Massie
Massie paced the halls with Amber feeling a little bit more confident and fearless than usual. She had no idea why but she just felt happy. She was back on track with her boyfriend, she was graduating soon, and wasn't as depressed as she usually was. She knew the thoughts were still at the back, lingering in her mind but for right now she just wanted to be happy.
"Omg," Massie said to Amber when they passed by Idina's locker. She was crying while Bella was fixing her makeup. "I think Chris Plovert finally stood up for himself and dumped her. I mean she was cheating on him."
Amber nodded, looking uninterested in the conversation while she scrolled down her twitter timeline. "Ha, that's funny," she laughed at something on her phone.
Massie rolled her eyes, "A? Can we have one conversation that doesn't have you on your phone constantly?" she asked. Amber rolled her eyes and continued to look at her phone until Massie snatched it away from her.
"So Lan—" Massie started to give Amber the details with Landon but Amber abruptly cut her off. She took her phone back from Massie and slid it in her pocket.
"Enough of that, I want to talk about Kendall Kensington hitting on you," she said, "Do you know how many girls in the Westchester area would dream of being you?"
They walked into the cafeteria and sat at their usual table. Massie settled into her chair while Amber made a big show of whipping off her sunglasses and dumping her designer tote on the table. She had nearly every guys attention in the vicinity as she bent over in a short, taupe-colored skintight dress and seductively sat down. Massie rolled her eyes and didn't say anything.
"Well," Amber pressed on. "Are you going to talk to Kendall again?"
Massie looked around the table. Tori and Marina were in the lunch line and probably wouldn't be at their table for another ten minutes thankfully.
Massie's stomach turned as she thought about taking out her lunch but was too anxious. She needed to get something off her chest and knew she could trust Amber. "Okay, so," she whispered to Amber. "I keep having thoughts about him…."
Amber pulled the faux fur vest only she would be wearing in 90 degree weather, tightly against her and rapidly nodded. "Go on." She said.
Massie sighed. "Well, when I made out with Landon, Kendall kept popping up in my head and I feel so bad." She said.
Amber cocked an eyebrow and a small smile started to creep on her face. "You like him." She teased.
Massie blushed and tried to not entertain the thought. "No, I have a boyfriend!" she exclaimed.
Amber shook her head and laughed. "Landon is a boyfriend not a husband." She told Massie. "I would do anything to be with Kendall! So you're lucky, Massie. You have a chance and it's up to you to take it."
Just then, Tori and Marina walked up to the table earlier than expected. They hugged Amber and squished two chairs between Massie and Amber. "OH. MY. GOD," Tori said, "I literally wrestled these last three Voss waters out of Hayley's hand." She put one bottle in front of her, Marina, and Amber. It was obvious they had nothing for Massie.
Massie started to prepare for being the ignored the whole lunch period and sighed.
She looked over at Amber who gave her an apologetic smirk. She stood up, walked over to Massie and for a minute she thought Amber was coming to apologize for her friends but she handed Massie her phone. "Hey, can you take a photo of us?" Amber asked. "Me, Tori, and Marina."
Massie's heart fell down to the bottom of her chest but she nodded. Friends do stuff for their friends like this, right?
"I'm so glad we decided to wear black and white today!" Marina exclaimed while trying to find a pose. Massie looked at their outfits and sure enough, all of them were just dressed in black and white, from head to toe. She looked over at Amber again who murmured a sorry for not passing the memo on. Massie pretend it didn't bother her and snapped a couple pictures of the girls.
Once she was done, Amber came to collect her phone and said, "Hey, I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you."
Massie just nodded and sat down.
She took out her lunch and ate in silence. Only then did she pay attention to the other girls' conversation when Amber mentioned Kendall and Massie in the same sentence. "What?" Massie whipped around. Amber was deep into the story about Kendall and Massie and how she wanted them to hook up. "Amber, really?" Massie said, her annoyance flaring up. It was only supposed to between her and them.
"What?" Amber played dumbfounded. "They have a right to know to! But like, you need to jump on that. The Folgers are dumb rich." She said. "Right, girls?" Tori and Marina nodded their heads in agreement.
Massie shook her head. "I'm not going to cheat!" she snapped. "I love Landon." She couldn't believe that Amber would really suggest that. Amber, Tori, and Marina laughed at Massie's reaction.
"Yeah, sure," Amber said, "I mean you're already having daydreams about him. Next you'll have wet dreams and at that point, you should just break up with Landon. I'm just stating facts, Mass." She flipped her long hair, signaling that the conversation was over but it was far from it.
Massie bristled and said, "Oh that might've worked for you Amber, but not for me. You're so far up other people asses about what they're doing that I wouldn't be surprised if that's the reason why Matt broke up with you."
