Best Friends...Forever? (11 page)

 

I went to the bus stop the next day, and Devon was eating a blueberry muffin. Ericka glanced up from her phone.

"Oh wow, Landry. I heard about you and Vladi. You must be devastated," Ericka said.

Ouch, I had no idea anyone other than the people I told knew about that. I stared at Devon, and her mouth was full, but she shook her head. Wait, did Tori tell her? I hadn't come right out and said, "Hey, please keep my heartbreak to yourself," but I
thought
it went without saying.

"Um, I'm fine," I said.

"But you liked him
sooo
much. You poor thing. You must feel so rejected," Ericka said.

Devon took a sip from her water bottle. "Actually, Ericka, why would Landry want to be tied down with one guy? I mean, yeah, it stinks, but whatever. Now she can focus on other stuff, and who knows what will happen when we get to the high school next year."

The bus pulled up, and we all got on. I sat in the seat across from Peyton, and Ericka plopped down next to me.

Ericka kept going. "I just feel bad that everyone knows Vladi dumped you. You're
such
a sweetie, and you deserve better."

What she was saying was nice, in theory, but there was a sting behind it. If I said, "You know what? That doesn't sound sincere," she would have called me paranoid and "too sensitive." So I sat there and took it — and felt awful.

"You know, maybe you don't realize it Ericka, but you are coming off a little passive aggressive. I'm sure you don't mean to, but you might want to watch that," a voice said. It was Ashanti. She whirled back around and missed Ericka sticking her tongue out at the back of her head. I saw Devon smirk.

The bus pulled up to the school, and I tried to catch up with Ashanti, but she was walking too fast.

"Hey, thanks," I said. "For what you said back there."

"Whatever. I have to get to class," she said and walked past me.

I stood there feeling stupid.

"She's so rude," Ericka said, coming up next to me. "What's her deal anyway?"

I shrugged and went to class.

****

At lunch Devon called me over to take cuts in line. Tori raised her eyebrows at me. I felt the whole past drama about "abandoning" her and Ericka since Devon and I were friends again coming up, so I said, "Come with me," to Tori, and she followed me up in line.

"It's chicken enchilada day — score!" Devon said. "By the way, Yasmin is apparently trying to get Vladi's attention now. What is wrong with that girl? Can't she be, like, single for two seconds?"

My stomach rolled over. "Are they texting each other or anything?"

"Nope, but she claims someone at the high school told her he's totally into her."

"How did they meet?" I asked.

Devon rolled her eyes. "They didn't. She just happened to walk through the gym while he was practicing. It was when she was trying out for cheerleading. She pretended she got lost looking for the drinking fountain. Of course, he was staring at her — how dumb can a person be to wander into a gym during a basketball practice? Seriously, I wouldn't worry."

Tori shook her head. "Yasmin wouldn't bring it up if she didn't think he liked her. She'd never risked looking rejected."

There was that word again, "rejected." But Tori was right. Yasmin would never put herself in that position unless she truly thought Vladi liked her. And he probably was…I mean, what was there
not
to like? She was confident, popular, pretty, smart, and talented. Why wouldn't he want to date her? I was sure his friends would overlook the age thing for her, since she was a goddess. I was just some kid who got on a little modeling show; Yasmin was sophisticated.

"Why don't you text Vladi and ask him what's up with that?" Devon said. "Then you'll find out if there's any truth to it or not."

No way. I didn't want to know if there was anything to it. Plus, I didn't want to look like the crazy ex who was stalking him and wondering who he was talking to and seeing. I felt like it was better just to let it go. Yup, I would ignore it and pretend it didn't bother me at all.

That worked for approximately five minutes until we got our lunches and sat down at the table. Halle and Maggie came over with their trays. Sure, sometimes I sat with Halle and Maggie just to be able to eat with Ashanti, but they were always at the table when I got there and I was the semi-uninvited guest. So why were they suddenly so keen on getting up to walk all the way over to share a table with us? Devon wasn't on the cheerleading squad, so they had no reason to come over.

"So Landry, why did you and Yagudin break up?" Maggie asked. I saw Halle give her a funny look.

"Just…you know…whatever." What could I say? He told me it was about my age, but that obviously wasn't true if he was going to go out with Yasmin, who was in my class.

"No, I don't. What was the problem?" she said.

Devon shifted in her chair. "It's private. Landry isn't the type to talk about relationship stuff."

Oh, good one! Way to have my back. Yes, I would never have come up with that on my own.

"Hmm. Because I heard it's because he likes Yasmin now. Did he cheat on you, or what?" Maggie asked.

All of a sudden my grilled-cheese sandwich tasted like a wet, greasy sponge, and the little bits I had swallowed were hitting my stomach like tiny bricks. Did that jerk cheat on me? I thought he had liked me.

