Chapter 0008

“He what!” shrieked Indiana excitedly.

I rolled my eyes. Why can't I have smart friends? This is the billionth time I'm retelling this for the love of God.

“He took me home a couple of hours ago.”

She shrieked again, slightly upsetting her image on my laptop.

“How on earth? Did he ask you out? What did he say? What did you say? Did he ask you out?” questioned Andi.

“You already know the details, Andi. Besides, this isn't why I called you guys.”

After I was able to calm down from the euphoria talking to Kenneth caused, I video-called the girls and told them everything.

“I'm really happy for you, Taylor. And here I was thinking he didn't even know your name,” said Indy putting her hair into a ponytail.

“I'm not gonna take that the way you meant it. Anyway, I called to say that Rebecca is gone for a week and I intend to use every bit of that time to relax.”

“She is?” Andi's face filled half of my screen before she jumped back and did a dance.

In her white and brown stripped pajamas, she looked pretty daft and I couldn't help laughing.

Indy on the other hand, didn't find it funny and rolled her eyes.

“And you say you're not intimidated by her?” Indy shot at me.

“I'm not! I just prefer it when she isn't around bullying me with her dumb, unwanted remarks and essentially existing in the same place as me,” I countered, lifting my chin with indignation.

“I think you are, Taylor.”

“I'm not!”

“Yes you are!”

“No I'm not! I'm not going to argue this anymore. Goodnight ladies. See you guys tomorrow!”

I slammed my laptop shut, the force startled Leslie and she sat up and shot me what I took to be the cat version of an irritated glare.

I angrily shoved the laptop under my bed, smoothed my hair and laid back, covering myself with the duvet. It was twelve-thirty and I was supposed to be asleep but my mind couldn't rest, especially after what Indy said.

How dare she say I'm intimidated by, of all people, Rebecca?

The word she was looking for was hate. I definitely hated Rebecca with every fiber of my being. She was 70% part of the reason my last two years in high school were hell.

The thought of doing my project while she was gone was the only thing that produced some relief. Indy could go ahead and say that Rebecca intimidated me but after my project I'll be the one holding all the cards.

I rolled on my side and watched Leslie as she slept. My thoughts switched to my cat. I was a bit concerned with how fat she was getting. Suddenly overwhelmed by love for my feline friend, I tunneled my fingers through her immaculate white fur and scratched between her ears.

“No more extra treats for you, young lady,” I whispered to her.

“Argh!” I exclaimed suddenly and rubbed my face. I sat up and stared at the ceiling.

This is hopeless. I can't sleep.

I gazed to my left, at my reading chair and desk with the Wuthering Heights that made my crush talk to me on it. It reminded me that I hadn't even opened it like I said I would.

Throwing the duvet over my body, I swung my feet to the floor and went over to it. The cold hardwood floor under my feet sent shivers up my spine as I pulled the chair and sat down.

The only lighting was my dim bedside lamp and it would just not do for reading so I switched on the table lamp.

The book was old, yellowing and crumpled from being stuffed in my bag. I wondered where on earth Miss Mausley found this book. I won't be surprised if it turned out to be a spell book.

In an effort to procrastinate more I pushed my curtains back and gazed out into the night through the open window. The night was cool and filled with crickets. Indy's bedroom was directly visible across the street. Her light was off indicating she was probably asleep.

Sighing, I slid the window pane down and locked it. I placed my head in my hand and began reading. After a few lines I realized I should be highlighting important stuff so I set the book aside to find my highlighter.

After a search in my bag proved futile, I opened my drawer in search of it.

“Where on earth is this stupid highlighter?” I whispered to myself.

I rummaged through the stuff in it and pulled out an old purple highlighter. The felt tip was gone — my little brother's handiwork — and it was all but useless.

Standing up, I crossed to the other side of my room and bent to my dresser. I opened it and poked my head in. Nope, no sign of the highlighter.

Unless.

I reached in and pulled out a black stub. I removed the cover and found it to be a pink lipstick.

My brain was working overtime.

This was gonna be disgusting, but, it's worth a shot.

I went back to my desk and laid the lipstick and old highlighter on the table.

I took out the pink lipstick from its holder and fixed it into the highlighter.

After cleaning my hands on a piece of paper, I tested my invention out. It was greasy on the paper — hey, this stuff is supposed to go on your mouth, put it did the job sufficiently.

Necessity really was the mother of invention.

I forced my brain to assimilate the words until I couldn't take it any longer.

I loved reading, in fact I had huge collections of crime and mystery novels because they were my favorite genre, but romance and historical . . . anything? Count me out. There was just something about ‘soulmates’ and romance that just grossed me out and the fact that this book had both just made me hate it.

I stretched and yawned as I reached for my bed.

I fell on my bed, face down.

I didn't bother with my purple and white duvet as I let myself fall into slumber, Kenneth's smiling face the last thing I thought of.

I spotted Todd three rows down roll his eyes and laugh with his friends as I reached for my bag beside my leg and placed it on my lap, amidst noise of students leaving the lab.

Chemistry was fun and all but after listening to Mr. Mount drone on for thirty minutes about the periodic table, I'd fantasized about ways to end my suffering.

“I was this close,” Henry held up his thumb and forefinger less than an inch apart, “to drinking the sulfuric acid too.”

I giggled. He and I shared a table in chemistry class and I always had to stop myself from bursting out in laughter at inappropriate times when he did an impression of Mr. Mount during his classes.

“I wanted to show you something, ” I dug into my bag and produced the highlighter with a flourish.

“A highlighter. Yay.” He didn't sound at all enthusiastic.

“You think it's an innocent highlighter until . . .” I removed the cover. “It's not.”