Amber turned to Massie, silently daring her to continue and Massie did. "You're selfish and a serial cheater. That's why you want other people to be like you because you feel so bad for yourself," Massie snapped. "So, no I won't cheat on Landon!"
Half of the neighboring tables looked over at the commotion.
Had Massie Block finally snapped?
"Omg, no she did not!" Tori gasped.
Amber furrowed her brows and stood up with her hands on her hip. "Why the fuck are you acting like a bitch? I'm just trying to help." She replied, genuinely confused on why Massie was acting out of character.
Massie grabbed her things and sighed, "It's whatever, forget about it," She suddenly felt like she was crossing the line and backpedaled. "I didn't mean that, I was just annoyed a little bit. I'll just see you tomorrow at my house."
In two long strides, Amber grabbed Massie's wrist and twisted her around. "You can't take back that shit!" she snapped. "Say it with your chest, Massie." She crossed her arms. Nearly, everyone was staring at them as they sensed a fight was about to happen. Massie's anxiety was skyrocketing and she needed to leave. She pushed past Amber but she spun her back around.
"You know what," Amber said, pushing Massie down into a chair. "I've had enough of you! You're so fucking annoying." She boomed. "The whole reason why I was your friend because I pitied you. At first I liked you, but slowly you got on my nerves. It'd look terrible to dump the girl who tried to kill herself, so yeah I started to use you."
Massie's stomach fell to her chest as everyone stared at her. She wanted to cry but she couldn't. It would make her look weak. She also wanted to leave but it would basically admit defeat to Amber.
"Yeah, that's right," Amber smiled, relishing in the sudden attention. "I used you! You weren't good for anything besides taking pictures."
Everyone gasped and even Tori and Marina raised their eyebrows. "Kind of harsh," Marina murmured.
As Massie put together the pieces she realized that Amber had indeed been using her. There was only a few occasions where she did care but the other times it was obvious she didn't. From asking Massie to take pictures of her all the time like she was her personal photographer, purposely excluding Massie from her conversations with Marina and Tori, and making Massie do favors for her. Massie had forgotten what a real friendship was like ever since she settled for a toxic one.
"How could you?!" Massie cried so loudly, her voice cracked. "I trusted you."
Amber smiled as if Massie was a fool to believe she was her best friend. "Are you fucking dumb?" Amber questioned. "I'm honestly wondering because how did you not see I was using you? The signs were all there and you weren't speaking up, so of course I would take advantage of it." She towered over her and Massie shrunk into her seat feeling smaller than ever.
Amber giggled. "You're so pathetic honestly," she rolled her eyes. "All the time you're like, omg I'm Massie Block. I had a traumatic incident last year that wasn't even traumatic! I feel so bad for myself!" she imitated. "Oh, I'm depressed, oh I have issues, oh I wanna kill myself, oh my boyfriend hates me! Grow up! Not everyone's going to feel bad for you! And oh, I totally thought about stealing Landon and sleeping with him myself since we know you haven't done it. So pathetic, you can't even treat him right, but I would."
She sat down and crossed her legs, looking particularly smug.
Massie felt wildly embarrassed as Amber humiliated her in front of the whole school. She couldn't take it anymore and took off from the table. Amber let out an evil laugh knowing she had won and Massie had to swallow the tears that were going to come up. She ran out the cafeteria and took a turn that led outside. She really needed air to clear her head right now, because she was seriously thinking about dying right now.
She slumped against a wall outside and closed her eyes. She wasn't sure how long she stayed there when someone shook her. "Leave me alone!" she snapped, without opening her eyes. Hopefully, it was a murderer ready to end her suffering right then and there.
"No," Claire spoke from above her. "It's us."
Massie opened her eyes and saw TPC standing right over her.
"Ohmygod, you guys." Massie cried, having a complete breakdown. "I need you all so bad right now." She hugged Claire and didn't mean to but she started to sob all over her. Claire soothed her by rubbing her head and reassuring her that they weren't going anywhere. "We're here." She kept saying softly.
"That was so fucked up," Dylan said, leaning against the wall next to Massie. "What possessed her to do that?"
Massie shrugged, ignoring the pounding in her head from crying.
"I always knew she was a bitch," Alicia piped up. "But don't worry Kristen took care of her." Massie looked up confused and said, "Huh?" Just then, Kristen walked up to the group with a huge smile on her face.
"That wannabe will never cross you again," Kristen informed her. "After you left, I walked over there and dragged her ass." Kristen proudly replied. Massie gawked at Kristen, surprised by how badass she was. She gave Kristen a hug. "Thank you." She cried and pulled away.
"Thank you guys for being there for me. We may have split up but you guys are actually my friends." Massie said and led them into a big hug.
"Is it fate that we keep finding ourselves attached to each other?" Claire asked. "We should just all be friends again, to be honest."
"Point." Alicia chattered.
"Agreed." Kristen nodded her head.
