The Truce

Chapter 3

"It's not funny, Natalie," I said, testily as I sat slumped in the passenger seat of her mom's Camry.

She managed to contain her laughter and grinned at the road instead. "I'm sorry, but it really is. You do know you can't yell in the library, right? There goes your only means of communication with him." She cracked herself up again and I scowled.

Swallowing her laughter, she glanced at me. "You're a big girl, Michaela. You can do this. Besides, it's way past time for you two to put this feud behind you."

"What?" Natalie had been there from the beginning. She knew exactly how horrible we had been to each other. There was no getting past it.

"You guys aren't eight anymore," she said. "So, you were little beasts to each other in grade school. That was a long time ago. Besides, what are you going to do? Tell your kids they're not allowed to play with his kids?"

"My kids wouldn't want to play with his kids."

She smirked. "It's time to get over it. You're never going to be able to help him if you can't be civil, and it'll just wind up hurting your chances at getting in to Penn State."

"I know," I grumbled.

She let me stew over that for a few minutes. She was right, of course. But how could I just let everything go?

"You got back at him for everything he did to you. Can't you just say you're even?"

"It's not the horrible things we did to each other, Nat. It's the betrayal. All the stuff afterward just cemented everything."

"He was a stupid kid, and he apologized like a million times."

This was the part Natalie never could understand. To her, he just said some mean things about me. In her mind, a sincere apology should fix everything. But we'd been friends long enough now for her to get it.

"Suppose I wanted to fit in with Macey and Brianna," I said and Natalie made a face. She was the sweetest person in the world, but she couldn't stand the two of them. "And suppose that when I believed you couldn't hear me, I completely trashed you and laughed at you to them. Over and over for days. And then acted like everything was fine to your face. Could you get over that? After hearing me do it? No matter how much I apologized?"

Natalie frowned out the windshield.

"It's not the kind of thing you just forget, Nat. He broke my heart. I still remember every word."

She drove in silence the rest of the way to my house. When she stopped at the curb, we just sat there for a minute.

"You still have to try, Kay," she said and I gaped at her in disbelief.

"You're supposed to be on my side," I complained.

"I am," she said. "Always. But you're miserable any time you're anywhere near him or any time his name comes up. As much as you say you hate him, it still hurts because you still care. And if you still care, there's a way to fix it."

"No, there isn't," I said stubbornly. "And I don't care."

She watched me skeptically.

"I don't!"

Natalie sighed and shook her head. She knew me well enough to know when to cut her losses. "Just try like I said. You have to do this either way."

I nodded. "I'll do my best to be civil, but that's all I can promise."

Natalie seemed so exasperated, but didn't push further. "Do you need a ride there?"

"No, Scott's going to come by later. He said he'll drive me." It would have been nice if I had my own car, but thankfully my best friend and my boyfriend both took pity on me any time I needed a ride.