"Maggie, I told you, Landry is super private, and she isn't going to talk about a bunch of stupid rumors," Devon said.

"Can't she speak for herself?" Maggie asked.

"Whatever went on is between him and me, and I'm not going to say anything bad about him," I said.

By the time I got to social studies, the story was that I thought I was a big "modeling superstar" and was "paranoid and delusional that some tabloid blog would pick up what I had to say about my ex." Ericka told me she heard people laughing and saying, "Who does she think she is? Who cares what some fake model does? No one knows who she is."

Peyton told me to ignore it. India just traced hearts on her notebook cover. I walked past Yasmin in the hall after class, and she went out of her way to avoid my eyes. She ducked her head like celebrities did when they wanted to hide from photographers. I felt like throwing up.

After school, I went to get on the bus, and it felt like everyone got strangely quiet. Maybe it was just my imagination, or maybe people had been talking about me two seconds before I got on. Naturally, all my friends sat in the back, so I had to walk to the end and notice everyone staring at me. I never realized how long the bus aisle was until I was forced to walk the whole thing while on display. It was similar to being on a runway, except I felt the words "loser" and "reject" flashing over my head.

I noticed Ashanti was staring out the window. She didn't tell Halle and Maggie to ask me about Vladi, did she? No, she wouldn't do that. As mad as she might have been at me, she'd have never let them humiliate me and make me feel bad, right? I sat down next to Tori.

"I feel so bad for you," she said. "You should just tell everyone
you
dumped Vladi and not the other way around."

Ericka nodded. "Yeah, let him feel like the humiliated loser for a change."

Did she mean that the way it sounded? I sighed. Probably. "No, I'm not going to lie. I'm not even going to acknowledge it. I don't know if he's dating Yasmin or what, so there's nothing to say right now. It's none of my business what he does anymore."

"Exactly, just move on," Peyton said.

"But it is your business because he's
totally
embarrassed you in front of everybody. I mean, two whole schools are talking about how you got dumped," Ericka said.

"Ericka, you're not helping," Devon said.

"What? I just feel soooo bad about it all. He's a jerk."

Devon asked if I wanted to come over after school, but I shook my head. I just wanted to be alone and hide under the covers.

As soon as the bus dropped me off, I went into the house and started to make a sundae. But after I put the first scoop of vanilla ice cream in the bowl, I realized I wasn't that hungry. Maybe it was because Vladi and I used to get ice cream together, or maybe it was because I was a pathetic "dumpee" who had everyone feeling sorry for her. Well, that wasn't completely true, seeing as there were apparently all those people laughing at me because I supposedly thought I was a celebrity. When did life become so complicated? Maybe that was the real reason my grandmothers didn't want me to date. They were totally right. Boys were a distraction from schoolwork — and life. Stupid boys. Stupid Yasmin. Stupid world.

My phone rang. It was Peyton.

"You okay?" she asked when I answered.

"I guess."

"Maybe you should find out from him what's going on," she said. "I mean, it's better than
not
knowing, right?"

That wasn't necessarily true. If I knew for certain he'd broke up with me for Yasmin, then I would have to face that. I'd rather put my head in the sand and ignore it until it was right in my face, and I had no choice. Besides, what was I supposed to do if I found out it was true? Congratulate them? Ignore her? Yell at her? I was so not good at confrontation. I told Peyton that I just wanted to take a nap, and we got off the phone. It rang again, and I answered, assuming she forgot to tell me something.

"Yeah?"

"Landry?"

"Yeah?"

"It's India."

"Oh…hi."

"Do you want to…come over tomorrow and, like, have dinner or whatever?" she asked.

"I have to ask my mom, but I'm sure it's okay."

"Um, do you want my parents to pick you up or something?"

"No, you don't live that far, so my mom can drop me off."

"Okay, well…see ya after school…I mean, I'll see you
in
school, too, but…whatever. Bye," she said.

That was weird and super random. I had never gone to her house alone before and suddenly, after turning two of my friends against me, she wants to hang out? I didn't get any bad vibes from her, but it
did
seem odd. She wasn't going to tell me about Vladi and Yasmin, was she?

The next day was a blur as I went through the halls, wondering who was feeling sorry for me and who was laughing at me. I wanted to think I was being paranoid, but then Kyle made a joke about me being the "also-ran contestant" once again. Then he gave me a fake smile and said, "Kidding, totally kidding." Yeah, right. Jerk.

Thalia told him to grow up, and he glared at her and then walked away. Wow, she was probably going to pay for standing up for me.