"I guess," Dylan said. "But I'm just joking of course."
They all looked at Massie who wiped her tears. "Okay," she looked at each and every one of them. "Let's be friends again."
Kristen
Kristen felt like her whole entire day, well, rather week, was off as she passed by Gavin's classroom. Around this time, she would've been in his classroom or office having their usual rendezvous but now that was done and Kristen had no idea what to do. She wanted to crane her head around when she passed his room to see if he was grading papers or something but decided against it. If she caught one glance of him and his stubble, she would close the door and start making out with him.
Kristen just pushed away every thought about him and continued walking. She pulled out her phone instead and opened Twitter where everyone was talking about the latest drama. One of them was a video of Kristen standing up to Amber on Massie's behalf and the other one was Kristen dishing out Heather's business. Luckily, no one caught the part about Heather accusing Kristen of sleeping with Gavin or else it would've seriously done some bad damage to her rep. She had to expose Heather even if she promised not to tell. That's how deep she felt for Gavin.
A buzz emitted from her phone and Kristen clicked on her mentions that were popping every second. She rolled her eyes at everyone calling Kristen a savage and locked her phone. For some reason, she found a newfound respect and confidence when she was involved in drama. It made everyone pay attention to her and fuel her with power.
Yeah, she had issues.
Kristen knew she had a study hall that started in ten minutes but what was the point? Everyone just played on their phones.
Kristen decided to the text girls to see what they were doing. After yesterday's fiasco they had apologized to Kristen today at lunch and everything was well since. Heather was out and Kristen didn't have anything to worry about. She fired off a quick text about the girls ditching to hang out at the mall or something. Not even a minute later, responses flew in.
Mia: Can't, stuck in ceramics.
Carmen: me too
Meena: busy
Kristen rolled her eyes in annoyance and slid her phone back in her purse. She would just go back to her car and decide what to do then. She strutted in the platform boots that were actually killing her feet and turned the corner to pass the ceramics studio. She stopped when she saw Mia and Carmen going the other way talking about leaving to get mani-pedis. Kristen hid in an alcove to see if they mentioned Meena but they were talking about something boring that had happened in the studio. They both laughed and walked outside.
Kristen kept waiting for her phone to light up but it never did.
She swallowed a familiar gut wrenching feeling and sighed. She knew this all too well and it made her anxious. Her two old best friends, now enemies, were close like that to before they plotted Kristen's downfall. Kristen bit her nails out of a nervous habit and silently prayed that she wouldn't go through this again. She would be devastated.
Kristen stayed in the alcove for another five minutes before walking over to the hall window that overlooked the parking lot. Carmen's car was gone from her usual parking spot. Kristen wondered if they were really going to get mani-pedis and had to stop herself from speculating too much.
Kristen's heart jumped.
What if they were planning to do something to her?
Panicked, she called Cole because he always calmed her down. The phone rung two times before Cole's scruffy voice filled the phone. "What's up?" he yawned. Kristen felt a little annoyed he didn't answer with "Hey babe!" or something but let him off the hook.
"I have a question," she said. Cole made a grumbling sound and Kristen continued. "Would you think I'm crazy if I told you I think Carmen and Mia are plotting my downfall like Kori and Kylie did last year?" she asked. "Tell me the truth!"
Cole let out an irritated sigh. "I don't know Kristen. I'm not around enough to hang out with you and your friends. In fact, I barely see you." He snapped.
Kristen tried to keep calm and said, "Well, it's not my fault I have strict parents! And wow, you're sure full of help!" she exclaimed.
Cole laughed and asked, "Well, what do you want me to say? They are? Even if they do, why do you care?"
Kristen closed her eyes for a second. "Because I'm not going to be humiliated again." She replied.
Cole didn't say anything for awhile and Kristen thought he had hung up. "Wow," he said after a minute or two. "You're really becoming into one of those Westchester airheads." He said coldly and hung up. Kristen stared at her phone in shock and threw it on her passenger seat.
She thought about crying, but didn't want anyone to see. Instead, she quietly walked to the library around the corner and went inside.
She walked down the aisles, past the rows of book spines and horny couples making out.
Kristen rounded a corner when someone pushed her roughly against a corner in the back. She turned around, ready to scream and pull her pepper spray out when she saw it was Gavin. Her anxiety deflated when she saw it was him but at the same time it swelled when she realized he was trying to kiss her in public. "Gavin!" she whispered harshly, trying to push him away but he had an iron clad grip on her.
"Kriiiisten," he slurred, "Miss you, wannna e with youuuu."
Kristen realized he was drunk at school and groaned. "You can't be here with me like this!" she snapped at him. "No one can see us!" she looked around and noticed there was no students around but her heart fluttered with anxiety.
