Riddle Middle Two

Chapter 37: The Manipulation

Phred (1st person)

The next day, at school, I was being especially wary of Joy. I would hate to end up siding with Joy against Phil and the others. Right before lunch, she came up to me again while I was at my locker. "Hey, Phred," she said. I noticed she was much closer to me now than when she gave me the present. I shuffled away from her. "Hi. Do you need something?" I asked. "...Uh... I- I just wanted to tell you something," she said. "Alright," I answered. "I- I... I'm sorry." She said. "For what?" I asked. "Uh... I know I haven't been nice to you, or anyone, since we started middle school. I just... I don't know... I'm starting to regret it now," she said. It was hard to tell if she was being sincere. "Do you expect me to forgive you?" I asked. "No, of course not." She said. I looked at her and met her eyes. "Then what do you want?" I asked. "I... I don't know..." she said, looking away. The bell rang. She began to walk away.

"Joy, wait," I said, taking out a pen and a scrap of paper. She turned around. I quickly scribbled my phone number onto the scrap and handed it to her. "We can talk more about this later, okay?" I said, heading to lunch. She nodded.

Joy called me after school when I was doing my homework. I answered her, and we talked for a while. We started by talking about how she'd been bullying everyone, then the conversation shifted to Smiley. I asked her why she always picks on Smiley, and she didn't seem to have an answer. After at least an hour, we were talking about teachers and homework and other unrelated stuff. We talked until my mom forced me to hang up so I could eat. Joy seemed sad when I had to go. The next day, she came up to my locker again before lunch. "Hi," she said. "Hey," I replied. She kept her distance this time.

"This is gonna sound stupid, but I liked talking to you yesterday," she said. "Yeah," I answered. "Would you... Do you want to talk again after school?" She asked. "If I could, I would, but I didn't get any homework done yesterday and everything's due tomorrow," I answered. "Oh... Okay..." she said, looking at the floor. "If I get it done before 9, I'll call you," I said. I don't know why, but I don't like it when she's sad. She looked back at me and smiled. "Okay! Let me know if you need help with it," she said. I nodded. I went to lunch and sat with my friends as usual. "Phred, how come you didn't call me last night? You said you would call me on Wednesday, and you didn't," Phil said. "Oh, uh... I had a lot of homework. Sorry." I said. I didn't want it to sound like I'd chosen Joy over him, even though that's not really what happened.

"Well, you could have told me. Can you call me tonight?" He asked. "I..." I didn't have an excuse not to call him, but I'd already promised Joy I would. "I don't know. Probably." I said, knowing I had to say something. He looked over me skeptically, then focused back on eating. "Have you talked to Joy any more lately?" Smiley asked. "Yeah. Why?" I asked. "Well, maybe if you two become friends, you could tell her to leave me alone. Or, you could find out if something I'm doing is annoying her, so I can stop..." she said. I nodded. I don't really like Smiley, but I agree that Joy should lay off. I'm glad 5's not on her side anymore, though, because he was the real threat. After school, I finished my homework and immediately called Joy. We ended up talking for the rest of the night until my mom forced me off, but while we were talking, I did suggest that she should leave Smiley alone. She agreed without hesitation. "Phred, who were you talking to?" My mom asked when I'd finished talking with Joy.

"...My friend," I said eventually. "Who? Phil?" She asked. "No. Joy." I said. "Joy? Hasn't she been bullying you?" My mom asked. "She was. She's being nice now, though." I said. "If you say so. Make sure she's not manipulating you, though, and I want you off the phone by 8:30." She said. I nodded. "Speaking of which, what happened to your phone? It looks different," she said. "Oh, yeah. It's the new YPhone model. Joy gave it to me for my birthday." I said. "Oh, did she now? She better not be bribing you." My mom said. "She's not. At least, I don't think she is..." I said. "Okay, well, don't let Joy replace Phil or the others." She warned. "I won't..." I said. It felt like that was sort of already happening. I decided that I would call Phil tomorrow, no matter what.