"Zac saaaad" he deepens his voice to sound like The Incredible Hulk. I laugh and am about to reply with a witty retort, but something yanks at my recently straightened brown hair.

"Ouch."

"What do you think you're playing at, Campbell?" Sabrina shrikes, and before I can ask what she means, she slams her fist into my jaw.

I'm so shocked I fall backwards landing on my ass.

"What the hell-" Sabrina's on top of me, clawing at me with her perfectly manicured false nails. I'm pretty sure one rips out of her finger and imbeds itself in my skin. I hold up my hands to try stop her, but it's no use. She's punching and kicking and screaming something along the lines of it being all my fault.

What the hell?

I'm not sure how long she spends attacking me, but eventually Zac pulls her off of me, and I blink to see that most of the student body gathered to witness this.

Crap. Now I'm the looser that got beat up by Sabrina.

"What happened? What's going on?" Shane pushes through the mass of teenagers surrounding me, and kneels at my side.

"What happened babe?"

Babe? Okay, I'm pretty sure my nose is broken, I think I'm going to end up with at least one black eye, and I have a false nail imbedded in my cheek. But Shane just called me Babe!

"Maybe I'm not the one you should be threatening, Blake." I look up at Blake and Carley, who have shocked looks on their faces, then at Zac, holding a sobbing Sabrina.

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How could I have been so stupid. I tried to break it off with Sabrina this week...and then her parents got a divorce, and I guess she sort of snapped.

It's totally my fault that Sarah wound up getting beat up by Sabrina, and now, to make matters worse, I was guilt tripped into taking her back.

I briefly wonder if Sarah ever got my message about the break up. I guess not, which is a relief, since it's just become invalid.

Not to mention she had a boyfriend now. How'd she hook up with that new kid Shane so fast?

"Baby...could you get me something to drink?" Sabrina's been suspended for three weeks, and Sarah's parents agreed not to press charges. They seemed really distracted actually...maybe they have something else going on at home?

I pour Sabrina another shot of peach vodka, that I got out of her parents liquor cabinet. Irresponsible, I know, but she won't do anything else except sit here, lay in my arms, and cry. The vodka's helping her calm down, ironically enough.

I look down at her tear-streaked face, and wonder what I could have done to end up here, with an insecure mess, when the girl I really want to be with is with some guy I don't even know, probably better off than she would be with me anyway.

Suddenly, I think I need a peach vodka shot.