Building on Lies (17 page)

“ Wow. I'm so happy for her" I said, and I meant it. My mom was still really young, and she deserved to be with a nice guy. My father had died when she was pregnant with me.

“ Oh, so you can be happy for Daisy, but not for your best friend? Hmmph!" Ro said.

“ I’m happy for you, Ro. I am," I said. I looked over at my best friend, who was so dear to me. Serious Ro, with her pin straight hair, and big blue eyes. She’d make a great wife because she was so steady and responsible.

There were times where I’d wished Ro would lighten up a bit, though. Her past had forced her to mature too quickly. In a way, she reminded me of Chan. I wished she would take more time to be a fun-loving young woman. I briefly thought of Ty Sutton, and how carefree he was. If only Ro could be like that. Channing, too. Yeah, life had thrown some major adult circumstances both Romina and Channing’s way, but it didn’t mean they had to rush into being grown ups.

We got home, and hit the books. Even with all the excitement of Winter Dance, there were still going to be finals just before winter recess. I decided to call Chan before I got into my major assignments.

He sounded irritated when he picked up. “ Hey. What’s up”. He was talking low, so I knew Samantha was in the vicinity. I was surprised he’d picked up at all. He usually set his phone to voice mail when Samantha was around.

“ Just wanted to say hi. I’ll call you later," I said, subdued. It always got me down when reality hit. My guy already had a girl.

“ I’m having dinner with my parents. The St. John’s are here, too. So, I’ll talk to you tomorrow”. He hung up before I could say goodbye.

The following day was another struggle trying to find another top to hide the hickey that refused to fade even the tiniest bit.

“ What was he trying to do, suck your blood?" Ro teased, loaning me her white knit sweater. It was a boring sweater that couldn’t be made to look nice no matter what, but I had no choice.

My mom decided to stay home day, and her eagle eye spotted the hickey as Ro and I were heading out.

“ Nellie Fernanda, is what I think it is on your neck?" she asked, pulling me back in.

“ Mom! I’m going to be late!" I said, trying to yank myself free.

“ Did Joaquim do that? Nellie, you have to be careful with those Medeiros boys! They’re known to be fast!" my mother warned, but she didn’t look too upset. Joaquim could do no wrong in her book.

“ No, Joaquim didn’t do anything! It’s just…allergies!" I said, which made her laugh so hard I could still hear her as Ro and I got into my car.

I tugged the neck up and turned to Ro for inspection.

“ You’re good," she said with a smile.

We got into school without running into crazy Ty. We did bump into Emanuela who was upset because her date, Steven Pinheiros, had dumped her to go to the dance with Bruna Porto.

“ Bruna Porto, of all people!" Emanuela cried. “She’s such a tramp!”

We had to spend the good part of the day trying to make her feel better, and coming up with other guys she could go with.

At lunch, we made a list of possible boys, all of which Emanuela found lacking because none of them were Steven.

“ Em, Gian Vercosa is a perfect date," Ro said, putting a check mark next to Gian’s name. “ And he just broke up with Amanda Bart, so I just know he’d say yes to you”.

“ You make me sound like some charity case, Romina!" Emanuela whined.

“ Good luck with her," I whispered to Ro, as I got up to go to the girls bathroom.

I had to use the restroom, but I also wanted to adjust my sweater. The fit wasn’t as tight as the turtleneck I’d worn the day before. Ro assured me it was just mother’s intuition which caused my mom to spot my neck, because the sweater hid it fine. But I wanted to be sure. I didn’t want to be like Em, and end up date-less for Winter Dance. I hadn’t wanted to go at first, because I thought it would be too painful to see Channing with Samantha. But the pearl set had made me feel better about the whole thing. Plus it was hard not to get caught up in the excitement when the whole school was talking about it.

I walked into the bathroom, and after doing my usual spider scan, I went into the back stall. I zipped up my pants, and was about to flush the toilet, when I heard the bathroom door open. Girls entered, talking rapidly. One girl was furious by the sound of it.

“ Samantha, you need to calm down! Seriously. If you do what you're saying, you’ll get suspended. Or worse, expelled!”. It was Bethany Grant’s voice. She sounded pleading and desperate, totally different from the fun, cool girl at the bowling alley.