I thanked Thalia, and she said, "You should have said to him, 'Kyle, if there is anything to that rumor, then it just means Yasmin cheated on your dumb butt, too.'"

"Oh wow, you're right. How come I didn't think about that?"

She shrugged.

After school, we were walking to the buses when I heard something hit the ground. There was Thalia on her hands and knees with her books and bag strewn all over the ground, and people were laughing. Stuart and Kyle were standing to the side smirking. It was obvious one of them tripped her and then stepped back to make her look like a klutz. Peyton and I ran over to help gather her stuff. I saw Ashanti putting papers back into Thalia's folder.

"Sorry," I said to Thalia as we all put her stuff into her bag. She didn't look at me, and I could see she was fighting back tears. Thalia got up and hurried to her bus. Kyle was already gone.

We all walked out to the buses, but no one felt like talking — except for Ericka, who claimed she heard from a friend, who heard from a friend, who got her hair done by this girl's aunt, who was supposedly best friends with Vladi's cousin, and she had seen him buying Yasmin a present.

"Seriously? What kind of present?" Tori asked.

"I think it was, like, flowers or something. I dunno."

I just stared out the window. India got off the bus, but she didn't say anything to me like, "See you later." Maybe she didn't want Devon to know I was coming over and have her get jealous or something. I still didn't know why she had invited me. I just hoped she didn't tell me she was dating Vladi now.

Mom took me over to India's right at six, and her father answered the door. He was a lot older than my dad and seemed the way I pictured a dad on a TV show to look with his stern expression and golf shirt. He seemed nice as he invited me in and offered me a soda. Mr. Allen said India and her mom weren't back yet but that we'd eat as soon as they came home. We sat there as I drank my cherry cola and watched the news.

"So, Landry, how's school going?" he asked.

"Great, yeah…going good….I mean, well."

"Do you play any sports?" he asked.

Not unless shopping counted or worrying about random things that would probably never happen — I was very good at obsessing over that sort of stuff. I shook my head.

"Any after school activities or clubs?"

I tried to get as much TV watching in as I could without my mom getting on my case, which was no small feat. "Well, I like to read and I do some modeling once in a while on the weekends."

"Oh right, you're the one with the…contest…or something or other. How's that going for you?"

I dunno, sir, would you enjoy being put in kids' clothes when you're a teen and made to look like a little girl?

"It's going well. I'm…enjoying it."

"Oh, well, that's good to hear. It's good to have goals. Your parents must be proud," he said.

Well, my mom
did
tell me I was "precious" in that little lamb sweater the people at Wee Fashions put on me, so if we were counting that, then yes, yes, they were quite proud.

India and her mom walked in then. They apologized for being late and said they had an errand to run at the mall. Her mom went to get the food out, and we helped. She had made some delicious-smelling chicken and rice dish with green beans, and for dessert we had lemon pudding. I had never had that flavor before, but it was great. And I could tell it was homemade and not out of a cup with an aluminum foil seal on it. After we ate, we went back to India's room.

"I felt bad about how things played out and, at first, I thought maybe you didn't call me out because you didn't want to get into a big fight or whatever, but then I realized, you were just…letting me off the hook, or whatever. That was super nice," she said.

I shrugged. "My dad said I should put myself in your shoes. I mean, I was mad at you and…" I took a deep breath. "And I'm not sorry I told the truth."

She nodded. "I know. Devon told me. You were a better friend to me than I was to you. I kind of suck, actually."

I laughed.

"Anyway, I wanted to make it up to you. We were supposed to all get these together, and I felt like…well, here," she said, handing me a box.

I opened it, and inside was the druzy crystal butterfly necklace. It was the exact one I wanted — the one that was blue at the top, then purple, and green."We planned to get them together, so I wanted to get yours to apologize, and Devon and Peyton each gave me five bucks toward it. That's the one you wanted, right? They told me it was the one with the most blue in it."

I nodded. "That was super nice of you."

"Yeah, well, you deserve it. So can we put all that junk behind us?"

"I appreciate the necklace, but…" Be brave. Be bold. "Can you promise me you won't do anything like that to me again? Because I'm sick of fake friends."

I felt so much better saying that until I realized her parents were supposed to take me home tonight. Getting a ride later might be awkward if India wasn't thrilled with my newfound confidence.

"I won't, and I know how you feel. I think I acted like that because I'm so used to fake friends — not Peyton and Devon, but so many of the other people at school. Like Yasmin and, seriously, why are you still friends with Ericka?" India asked.

I stared down at my hands.

"Sorry, didn't mean to put you on the spot. But no, I won't do anything like that again. Just watch yourself around Ericka."

"She says she feels bad about the whole Vladi/Yasmin thing, but she's the one making me feel worse by constantly bringing it up."