"I've beeeen staaaalking you." Gavin laughed a little loud. It would only take one of the librarians to come and see what the ruckus was about. Kristen felt slightly scared because 1, someone could see them, 2, Gavin was being loud, and 3, he had been stalking her. Kristen didn't know what to do and kneed him in his groin. She expected for him to let out a loud groan but he let out a soft whisper full of pain.
Kristen took off, sprinting another way so no one would see her and fast walked out the entrance.
This day trumped absolutely everything that had happened to her in the past week.
Claire
Okay, so maybe the after school rehab program wasn't as bad as Claire thought it would be. For some reason, she expected a counselor to tell them drugs were bad and pull out a guitar to sing Kumbaya, except it was the complete opposite. The counselor, Mick was pretty funny, telling jokes and saying he wasn't going to dish out the stereotypical mess. The rest of the group, made up of 11 people, were pretty nice and greeted Claire with open arms.
Today was her 2nd day, technically it was supposed to be her 3rd, but she went home and nearly relapsed after Tyler had broken up with her. However, she found herself strangely not caring now, granted, it would probably hit her in a week but she wasn't as sad when she realized she had the support of strangers.
Claire walked into the room and sat next to Tatiana—the really, gorgeous black girl she had saw the other day. When Tatiana had introduced herself to Claire yesterday, it was like fireworks in Claire's mind as she felt absolutely smitten with Tatiana. It was almost like the feelings she had for Sienna that time.
"Hey," Tatiana gave her a warm smile. Claire realized she was blankly staring at her and blurted out, "Hi, um, Tatiana."
Tatiana gave a small, cute laugh and beamed back at Claire. "You can just call me, Tati, by the way," she told Claire, "The only people that call me Tatiana are my friends and family." Claire nodded, hoping she could gain Tati's trust to the point she could call her Tatiana.
The clock ticked behind Claire as everyone in the circle talked to each other and held conversations while waiting for Mick. Claire felt pressured to talk to Tatiana since they were the only two not talking. She fished for something to say in her head, like "Pretty hot today" "How long have you been here" or "Nice to see you again". Those were all pretty bad, but Claire had no idea what to say.
"Um," Tati turned to Claire, making her feel tremendous relief from not having to talk. "I'm not trying to pry into your business, but who was that hot guy you were talking to in the hall two days ago?" she asked.
Claire's heart deflated when she realized she was talking about Cam and she sighed. "That was my ex," she stared at the waxed floor, "Trying to win me back after he cheated and slept with a girl that made my life miserable."
Tati's eyebrows crinkled and she gave an apologetic look. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know." She replied. Claire just murmured an "it's okay" because who could get mad at a girl that beautiful.
"If it helps," Tati said as Mick walked inside, "My ex girlfriend cheated on me too and made me feel bad about it. That's how I got into drugs but that's another story."
Claire totally sympathized with her situation but she had to do a whole U-turn when Tatiana said ex-girlfriend. So, she liked girls? It just made Claire more attracted to her.
"Alright," Mick clapped his hands. "Let's get started." He sat down in the chair in the front of the circle.
For the next hour, Mick asked them if they had any trouble trying to stay away from drugs, talked about people enabling them, and to remember if they needed anyone to talk they had their fellow group members or Mick. An hour wasn't enough for Claire as she found herself laughing with the others when someone told a funny joke. Corey, a guy with long, red hair and Pamela, a self-proclaimed goth had gotten into it about drugs in space, but it was hilariously funny. Claire felt like she had found a new home.
"Okay," Mick boomed when their time was up. "Make sure you're here next time because we'll have a guest speaker coming to talk about his addiction and how he got his life back. There may be some additional people so I recommend you all come early." He clapped his hands in a sign of dismissal. A couple people walked to the door while others swamped Mick with questions.
Claire stood up and awkwardly trailed behind Tati. She wanted to say something but she didn't know what. Ugh. She stepped out the classroom, thinking her chance was blown when Tati saved the day yet again. "You're pretty cool, Claire," Tati turned around to tell her. "Sorry, if that, um, I don't know," she looked down, "Was kind of weird. Just me trying to make small talk." She fell in step next to Claire as they walked down the hall together.
"No, it's cool." Claire quickly replied as the conversation fizzled.
They stopped in the entrance of the recreation center that smelled like chlorine. "So," Tati said, "We should totally go out! I mean, hang out, you know?" she smiled
Claire's girl-loving heart fluttered out of control. She couldn't believe this was happening. "Y-yeah." She stuttered. Tati gave Claire her phone number and they set up something after class the next time they met.
"Okay, see you soon," Tati gave her a smile. She walked away and over to a girl with red braids that looked happy to see her. They hugged for a brief moment and Claire swallowed down her jealousy. She basically had a date with Tati so that didn't mean anything.
Claire pushed the thought away and walked outside to her car, feeling all giddy inside and wanting to cry happy tears. She had a date! She had a date! She had a date with Tati!