My hands went cold. I leaned far back against the back wall of the stall, and tried to not to make a sound.

“ Bethany, I am calm”. It was Samantha. I recognized her slow, almost breathy voice. She did sound perfectly calm. It was Bethany who sounded agitated.

“ Sam, you can’t think you’ll get away with doing something like this. No matter who your parents are. I mean, that’s like a criminal offense. It’s assault! You could go to jail!” Bethany pleaded.

I heard the bathroom door open again, and another girl came in and asked what was going on. I didn’t recognize her voice.

“ Nothing is going on, Abby," Samantha said in her unusual voice. It was soft, and kind of melodic, like a breathless little girl. “Bethany here is going all hysterical, and I honestly don’t know why”.

“ Abby, talk some sense into her," Bethany continued. “What she’s planning on doing is just…wrong!”

“ Wait, Beth, I don’t even know what the situation is. I was just talking to Laura, and she said you two came in here, and that Samantha was really upset," Abby said. “What’s going on?”

“ What’s going on is Channing is cheating on me," Samantha said, but her voice remained serene, not at all upset. She sounded matter of fact.

Her composed tone of voice made my skin crawl. It would have made more sense if she were screaming or wailing. But she spoke with such tranquility it was as if she’d said “ I’m having steak for dinner”.

“ Samantha…he’s not cheating on you," Bethany said, softly.

“ Yes, he is," Samantha insisted.

“ How do you know this time?" Abby asked. This time? Had Samantha been suspicious before? Had Channing cheated on her before? The thought made me ill. I could feel my stomach churning.

“ Exactly, how do you know this time? Because you always think Chan is cheating on you," Bethany said, impatiently.

“ I’ve got proof this time. Real evidence," Samantha replied.

“ What kind of evidence?" Abby asked.

“ I found a hair on his bed," Samantha said.

“ A hair?” Bethany repeated, sounding dubious.

“ Yes, a hair. A long black hair”. Samantha paused. “ It wasn’t Channing’s hair, because his hair is brown, and it’s short. It wasn’t my hair because as you all can see my hair is red”.

“ So…maybe it was the cleaning lady’s hair or something," Abby suggested.

“ No.," Samantha said, simply. “ Channing doesn’t like for his room to be touched by the cleaning people. He cleans it himself. And even so, the Sutton's only have one cleaning lady, and she’s an old Portuguese lady with gray hair. Not long black hair”.

“ Gawd, I can’t believe you’re going to accuse him of cheating on you because of a hair! It could be any body’s hair!" Bethany said, exasperated.

“ Shut the fuck up, Bethany”. It was shocking to hear curse words coming from such a baby-doll voice. “I gave him the benefit of the doubt. After I found the hair, I went home, and I thought long and hard about it. About all the women who might have possibly left a long black hair on his bed. On his fucking pillow”.

Bethany and Abby remained quiet. I tried to be as still as possible, as well. There was something menacing and creepy in Samantha’s voice.

“ It couldn’t possibly be his mother, “ Samantha continued. “It couldn’t be you, Bethany. I know you like to hang out in his room. Even though you know it pisses me off. But, you have long blond hair. It can’t even be Gemma, the trampy little housekeeper. She’s too busy sleeping with Chan’s Dad, and anyway she’s got light hair.”

“ How about Ty’s girl?" Abby asked.

“ Why the hell would Ty’s girl be in Chan’s room, you idiot?” Samantha snapped, but even at her nastiest, her voice still remained sweet-sounding.

“ And even if Ty decided to have sex with his girlfriend in his brother’s room, his girlfriend is black. She’s got short, curly hair. This hair was smooth”. Samantha paused, then continued her wild story.

“ Anyway, I put the hair in my bag, and I brought it home, and I spent the whole night inspecting it. And I’ve come to the conclusion the hair belongs to Ava Camden. I’m almost positive.”

“ Ava Camden? No way, Sam. Ava’s going out with Nate Harris. There’s no way she’d cheat on Nate with Chan. Chan and Nate are best friends," Abby said, quietly.

