Becoming Miss Visible

Once a cheater, always a cheater

Chapter 16

*Callie*

The door came crashing open and my mom went running through the house sobbing. Strange…

“Hey can you watch Bailey for a minute? I gotta go find out what just happened. And don’t think we are finished talking about you-know-what.” I told Dalton starting for the stairs. I went to my mom’s room to find her throwing Mr. Freeloader’s clothes out the window. He was standing outside around all his falling stuff cursing out my mother, which just seemed to fuel the fire.

“Hey mom? What’s going on?” She turned around and I stared at her wild eyes and make-up smeared face.

“HE CHEATED ON ME! AFTER EVERYTHING I’VE DONE FOR HIM THAT SICK, TWISTED, LYING FREAK CHEATED ON ME!” She screamed. Wow, note to self: Do not piss mom off to the point that she was right now. She finished throwing his stuff out the window and after telling him to go back to where he came from and to say hi to the devil when he got there, she slammed the window shut. I started at the shambles that my normally very neat and tidy moyjrt was in. Okay so my boy-ish-type-friend was downstairs nursing a hangover and watching my little sister, and my mother was having a mental breakdown. When did my life get so complicated? I went to my mother and did something that I haven’t done in a very long time. I threw my arms around her and gave her a bear hug. I let her cry on my shoulder. We stayed like that for what seemed like a very long time.

“How about I draw you a bath?” I asked, switching into mother bear mode.   

“Thanks”  She muttered as I walked to the bathroom and filled the bathtub with hot water and bath salts. I then helped mom, who had stripped while I was waiting for the bath to fill, into the tub.

“I’ll be right back with the stereo and a cup of coffee. She liked to listen to music whenever she took a bath. It was one of the few things that we had in common. There were some things only music and caffeine could fix. I went to my room and grabbed the stereo and a couple pieces of chocolate from my secret stash that I kept for emergencies. All but about a handful had been eaten from last night’s cry fest.

I brought these to my mother and to my surprise she thanked me for them before telling me what music she wanted to listen to and eating her chocolate.

I went to the kitchen to get her coffee. Bailey and Dalton both had worry written across their faces.

“Hey Bailey, guess what?” I asked her while preparing mom’s coffee.

“What?” She asked shyly. She didn’t understand what was going on. I smiled and looked to where she was sitting.

“We don’t have to deal with Mr. Meany anymore!” I wasn’t the only one who disliked him. Mr. Meany was her name for him. I liked it because it fit him like a glove. As I thought she would, she squealed in delight, which caused Dalton to wince and look questioningly at me.

“I’ll explain after I take this to my mom.” I dropped the cup of coffee to her and went back down the stairs that led to the kitchen. The minute he saw me he started asking question.

“What just happened? Why the he-” I cut him off before he could finish his question.

“Watch the language around small children.” I scolded. He looked at Bailey, who was looking confused, and then back to me and sheepishly smiled.

“Anyway, why in the name of all that is good and holy is your mom running and slamming doors and screaming? My head can only take so much?” He said, rubbing his temples.

“Well, her boyfriend cheated on her.” I said simply. I wanted to say so much more though. Something along the lines of, ‘but she deserved it’, or ‘once a cheater always a cheater’.

“Well no offense to your mom or anything, but she kinda deserved it. I mean she was cheating on someone with him, so why is she so surprised that he would cheat on her? You know the saying once a cheater, always a cheater.” Wow, apparently we thought alike, which was kind of freaky, but in a good way.

“You just read my mind.” I said with a slight laugh.

“Okay now back to more important things. Why did you tell me you were gay, when you so clearly aren’t?” I asked crossing my arms over my chest.

“Well, okay it’s like this. Mason wanted to be friends, but he didn’t wanna  ruin his rep by hanging with you. So he said that if he got you out of the picture I would be Mr. Popularity. Now I know what you’re thinking, that I’m the worst person ever for doing what I did, but let me say this: at first I said no way in a million years would I do that to you. And then he so nicely put it that all the, uh, not so nice female dogs in his circle would stop harassing you because they got what they wanted, me. So, not wanting to cause you further pain and humiliation like the car paint and pictures plastered all over school, I agreed. Then when I did it I felt like a, um, well a male body part. Mason told me to lighten up and stop moping after we left your house and then he left he in the hands of the head female dog, Kelly, and then she got me really, really drunk. She tried to have her way with me, but I ran away and called you, knowing that if I went home in the state I was in last night that I would never see the light of day again.” Dalton finished. I was slightly amused at his use of cuss words without actually cussing, because Bailey was in the room. Beyond that, I didn’t know how to feel with the whole blackmail Dalton thing that the populars were doing. And then Mason was, well he was a certain male body part. I was angry, but I knew that interesting things could happen from this. A plan formed and I turned to Dalton, who was looked ashamed and smiled at him.

“Okay, so Mason doesn’t know that I know that you’re not gay, correct?” I asked him.

“Right” He said looking a little confused.

“So what were you guys planning to do whenever I saw you at school?”

“Act gay. Why?” I grinned and Dalton looked at me like I was nuts.

“Okay I have a plan that I am going to like watching unfold.”

“What would be said plan?” He asked, looking unsure. If I was in his position, I would be too.

“So I’m going to forgive you and let sleeping dogs lie on one condition. You tell Mason that we never had this conversation. Lead him to believe that I don’t know. For your punishment and for his humiliation, and my entertainment you have to go through with the whole acting gay thing.” I said smugly. Dalton’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.

“Really? You are going to make me do that? I don’t wanna act gay!” Dalton threw his hands in frustration and I tsked.

“No deal then.” I said, feigning disappointment.

“What does that mean?” He said, looking confused again.

“I’m not gonna forgive you. You can go hang out with the populars and leave me be. I don’t want someone who is going to break my heart, misuse me, and then ask for me back without any consequences. It’s a take it or leave it kind of deal.” I said, knowing that I was lying through my teeth. By the look on his face, he didn’t.

“How long will I have to be ‘gay’?” He put air quotes around the word gay.

“At least a month.”

“Come on  Callie, we both know that this is complete bull-” I cut him off again.

“Ah, ah, no cursing around children! I told you it’s a take it or leave it deal. What will it be?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“Deal.” He said dejectedly. This was going to be so much fun.