He sits at the end of a large table. Golden plates and utensils placed on every seat. The room is all set for a massive party, with ballons, arcade games and a large cake at the centre of the table. All that is missing are the guests. He checks the time on his phone. It's seven thirty. People should be here by now. They probably are all just running late, at least that's what he tries telling himself. Still part of him knows that simply isn't true. The new girl is apparently having a sleepover too. At her five-star hotel. He shakes his worries away, trying to stay positive. His house is way cooler than any five-star hotel. I mean, he has an Olympic sized swimming pool and a literal fountain of soda. He even has a super cool giraffe here. Who doesn't like giraffes? He scrolls through his phone. Mindlessly looking through his feed. Until he comes across a series of posts that fills him with dread.
Post upon post from his classmates. All taken from her hotel. He hastily looks through the descriptions, the comments. All of them praising the new girl. Hazel. Saying how cool her sleepover is and how glad they are that they didn't go to his. He sees Winn posting about the hotel too. They got Winn to go to their sleepover!? No, he won't stand this. He has been trying to make friends with Winn for over a year. He can't lose to some fresh-faced girl from the suburbs. He messages Winn. He sees that they read the message, but they have yet to respond. When he had asked earlier, they said they were going to Hazel's sleepover. He had hoped that maybe they would have changed their mind. Realised their mistake and go to his place instead.
"Why isn't anyone at my sleepover!?" he shouts in frustration. Slamming his fist on the table. Shaking with rage. The sound of a kazoo filling the silence. He looks over at the giraffe with a kazoo in its mouth with a pink and green inflatable ring around its neck. "SCRAM YOU STUPID LONG-NECKED HORSE!" he screams. The giraffe spits the kazoo at him angrily and strides off. He rubs at the spot the kazoo hit him as he continues to look through his classmates' posts. He sees a post from Trev. Taken from the hotel. He had asked Trev earlier if he was coming over. He said he was busy. Guess he wasn't as busy as he thought. He messages Trev. His message is ignored. He tries calling him. He's sent to voice mail. What the hell!? He's supposed to be his friend! Why is he ignoring him!?
He swipes the cake off the table in a fit of anger. The cake landing on the floor, taking down a few of the plates and utensils, along with some lose gold coins that were scattered on the table. He hears his father stomp into the room. "Devin what in the world are you doing!? Why is there cake on the floor!?" He folds his arms up on the table, placing his head down. "No one came" he mumbles. "Devin, will you speak up? I can't hear you when you mumble like that" his father states, impatiently tapping his foot. "I said no one came!" he shouts, lifting his head up. "They all went to the new girl's sleepover" he says sadly. "Even Trev" tears welling up in his eyes as he says this. "You're not seriously about to cry over a sleepover, are you?" his dad asks, raising an eyebrow at him. He sniffles, pushing back his tears. "N-no…" his dad glances at the room briefly. "Get the O-pairs to clean this mess once you're done, will ya?" he says gesturing vaguely at the entire room. "Yeah, I will…" his dad satisfied with his answer, leaves the room. When his dad is gone, he takes out his phone once more, looking at all the posts. Gritting his teeth in anger.
The moment the sun begun to rise the next morning; he started his trek to Hazel's hotel. The 'Wellsington Hotellsington'. He wanted to see for himself what was so great about this place. His two O-pairs were giving directions as he navigated the city on foot. He normally won't walk this far but he had some stream he needed to blow off. When he arrives, he sees a very different place from what the posts had shown the night before. Instead of the luxurious hotel the place was painted out to be, he saw a small three storey apartment complex that was surrounded by filth. He had to double check if it was even the right place. When his O-pairs confirmed that this was indeed the place, his anger grew. How on earth did she manage to win over their classmates while living in this dump!?
