Chapter Nine

Vee's POV

"Was I…friends with Marcie?"

I choked on my doughnut, and it took everything in me not to chuck it out in Nora's face. Friends? With…Marcie? Oh no, who were you with and what have they done to you?!

"You and the ho, friends? Did I hear that right? I know you've got the whole temporary memory thing going on, but how could you forget eleven years' worth of Little Miss Pain in the You Know What?"

This summer Nora had been driven to an extreme. I'm talking, in a trance, going to bust windows out of cars, extreme. It was scary. And even if she didn't remember that, I'd been through years of being her best friend and I'd seen all the shit Marcie had pulled. She couldn't possibly believe good of…of that skank!

"What am I missing? If we weren't friends, why did she invite me to her party?"

That was an easy answer. "She invited everybody. She was fund-raising for the new cheerleading costumes. She wanted twenty bucks from us at the door." I smugly remembered throwing in some condoms. It was great. "We almost left right then, but you just had to spy on—"

I paused. Patch was still a gray area. She didn't remember him at all. That bastard had vanished in the summer with her, and had done nothing but torment her by potentially cheating with Marcie. Even to the point of her breaking her with obsession. What kind of friend would I be to bring that asshole back into her life?

"Spy on who?" Nora asked.

"Marcie. We went to spy on Marcie. That's how it was." I said, nodding. It wasn't a complete lie. We ended up spying on her anyway, and getting her diary…that I never got to read. Shame. I could have had a field day with it.

"And?"

"We wanted to nab her diary." Okay, so I wanted it as reward for the whole stupid spy mission, but details. "We were going to print all the juicy parts in the eZine. Pretty epic, right?"

Nora simply looked at me. It was kind of odd- I was used to the old Nora quickly asking questions, quickly going with my stories. She was never this…observant.

"You realize how made up that sounds, right? We'd never get permission to publish her diary."

"Never hurts to try."

She pointed at me. "I know you're keeping something from me."

"Who, me?" I tried my prettiest pout.

"Spill it, Vee. You promised not to hold out on me again."

"All right, all right. We went to spy on—"Who am I going to say who am I going to say "Anthony Amowitz." What?!

She looked the same way I felt at picking that pig as a crush. "You lie."

I aaaammm…. "I—had a crush on him." I was blushing furiously, but only because it was making me sick to my stomach saying something like that. She'd better be lucky I cared about her.

"You had a crush on Anthony Amowitz."

"A lapse in judgment. Can we not talk about it please?" But really.

"First, swear that you aren't holding anything back. Because this whole story sounds shaky."

Eh…swears meant nothing anyway. Or so I hope. "Girl Scout's honor. We went to spy on Anthony, end of story. Just keep the verbal abuse to a minimum. I'm humiliated enough as it is." If she kept asking, I might break.

Nora nodded, accepting my answer. "Okay, back to Marcie then. She cornered me at Coopersmith's last night and told me her boyfriend, Patch, gave me a necklace that I was supposed to pass on to her."

I started choking again. This was all just too unreal. "She said Patch was her boyfriend?"

So the ho was lying to my best friend. Not in the way I was, to protect her. No, the ho had schemes. Well, there'd be no bullshitting my best friend, not while I was around.

"I believe the term she used was 'summer fling'. She said Patch was friends with the both of us."

"Huh." Friends. That was literally the last thing I could label that entire…fiasco from the summer.

She began tapping her finger against the table. "Why do I feel like I'm in the dark, all over again."

"I don't know any Patches. Anyhow, isn't that a dog's name? Maybe she made him up. If Marcie's good at one thing, it's messing with peoples' minds. Best to forget all about Patch and Marcie. Boy, oh, boy aren't these doughnuts to die for?" I lifted one and held it in her face. I noted she hadn't eaten.

She put the doughnut down. "Does the name Jev ring a bell?"

Thank goodness, no more lies. "Jev? Just Jev? Is that short for something?"

"I ran into a guy," she explained. "I think we knew each other, maybe before the summer. His name is Jev."

"Can't help you babe." Maybe he'd had something to do with her kidnapping?

"Maybe it is short for something. Jevin, Jevon, Jevro…"

"No, no and nope." She didn't sound frightened of this person, so…maybe not.

She frowned, and pulled out her phone.

"What are you doing now?" I asked.

"Sending Marcie a text."

"What are you going to ask her?" Was she really trying to mend things with that slut? Did…did she somehow think they'd truly been friends? "Listen, Nora—"

She shook her head. "This isn't the start of a long term thing, trust me. I believe you, not Marcie. This will be the last text I ever send to her. I'm going to tell her nice try on her big fat lies."

That's my girl. "You tell her, babe. Tell that cheat her lies are futile with me watching your back."

We only waited half a minute before she got a response. Nora rolled her eyes.

"Cheery as ever."

"Here's what I think." I said, leaning in. "Your mom and Hanky Panky might not be such a bad thing. If it gives you a leg up on Marcie," and more specifically, those funds, "I'd say promote the relationship full force."

She smirked at me. "Of course you would."

"Hey now, none of that. You know I don't have one evil bone in my body."

"Only two hundred and six of them?"

Dawwww that's my best friend. I grinned. "Have I mentioned how good it is to have you back?"

Short, I know! It's just to tide you over till the next chapter, and to bring a little...light to the story. (Someone's out there going "Fuck light! I wanna be miserable and dark with Patch!" and you should know I find you funny XD) Read and review!