Clash

Chapter eight - India

It's 3 am. My face is wet and stingy with tears, makeup streaming down my face, and I'm still wearing my clothes. I scroll down my contact list, down to D. Dad. Do I call him or not? I want to. I want to so badly it hurts. But I can't. Why does he deserve a call from me? What could he possibly have done to make me want to call him? I press my finger down on his contact until the options menu comes up. My finger hovers above "call number", then moves down to a different option. I take a deep breath, and tap it. Delete contact. 

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 I lie in a star sprawled out on the grass with the girls, "It's so hot for September, it's weird!" Maya, a girl on the swim team says. I sit up. Everyone else does the same. I start fanning myself with my hand. They all copy me. "I love summer," I say absentmindedly, "We should make the most of it while we can," Everyone nods, naturally agreeing with me. I stand up, "Who can do the best round off?" I ask them teasingly. Everyone jumps up,
"I can't even do round offs!" a couple of people say,
I roll my eyes, "Just try!" I say, "It's fun," I start everyone off, with two in a row and a little jump at the end. Everyone claps and I bow sarcastically. Serena is next. She does exactly the same as me, and the same reaction comes from everyone else. Eventually everyone has at least attemped a round off or a cartwheel,  and naturally we forget to vote who did the best because we're having fun! More fun than April's having anyway. She's sitting by a tree reading with her little friend next to her making a daisy chain. I nudge Holly who is standing next to me and point at them. We both giggle. "What's funny?" someone asks us. We both gesture towards them. Everyone puts their hands over their mouths. Erika's skirt has folded up at the back, showing us a clear view of her pink hello-kitty pants, and a yellow September leaf has fallen from the tree into April's hair, making it look even more like a birdsnest. "They are such loners!" Serena says, a little too loudly. April looks up from her book. She touches her head, and pulls the leaf out of her hair. She stares at me, a look of disappointment and betrayel overcoming her face. But I don't care. Not one little bit. She can stare at me like that for as long as she wants, and I won't be fazed. But I should look away anyway. I don't want people thinking I care about her. I turn away from her to look at the path, where I see Ashley and his friends walking along. I know what bothers her. I know how I can make her mad. "Hang on a sec guys," I say to my friends, and roll my skirt up one more time before walking to the path. "Hey," I say to Ashley. He smiles back at me, and all his friends do their weird guy-laugh thing. I have no idea what that is, but they do it, and there's nothing we girls can do about it, even if it does make us want to run away and never talk to them again. So I smile as well. I flicker my eyes back to April. She and Erika are staring at me. God, you might as well give them some popcorn. I guess I'd better give them a movie to enjoy. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" I say to Ashley,
"Sure," He nods, and we walk onto the field and stand by another tree, close enough to April's one. "You didn't text me," I say, and run a hand through my hair,
"Sorry, I didn't have time," He says. We both stare at each other intensely for a bit, then start laughing. I curl my hair around one finger, "I really like you," I say to him, and lift one heel off the ground to move my toes around in a circle,
"I like you too," He says, still smiling, "And I'd really like to get to know you better. You still up for this weekend?" 
"Of course I am," I say reassuringly, and plant a kiss softly on his lips, then I move away and stare into his eyes. He pulls me in and kisses me again. And as he does this my eyes slowly wonder towards April. She's shaking her head, standing up and leaving. I pull away,
"India?" Ashley says, clearly confused,
"Sorry, I have to go," I say, then kiss him once more before running after April,
"April!" I shout after her, "Hey, April,"
She turns around with her arms crossed, a look of disgust on her face,
"You really are pathetic!" She spits at me, "I can't believe I was ever friends with you,"
I raise my eyebrows. A party starts inside me. I've really pushed her buttons. Maybe she'll stay away from me from now on, "I don't know what you mean," I say,
"It's one thing being mean to me, ignoring me every day, not coming near me because you're so afraid of being unpopular. But using another person to get back at me, a person who actually cares about you, and thinks you care about them. That's low India. I actually feel sorry for you,"
Then she turnms on her heel and walks away. I laugh nervously. Serena runs up beside me,
"What was that all about?" she asks,
"Nothing," I say, staring after April. She may be small, and shy, and maybe she doesn't have many friends, but right now I she is definitely a bigger person than me.