"You think your so cool" he turns away from the building. "So what people choose your sleepover over mine! Nobody has a better sleepover than Dev Dimmadome! NOBODY!" he kicks a nearby crate. The large heavy crate topples over onto him; the lid opening from the force of the impact. As if his luck couldn't get any worst, it turns out there was a giant bird in the crate. A bird that he just made very angry. He hears an unholy screech and then he is running for his life. His O-pairs trying to capture the bird while the creature tries pecking at him. He spends most of the morning like this before animal control can finally subdue the raging beast. Thankfully he only has few cuts and bruises, nothing serious. Exhausted, he heads home. Laying on his bed and sleeping most of his weekend away.
Once Monday rolls around he skips his usual morning routine. Marching through the school hallways over to where Trev is standing. He sees the boy leaning against his locker, scrolling through his phone. He stops just beside the boy. "Trev" he says with a growl. "Oh, hey Dev, what's up?" the boy says causally, not looking up from his phone. "Oh, you know, not much, besides the fact my friend backstabbed me by not going over to my sleepover!" that caught the boy's attention. "What sleepover?" Trev asks looking up at him in confusion. "What do you mean what sleepover!? The one I had last week! The one that I invited everyone too! Including you!"
"Oh yeah…sorry must have forgot" he says looking back to his phone. "I had literally asked that day if you were going! How could you forget!?"
"Look it's not my fault if I forgot" he shrugs innocently. He then turns to leave but an O-pair stops him in his tracks. "What the hell!?" Trev turns back to look at him. "I'm not letting you walk away from this Trev! I know you went to that girl's sleepover! I saw your post!" he shoves his phone in the boy's face, showing him the post from that night. Trev rolls his eyes. "Okay yeah, I went to her sleepover! So what!?"
"So what!? You're suppose to be my friend and you completely abandoned me!"
"Well maybe I don't want to be the only kid hanging out with biggest loser in the whole school!" Trev shouts. Everyone in the halls now watching the fight. He stares at him, wide eyed. "What…?"
"Literally nobody likes you Dev!"
"Well, I don't need to be liked! I just need to be respected!"
"You think people here respect you!?" Trev mocks, folding his arms. "Screw you Trev! Our friendship is officially OVER!" he shouts. "FINE! Like I care!" Trev shouts back, walking away. "And you can forget about those movie tickets!" he shouts as he sees Trev moving further away. He can start to feel the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. He turns to all the onlookers. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL STARING AT!?" he yells at them. They all quickly turn away in fear. Going into their respective classrooms as the school bell rings. He rushes out the school's front door, ignoring the bell. He just needed to get out of there. He pushes pass people as he head out the double doors. Once outside he takes off his glasses. Breaking down into a sob. Unable to control the tears as they roll down his cheeks and onto the pavement below. Leaving him a whimpering, sobbing mess as he sits on the curb. His face buried into his hands.
"Hey…are you okay?" he wipes his eyes, putting his glasses back on. He turns to see Hazel standing behind him. "What? You came here to gloat huh? Tell me how much fun everyone had at your sleepover?"
"No…I just…wanted to see if you were okay…you seemed upset"
"Well, I'm not! I didn't need that loser anyway! I certainly don't need you pitying me!" she gives a frustrated sigh. "I don't know why I even bothered" she goes back into the school building.
He deicides to head home early. He can skip one day of school, right? And anyway, he didn't want to go back in there. Not now. Once home he lays on the couch playing on his iPad. His dad walks by, not saying anything about the fact that he's not currently at school. Either he didn't notice, or he didn't care. Doesn't really matter, he's just glad that his dad isn't yelling at him. Later in the day in heads into his room. Taking his glasses off as he weeps into his pillow. The pillow muffling the sound of his cries. No matter how hard he tried to distract himself, he wasn't able quiet his thoughts. His mind races. Thinking about everything Trev said today. Everything his classmates wrote on those posts. He thinks about her. His cries are replaced with rage filled screams. This was all her fault! She's the reason his classmates didn't come over to his sleepover! The reason Trev left him! If she never had her sleepover, then Trev would still be his friend! He throws his pillow off the bed. He's going to make her rue that day she decided to mess with Dev Dimmadome.