“ You just don’t like Ava. Admit it, you've never liked her, Samantha," Bethany added.

“ Damn right I don’t like Ava. She’s always sniffing around Channing. Smiling at him. The other day, she touched his arm. Right in front of me! Sneaky bitch," Samantha growled. Her voice had done a total change. It went from sweet and

sing-song, to low and snarly.

“ I’m sure she didn’t mean to touch his arm. They were probably just talking." Bethany said, soothingly.

“ Yes she did mean to touch his arm!" Samantha cried. “ She did it on purpose! To upset me! I hate her!”

“ Samantha, please. Don’t get like this. You know it’s not good for you." Abby’s voice assumed the same soothing tone as Bethany’s.

“ Yeah, I know. You’re right. I shouldn’t upset myself”. I could hear Samantha taking deep breaths. “But it’s just so hard. I mean, I know…I'm positive…it’s Ava’s hair. She’s got long black hair, right?”

“ She does," Bethany agreed. “ But it doesn’t mean anything”.

“ You know what it means? It means I’m going to rip every strand of hair off her head. I’m going to leave that bitch bald. I’m not going to do it right away either. After all, I bought this awesome dress to go to Winter Dance. I don’t want to get in trouble and not be allowed to go”.

“ Right, you don’t want to get in trouble," Bethany hurriedly agreed.

“ But after Winter Dance, I’m going to get that bitch. I’m going to take a knife and I’m going to scalp her”. Samantha began to ramble. “ I’m going to scalp her just like the old tribes used to do. Because that’s what they used to do to their enemies, you know? They used to scalp them bald. That’s what I’m going to do to her. And then let’s see if she’ll ever touch Chan’s arm again!”

Abby and Bethany didn’t respond. I wondered if they were as terrified of Samantha as I was now. Or were they quiet because they were used to her threats?

“ And if you two even think about going to anyone with this, I swear you’ll regret it’, Samantha finished, and her voice switched back to honey.

“We won’t tell anyone, Sam, we promise," Bethany said, softly, fearfully.

“ You know what makes me so angry?" Samantha continued. “ She left hickeys all over him. I hid in his closet while he was changing. His chest, his stomach…ugh. He won’t have sex with me, but he’ll fuck Ava, right?”

I couldn’t help but wince at her nasty words, and my hand accidentally passed in front of the toilet flushing sensor. Our school toilets flushed using a motion sensor, not regular handles. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but it seemed like it was the loudest flush ever.

I had no choice but to come out of the bathroom stall. My hands trembled as I turned the stall handle. I closed my eyes and took a deep swallow to calm my nerves.

I walked swiftly out of the stall, and went directly to the sink to wash my hands. I decided I wasn’t going to make eye contact. I would wash my hands, and walk out as if I didn’t give two cents about their conversation. Maybe they would buy it. I was an Egg Cove girl, after all. Why would I care about what A- girls’ did?

Someone coughed nervously. I didn't look up, instead I focused on dispensing soap onto my hands.

Samantha approached me from behind. Our eyes met in the bathroom mirror and she smiled. She really was a very beautiful girl. Her lips were a full pout, her nose a smooth button, and her eyes a beautiful blue gray. Her eyes were not only a pretty color, they were also kind of dreamy and heavy lidded, like a sleepy little girl’s. She had intensely freckled skin which would have looked geeky on anyone else, but on her it was like speckled porcelain. Her hair was definitely her most amazing feature. It was a bright, almost tomato red, but it was thick and shiny. She resembled one of those old fashioned porcelain dolls in antique shops. A porcelain doll in designer clothes.

“ You’re Nellie, right?" she asked, and she reached out and lifted my hair. I pulled away from her, like she’d burned me, but she didn’t seem to notice. “The girl from Channing’s study group?”

“ Yeah," was all I could bring myself to say.

“ I think you’re so pretty Nellie. I really do. Every time I see you, I tell my friends, isn’t that girl the prettiest Portuguese girl you’ve ever seen? Don’t I always say that?”. She turned to Abby and Bethany.

Abby looked away, but Bethany nodded.

“ She is cute," Bethany said, flatly.