“A lipstick highlighter!” He collected it from me and inspected it. “I'm pretty sure if I was a girl I'd be more excited since makeup is banned from school property after that whole slut episode in the girl's bathroom but it's ingenious anyway. Think you can fit a Pepsi into one of these? I'd kill for one right now.”

“Even ingenuity has it's limits.”

Henry and I hung our bags and left the lab. We were directly behind Darcy and Mindy as they whispered between themselves.

“How's project popular going?” He asked directly into my ear.

“Now that Rebecca's gone for a while I just have to find a way to recruit these dunderheads without them being suspicious. I can't risk letting Rebecca know because that witch is going to do whatever she can to sabotage me.”

Henry raised an eybrow. “Just be careful, Tay. These are uncharted waters.”

He squeezed my shoulder just as we got to class.

I entered and found my regular seat — the third one in the second row — and brought out Wuthering Heights. I know I said I hated it but unfortunately I was gonna have to read it if I wanna to pass Miss Mausley's class.

I adjusted the bracelet on my wrist. It was one of the last charm bracelets I ever made as Rebecca's best friend, with cute little unicorns and glittery butterflies hanging from a gem-studded sliver frame. I had a sudden unexplainable inspiration to wear it today.

The next thing I knew my desk was occupied by black tights and a pink miniskirt. Andi's curly hair was everywhere and her chest was heaving.

“Are you ok?” I asked out of concern.

“Yeah,” she replied still gasping for breath. “God! Do you know how hard an impromptu monologue is?” She wiped her forehead with the back of her palm.

“Honestly, I don't even wanna know.”

“Anyway, have you seen Indiana today?”

“You know, come to think of it, no. I haven't.”

That was weird. Indy was always early. Always.

“She missed chemistry.”

Andi nodded, her face show her concern. “Are you two still fighting?”

“Of course not. I wouldn't count that as a fight. And I'm sure neither would Indy.”

“Maybe she's sick.” Andi's eyes were filled with worry as she tugged at a curl from her jet-black hair.

“I don't know. Do you think she's mad about last night?”

“I don't know, if she's still coming she'd better hurry. Mrs. Henderson is gonna be here soon and you know how she hates empty seats.”

Andi hopped down and I returned to my book but keeping an eye out for Indy.

A few seconds into the utterly boring words, I felt a slight breeze on my right and I turned.

As if by magic Indy was sitting in the chair next to me completely out of breath. Some strands of her black hair managed to escape from her ponytail and became stuck to her face by her sweat.

“Indy! Are you OK?” I closed the book and turned to her.

She looked tired when she finally faced me and her eyes seemed to be filled with tears.

“Yeah. I'm fine,” her voice broke and she turned away.

I left my chair and squeezed in beside her, engulfing her in a hug.

She suddenly let the tears out as I patted her back.

Whatever this was, my gut told me it wasn't good. It took a great deal to make Indiana cry, and now that she was, it must have been terrible.

She sobbed for a little while before she raised her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Don't even bother telling me you're OK because you're not,” I said soothingly. “What's wrong?”

She took a deep breath with her eyes closed. When she opened them a tear trickled down.

“Mama fainted last night. This morning too. I was so scared, I just had to stay a while to make sure she was OK.”

I pressed her back into the hug.

Indy's mom was a single parent, the only family Indy had as far as Indy knew. Her mom was prone to fainting spells, when she had one of her episodes it scared the hell out of Indy. Her mom was on medication that made her all but useless so Indy had to handle her alone.

“I'm sorry,” I couldn't stop the tears from entering my eyes.

Indy was one of my bestest friends and I couldn't stand bad things happening to her.

“It's OK,” she pulled out. “I'm fine, really.”

Her tears were gone and she did seem fine, but I knew what a weight was on her shoulders.

“Hey,” I tapped her shoulder, “whatever happens, I'm here for you OK, I always will be.”

She nodded smiling.

“I know, Taylor. Thank you, and I'm sorry for saying you were intimidated by Rebecca. You are, but I should've known better than to say it out loud.”

I shot her a dry look and swatted the air with my hand.

“Never mind that. I'll let it slide.”

I winked, went back to my seat and handed her my pink hairbrush. She took out her ponytail, brushed her hair and was tying it back when Mrs. Henderson walked it.

Short, brunette and with fat chubby cheeks — Mrs. Henderson was one teacher that was insulted with pretty much everything. From her looks to the fact that her handwriting sucked, the worst part being she always insisted on writing on the white marker board.

“Morning class. Trigonometry,” she opened the black marker and began writing.

After five more classes, we were finally dismissed.

Today had been heavenly without Rebecca. No rude comments, no tears from anybody — is there anything more blissful?

I was at my locker musing over my project and where to start when the answer fell right into my lap in form of the cheerleader known as Darcy Condé.

“Hey, Taylor.”

I looked at her. She was dressed in an off-the-shoulder black top over a green skirt that was just short enough to show off her long, tanned legs, yet long enough that Principal Alderman doesn't have a heart attack over her indecency.

“Darcy, ” I greeted in an almost professional tone. “If you're here as Rebecca's proxy, go ahead. Take your best shot.”

She rolled her eyes. “Relax, would ya. I saw that thing you showed Henry in chem. That highlighter lipstick, where'd you get it?”

I closed my locker. “I made it, but what do you care?”

“Can you make more?” Her aquamarine eyes sparkled.

“I guess.”

“Great, I can get everything you need, sleepover at my house tonight?”

I was so stunned at the turn this conversation was taking. When did we go from hating each other to arranging sleepovers?

“Su . . . Sure. I . . . I guess. Sure.” I stuttered.

“Awesome, 8? You know where my house is right?”

Before I could answer she was halfway down the hallway.

It was another ten minutes before I got my jaw off the floor.

The heck just happened?