Homecoming Scandal
By: CNJ
PG-13
7: Long, Hot Day In Bridgeport
Jana:
"It's a hundred and twenty three," I told the woman who was buying a wad of blouses from Tanninger's. I took her cash and gave her the change, then when she was gone, I leaned on the countertop.
Yep, I've been working at Tanninger's for about a month, since mid-July. Good thing Tanninger's is air-conditioned, because the heat is stifling out there.
It's going to feel weird not going back to school in the fall. Mom and Pink have cooled down quite a bit, especially since I got this job. At first, Pink have given me these long lectures about how he didn't blow cash on my tuition to have me be irresponsible and all that crud while Mom kind of drooped and acted all disappointed.
But now they're mostly off my back. And it's good to be earning cash and on top of that, employees here get a twenty percent discount on everything. That's fabulous, since I've always loved the clothes here. So far, I've bought seven blouses, three pairs of pants and several skirts as well as an array of makeup. Looks like I'll have a great wardrobe soon.
So, my life isn't as depressing as it was in June. But I still missed Randy. Despite the fight that we'd had, I really wished I had him to confide in.
To my surprise, I also missed Logan as well. True, Logan was a self-centered moron sometimes, but he had a swell sense of humor that I missed. It felt weird and empty not having someone special in my life.
Being back home brought back so many memories. Back in high school and even middle school, us kids used to do a lot of hanging out here Randy and I used to go to the movies every weekend.
We'd dated since sixth grade. Would Randy and I ever do that again? I thought with a pang. It was this store that back in sixth grade, I'd entered a fashion show with several other girls. I'd been friends with this group of girls, four others. Melanie used to be one of them.
It was one of those cheesy middle-school things that we used to call ourselves the Fabulous Five. We acted like this club and had typical middle-school kids things like sleepovers and things like that.
We'd even ganged up on this snobby girl in our class, Taffy Sinclair, who'd been a beautiful blonde and thought she was really all that. I smiled ruefully as I remembered how much Taffy and I had hated each other. Taffy was even a worse priss than Sara Sawyer and used to go around tossing her hair and flirting with the guys all the time.
In seventh grade, because of her mother's pushiness, she flew off to Hollywood to become an actress. I wondered if she was still having a blast in Hollywood. I'd seen her in a couple of magazines too.
Well, Taffy, I've done modeling too, I silently told her. True. I'd posed for a calendar at Connecticut U. last fall.
Speaking of prissy and blond...I spotted Sara Sawyer by a table at the restaurant across from Tanninger's, Smorgasbord. I groaned mentally. Just what I need.
I noticed that she was wearing an apron and scooping dishes into a plastic tub, which she then loaded onto a big metal bin. Oh, she was working there. Double groan. Exactly what I need. I hoped that we didn't work the same hours; I didn't want to run into her in the mall. Fortunately, that wasn't likely because my hours are in rotating shifts; they change week to week...
"Excuse me..." a voice cut into my thoughts and I turned to see two teenaged dweeby-looking girls holding up three jeans and a few blouses. Something from the tone told me that they'd been standing there for a few minutes as if they were hoping I'd read their minds. "Could you...tell us where the fitting rooms are?"
"Yeah...right back..." I pointed to where they were behind the plus sizes.
"There...?" the other girl muttered, adjusting her glasses. No, on top of the Empire State Building in New York City, I felt like snapping at them.
"That's right." I let out a sigh. They edged in that direction, giving me these uncertain glances.
A lot of these customers are real imbeciles, I thought as I pointed. They finally saw it and I guess they believed me because they headed there, tripping over each other and vanished behind the racks. I wondered if they went to Burkeview High.
I hoped that when I used to come here in my early high school years when I still hung around that little group, the Fabulous Five, we didn't look and act so geeky. It's bizarre, because our group used to have someone who was really a feminist, a bookworm and a girl who used to spike her dark hair and act dramatic and make an idiot of herself.
In fact, I used to be best friends with the spiky-haired girl, Liza Barry. But in tenth grade, our group drifted apart and Melanie and I hung out with the cooler kids.
Liza wanted things to stay the same as they were and complained about some of the kids in our group. Liza and I had a huge fight in April of tenth grade and went our separate ways after that.
I heard that Liza's now at some midwestern liberal arts college on a full scholarship with room and board paid. Well, lucky for her; her 'rents aren't footing her bill.
By eleventh grade, Melanie was dating Logan and we were with our cool group. Something plopped on the counter. I absently pushed it off. Something then plopped again, this time, nearly on my arm and I heaved a sigh and shoved it off.
"Ah!" someone squawked indignantly and I turned to see that the two girls were back and glaring at me.
"Lady, we're buying this," the one with the glasses sniped as she picked up two jeans from the floor.
"Oh..." I tried to paste on a smile as I rang up the sales quickly. I started to pull the jeans off the hanger.
"Leave them on," the first girl told me shortly.
"What?" I looked at her bangs almost covering her eyes. Doesn't she know that those kind of bangs are out? I thought.
