My Secret Valentine

Chapter 8 - Spin The Bottle

I was taken aback. I had no words to describe the thoughts that traveled through my mind. I experienced almost every single motion that ranged from confusion to anger. I couldn't tell if this was one of Bria's ways to manipulate me again, or, this was the harsh reality of truth. Regardless of what it was, I had no idea what to believe and it was visibly upsetting.

Were these people really not my friends? If that were the case, what made them drawn to me? What have I said or done for people to create a narrative of me, and refer to me as the bitch of the school? Was this the reason why my friends fell back on me? Was I this much in denial?

Witnessing Bria's vulnerability and her moping before my eyes was as if I saw my future self doing this instead. Was this where I was headed? I pitied her, and to think I envied the attention she had, I never knew how lonely it must have been for her. I pitied her more because here she sat next to someone she bullied, and had no one to comfort her. This must have been a new low for her, and a very humbling experience I'd imagine. This was also some form of foreshadowing for me.

I had a gut-wrenching feeling that struck me and I was overcome with a realization about myself. I practically pushed my real friends away in exchange for a temporary thing and I was afraid the friendship was tainted. I had gotten so caught up with everything I forgot all about the party, the people here, and me being with Alicia, everything became too much for me. I didn't want to spoil her night by leaving early or pulling her away from her friends, but I felt so out of place that I yearned to go home. I needed some time to think about everything, and I needed to apologize to my friends.

I unlocked my phone and scrolled through my messages until I found the group chat that consisted of Bryan, Trinity and myself – I never noticed how far down our message thread sank. 3 Amigos with a bunch of random emojis after was the name of our group Bryan named with the cringiest photo of us three as the contact picture. I was struck with more grief than I could handle at a time to where I could cry a thousand tears. I was battling with myself on what I should send, texting and deleting messages, I didn't want to say the wrong thing. Then, I heard a few whistles and cheers that drew my attention, Trinity showed up at the party.

Trinity had changed her hairstyle to knotless braids that stopped mid-back, she wore it down and had it parted off to the left side. She took off her puffy black jacket to show off the tight black long sleeve tee she paired well with her dark denim jeans and tall UGG black boots. She wore a small gold cross necklace that matched her gold nose hoop rings, her lips were glossy with a light pink tint, and she looked insanely gorgeous. My eyes were glued to her as it was impossible to break away from her beauty, I was mesmerized and started feeling uneasy about it. I was attracted to my best friend.

However, she was not alone though, she came with someone. I had never seen this person before, not in school, nowhere, and they were at this party with Trinity. I became jealous. Whoever this person took her hand and guided her into the kitchen, and I was tempted to follow them inside. I was conflicted, yet pissed.

I have forgotten about the drunken Bria sitting on the staircase and used the opportunity to walk into the kitchen to get water for her. The kitchen was piled with underage smokers and drinkers, laughter and dancing, kissing and groping, there was a lot happening. I needed to catch Trinity's attention without being obvious I wanted her to notice I was there, and maybe this would trigger a conversation for us. I needed to know where we stood, and I needed to be honest with myself and to Trinity. And, I also had to figure out who this new person was.

There was already an open case of water on the kitchen island for grabs so I grabbed two, a third bottle fell as it rolled toward Trinity's foot. Talk about coincidence and it wouldn't be Faye Evans of me if I weren't clumsy. The person she came with squatted as they picked up the bottle with a slight chuckle, I apologized for my clumsiness as I was forgiven. As hard as I tried to focus on this person's feature, it was hard to assign what their gender was and the last thing I wanted to do was make a terrible assumption. I also didn't want to risk being rude by asking either, I was unsure of everything.