Opposites

1.8

Justin hadn’t tried to get in contact with me for three days. I didn’t try to contact him either. I skipped his fourth of July party I was originally invited to. Mary and Jake went to their second ultrasound together. They asked me to come but that conflicted with my schedule of staying in bed. I called in sick to work for those three days. I had to go back today. Mary showed me pictures of the ultrasound. I wasn’t interested. According to her, I had visitors that stopped by to see if I was okay. 

I told her I didn’t want to know who. I stumbled into the shower and noticed the reduced swelling all over my body. I was still sore, but my cuts and bruises had been healing pretty quickly. My black eye had turned yellow. Mary and Jake were both at work when I heard knocking at the door. I stepped out of the shower and wrapped my purple towel around my body. I opened the door and yawned. Anne stood in front of me.

“Can I come in?” she asked. I nodded my head and stepped out of the way.

She took off her shoes and sat down on the couch. I joined her. I coughed awkwardly after a minute of silence.

“I’m here to finish what I said at Tamara’s bonfire.We need to talk.” 

“I’m sorry,” I blurted before she could open her mouth. 

“Okay…”

“There’s so much I want to tell you, Anne. I just can’t. You need to understand that. You already know pretty much everything about me. I’m sorry that I’m not as affectionate as you’d like me to be, but I really don’t know how to change anything you want me to.” I didn’t look at her.

“I know, Cali. You need to understand that I’m not against you. I want to be your best friend, and I want you to be mine. I just need you to actually pay attention to me and try for once. If you can’t do that, fine. Here’s your mail by the way. I guess what Tamara said was right.”  I jumped up from the couch at her words.

“What’d Tamara say?” I said through gritted teeth.

“You guys are sleeping together.” She said as she shut the door behind her. I didn’t bother yelling after her. 

I looked down at the mail on the couch. There were bills and other boring stuff and a package from Justin. I quickly tore the packaging open. Inside was a new phone. I turned it on and realized it had already been programmed and everything. A new text message popped up on the screen. 

Justin: hope this wasn’t too much. miss hanging out with you.

He had already put in his number. A sticky note was attached to the back of the box the phone came in with my new number written on it. I turned the phone off and sighed as I lay down on the couch. I realized my shift started soon at the diner and quickly got dressed. I noticed I was beginning to lose weight as I slipped into my uniform easier than I had before. That probably wasn’t such a good sign. 

An hour later, I left for work. Anne’s shift had been in the morning, so I wouldn’t have to deal with her. I immediately went to the bathroom to fix myself up and do my business before my shift started. The roots of my hair were beginning to show. I’d have to fix that. 

About half an hour later, the usual table of preppy kids was filled. Tamara, Aimee, the other girl I never knew the name of, Mack, Aimee’s friend, Luke and another new guy. I tugged at the waistband of my new work pants and made my way over. 

“Hey, Cali,” Aimee and Mack greeted me. Luke and I shook hands. 

“Hi, my name’s Cali, and I’ll be your server for today. Can I get you all started off with some drinks?” 

Tamara and the other girl giggled. I cleared my throat and blinked at them innocently.

“Three bottled waters, a lemonade, a Coke and a Sprite.” Aimee answered. 

I wrote it down on the notepad in my apron and got their drinks ready. I bit down on my lip as I walked back towards them. I set their drinks down.

“Everyone ready to order?”

“Not yet. Do you want to, um, sit with us?” Aimee asked. 

I swallowed as I sat down. The three girls sat and whispered to each other. 

“I’m Nathan by the way.” The new guy said. 

“Nice to meet you,” I awkwardly replied. He was pretty attractive. 

“I need to use the restroom. Cali, will you come with me?” Tamara asked. Oh god. 

“Sure.” We both made our way out of the booth and to the ladie’s room.

As soon as the door shut behind us, Tamara whipped around and struck me right across the face. I stumbled backward in complete shock. My face began to sting a little. 

“What the hell, Tamara?” 

“I know you and Justin are together!” Tamara shouted. She was going to drag attention on us. 

“Tamara, no we’re not. We’re friends, I swear. I promise you.”

“You’re the reason he dumped me. If he had seen me kissing him before you, we would have talked and everything would have been okay. I could’ve kept him.” she hissed.

“I’m not the reason you guys broke up. Justin may be different, but you can’t say that him being assertive is a bad thing, and my fault. The reason you guys broke up is because your cheating ass got caught.” I hissed back at her. 

“Please, Justin had to know I had been cheating on him by then.” Tamara scoffed.

“What’re you talking about?” I leaned against the sinks.

“I’ve been cheating on him for almost six months. It was kind of obvious. I can’t believe you. You messed everything up with him. Now I’m going to do whatever it takes to get him back.”

a/n: hope you like this chapter, more jali next chapter xoxo thank you so much for almost 800 reads! if you're wondering how many book pages this book is, it is so far at about 164 

enjoy image of cali in sidebar xx