Pretend (64 page)

             
"Oh hey," I said.

             
"I've been looking for you for ages, I need you for a minute," Rachel said as she pulled me to where the dj was positioned in the living room.

             
"What's up?" I asked, a little confused and also slightly annoyed that she had interrupted my chance of talking to Crystal.

             
"Hey
,
can you turn that off
for
a second?" She asked the
dj
who looked like he was about to argue until she threw him a look that said 'don't mess with me'.

             
It made me chuckle slightly at the power that she seemed to command over men, although it wasn't exactly that funny where Kyle was concerned but the past is the past, time to move on.

             
"Pass me that," she said, pointing towards his
mic
.

             
"Hey everyone, sorry to stop the party as it is great and all but I have something really important to do and I feel that now is the time," she said as she glanced at me.

             
"What are you doing?" I asked as I watched the room start to fill up with more and
more angry
people as they came to investigate who had stopped the music.

             
"You'll understand in a minute," she said, moving the
mic
away from her lips.

             
"Ok
,
so I'm going to keep this short and sweet-"

             
"Good! Hurry
up
and shut up, we came to party!" An angry voice in the crowd shouted as he eyed up Rachel.

             
"Oh calm down Rambo!" She said with an angry voice before going back to her calm and sweet tone.

             
"As I was saying, I really have to do this tonight and I'm sorry to take up your time but I simply could
n’t
leave tonight
,
without having done this. Some of you may or may not know that me and April have had some issues lately-"

             
"Then take it to Jerry Springer!" Someone shouted, causing a few laughs.

             
Ra
c
hel threw them a sarcastic smile before continuing her little speech.

             
"So
,
yeah we've had some problems and I've done some things that I really shouldn't have and they were wrong," she continued.

             
"You don't have to do this, I already accepted
your apology
Rachel," I whispered.

             
"No
,
I do," she said as she smiled at me.

             
"So
,
yeah they were wrong and I've apologised to April because it was the right thing to do. I was just lucky that she is the nice person that she is and forgave me. I mean
,
she even invited me here tonight knowing that her friends wouldn't approve which was exactly what I was counting on as I was desperate to make this speech. I mean
,
I lied, I snuck around and I cheated and still she forgave me because that's April, she's just a nice person," she said as she turned to me and smiled.

             
"Well that's what she wants you to think," she said as I looked at her in shock.

             
"You see ladies and gentleman the perfect, sweet and innocent little April was so cut up about me stealing her pathetic excuse for a boyfriend that she even pretended to be in a relationship with her best friend
’
s brother. So just like me she lied, oh but it gets better. You see I was counting on her pathetic and nice ways because I really
,
really needed to be here tonight to let everyone know the real April Reinhart-"

             
"You better shut up!" Crystal shouted from the middle of the crowd.

             
"Oh
,
I will but I think that you might want to hear what I have to say before you shut me up. You see whilst April walks around like little miss butter wouldn't melt let me tell you that she'
s anything but! Y
eah I lied and cheated and everything else but me and April here
, we
have quite a lot in common
,
don't we?" She said as she turned to me.

             
"What are you talking about Rachel, just stop," I said as I felt the tears rushing to my eyes.

             
"Because our perfect April here who is so nice that she wouldn't hurt a fly has been having a secret relationship with her best friend
’
s brother, isn't that right?"

             
"How did you-"

             
She cut me off before the words could even fall out of my mouth.

             
"You see the school library is probably not the best place to make out in when you
’
r
e
trying to keep things on the down low sweetheart. Oh dear
,
I would say that from the look on your face, you haven't told you BFF yet," she said as a cruel laugh escaped her lips.

             
"You know
,
your path
etic speeches would be much
better if you had actually managed to tell me something that I didn't already know," Crystal said as she s
tepped right up to where
Rachel
and I
were stood.

             
"What? You already knew?" I asked as I placed my arm on Crystal's.

             
"Don't touch me," Crystal said as she stormed through the crowd and towards the door.

             
"Crystal, wait! Please."

             
I could feel all eyes on me as I ran through the crowd to catch up with her. I could hear their gasps and their opinions on the current situation but I didn't care, all that mattered was talking to my best friend. I couldn't lose her, I just couldn't.

             
"That's it April run like you always do, keep playing the nice girl act, so pathetic," Rachel said as she taunted me some more.

             
I don't know what came over me but I just froze at the sound of those words. As I stood there and thought about every little bit of rubbish that I had been put through
,
I just dec
ided that in that moment I had
had enough! I was tired of always being told that I was too nice and sitting down and taking everything that everyone threw at me
,
enough was enough.
I slowly turned around and faced Rachel.

             
"You know, you just don't know when to give up do you?" I said as I took a few more steps towards her.

             
"No
,
April we're not all like you, we don't give up at the first sign of trouble," she said as she smirked at me.

             
"How could you do that after everything
that
you have already done, I forgave you, I listened to you, I even felt
sorry for you and you did this?
What was this
,
like some
kind of
sick joke that you've been planning all along?"

             
"Yeah it was and do you know what
,
it was easy. It was easy with you because you will always be and always have been a pathetic little mouse
that
is too nice to stand up for herself!" She growled as she looked at me with so much hate in her eyes that I could feel it from across the room.

             
"Really?"
I asked.

             
"Yeah real-"

             
The force of my hand making contact with her face cut her mid sentence. As I watched the crowd of people move out of the way
as she fell to the ground I felt a sudden calm come over me. It was like everything wa
s being released, Kyle, Rachel,
Jake...Everything.

             
As I walked up and looked down at Rachel holding her red cheek on the floor I felt one thing, relief.

             
"Was that nice enough for you?" I asked before walking back towards the door.

             
I could he
a
r all of the '
oohhh
s
' and '
ahhhs
' and other comments as I walked past everyone and headed towards the next disaster in my life.

             
"Wow kiddo
didn't think
that
you had it in you, that's some right hook you got," Anthony said through his l
aughs as I walked past him. I i
gnored him and kept walking.

             
"April?" Aiden said in a worried voice as he gently went to grab my arm.

             
"Not now Aiden, not now," I said as I walked past, barely even making eye contact with him.

             
I had to find Crystal...

"Hey wait!" I heard Jess shout from behind me.
I kept walking, I had to find Crystal and quickly and I didn't have time to waste.

             
"Not now Jess!" I shouted as I continued to walk.
I didn't intend to sound harsh but right now my head wa
s all over the place. Rachel had
done some
evil
things over the time
that I’d known her
but even this was an all new low for even her. I couldn't believe
it. How could I be so stupid?
I believed that Rachel wanted to actually make peace with
me,
it just goes to show how
naive
I really am.

             
"April, please just hang on," Jess said as she finally caught up with me.

             
"What?" I snapped as I turned
a
round to face her.

             
"I just wanted to make sure that you were ok?" She asked in a soft voice.

             
"Let's see...I've been humiliated yet again by Rachel, lost my best friend and probably my boyfriend too, so yeah I'm on top of the world!" I said before turning back around in search of Crystal.

             
"Look
,
I know
that
you're upset and I just wanted to make sure-"

             
"Make sure what? What? What exactly did you want to make sure Jess
mmm
?"

             
"I don't know...Just-"

             
"Exactly, you're just wasting my time!"

             
"I wanted to apologise-"

             
"Apologise for what-"

             
S
uddenly it hit me. As I stood there standing and staring at her face I knew exactly what was happening. How I hadn't known before was beyond me.

             
"It was you
wasn't
it?!" I asked through gritted teeth.

             
"Just let me explain-"

             
"No! I asked you not to say anything and you promised that you wouldn't!" I growled as I stopped walking and took a step closer to her.