"The. Jeans...leave them on the hanger," the girl told me slowly as if she thought I was the stupidest amoeba alive.
"Sure..." I gritted my teeth to stifle the urge to make some sarcastic comeback and put the jeans back on the hanger, gave over their change and sighed in relief to see them go. Not even a thank you, I thought indignantly. Then again most of the customers who come here don't thank the salespeople.
It was later that night after my shift ended that I ran into disaster. Thank God the disaster wasn't Sara, but it was close. I was headed across the parking lot to where Pink would pick me up in a few minutes and I guess I wasn't really looking where I was going and collided with someone.
"Whoops...sorry," I muttered.
"Oh, hey, are you all right?" The voice was very familiar. Oh...Randy! With none other than...Melanie!
"Yeah, I'm all right," I snapped. "What are YOU doing here?"
"I just got off work," Randy told me evenly. "I work at Sports USA down the street from the mall. What are YOU doing here out alone in the dark?"
"I work too. Tanninger's. So, Mel, moving in on my boyfriend, aren't you? Giving him your sob story on how miserable your life is?"
"Ex-boyfriend," Melanie glared at me. "And you're not lily-white either, kissing up to Logan Bruno, who was MY boyfriend!"
"Only because you acted like a selfish brat that you are!" I sniped back.
"Jana, you aren't Ms. Sensitive either," Randy put his two cents in. "I tried to warn you that we were toast, but you just dissed what I had to say."
"Ohhh, great!" I snorted in disgust. "Gang up on me!"
"Hey, I'm not ganging up on you," Randy told me. "Maybe you and Logan would be happier together, all right!"
"Not all right!" I snapped. It burned me up to see Melanie clinging onto the boy I'd dated since middle school. Well, Melanie could rarely hang onto a guy long anyway; Logan was the longest time she'd ever dated any one guy.
And on top of bouncing from boyfriend to boyfriend, she used to string along three or four guys at the same time, making each one thing she liked them best. God, she disgusts me!
"Logan and I had a fight and I found out he's almost as self-centered as you, Melanie," I informed them coldly.
"Oh..." Randy paused and he seemed to go kind of limp. "That's too bad..." he didn't seem to know what else to say. Just then, a horn blasted and I saw Pink's car there.
"So, I hope you're happy, Melanie Edwards, I know you'd love that." With that, I stalked off toward Pink's car.
Melanie:
Randy looked like he was going to call after Jana, but I held his arm. "Never mind, Randy," I told him as Jana got into her stepdad's car and he drove off toward her home.
"I just...she doesn't have anyone now," Randy said softly.
She doesn't deserve anyone, I thought bitterly. That girl acts like Randy's her personal property. I guess it's natural when you're acting like a miniature married couple with the same guy since sixth grade.
I seethed with resentment at her crack about me "stringing along" guys and "moving in" on "her" Randy. Well, ex-CUSE me! Sure when Randy needs her, she wants nothing to do with him, but when she's the one needing him, she sticks to him like super glue. Fantastic.
Randy and I were mostly quiet as we walked home. I could hear crickets and locusts trilling in the hot night and wondered what was on Randy's mind.
"Beautiful night, isn't it?" I asked, trying to spark a conversation.
"It's hot," was all Randy had to say.
"Yeah, it is," I giggled. "But isn't that part of what makes summer great? On romantic tropical islands, they have this weather year-round."
"If you like frying up and being sticky," Randy muttered.
Was he mooning over Jana? My gosh, I really wish he'd get over her. Jana's really not all that and there are other girls out there who'd give their eyeteeth to be his girlfriend. I got the feeling that yes, Jana was still on his mind. That thought filled me with resentment.
"Are you still stewing over Jana?" I blurted out. "What did you ever see in that girl anyway?"
"A lot," Randy said shortly, facing me. By then we were in front of my house. "Why else would I have gone steady with her for over eight years?"
"Yeah, why?" I challenged. "You're not going steady with her anymore. You're forgetting that you're here with ME tonight, not HER."
"Yeah, I know, don't remind me." Randy gave a cynical laugh.
"Don't remind you of what!" I demanded. "Of me!"
"Not that," Randy told me. "Just...that it feels weird being apart from Jana." I could see it; Randy STILL had it bad for Jana. He's almost as bad as she is in acting like a Siamese couple and acting addicted to her or something.
"Yeah, well, you know what?" I bit back. "Go on home and sulk over how much you miss your Siamese other half, because I'm not hanging around with some guy who still misses his ex-girlfriend! Or is it your pseudo-wife!" I whirled around and booked up the sidewalk.
"Okay...fine!" Randy shot back. "And you can find ten more guys to string along!"
I stalked into my house and slammed the door.
"Heeey, Mel, get into a fight with your latest lover?" Jeff jeered from the refrigerator.
"Stuff it, Jeff," I barked and ran upstairs to my room. Fine, Randy can go back to Jana, now that Jana's not hanging onto Logan anymore. Maybe they'll get married anyway and be the ultimate Siamese couple and their minister will just skip the vows and ceremony and say that they're already husband and wife. Fabulous.
