This One's for You

Chapter One // Just Getting Started

Senior year was in full swing by the time October rolled around, not that I enjoyed that fact. The weekdays dragged on from eight to three, and at Fall's Hill the gossip travelled much faster than time did. I think I made it halfway through third period before I couldn't so much as take a trip to the restroom without hearing the details of my dilemma being spoken by people I didn't even know.

"Did you hear about Lia?"
"Hasn't everyone? Kara texted me in first period to tell me! She has Anatomy with Jared."
"How did he look?"
"She said he seemed relieved, and honestly I don't blame him. I mean, honestly? He could do so much better than Lia! If he's a Greek god, she's a peasant. I don't see why he was ever with her anyway."
"Right? I just can't believe that he left her for Miranda Leachman of all people! How long were she and Lia friends?"

By that point, I had all that I could take of sitting in the stall listening to the two sharing those details of my life. I got up, blushed the lint from my pants and wiped whatever mascara might have still been left on my face off. Deciding I looked presentable without a mirror to confirm, I opened the door and took my first step. Both the girls - Sophomores I recognized but didn't care to remember the names of - stopped their chatter as they saw me emerge from behind them in the mirror. Shocking, after all they'd had to say just a little bit ago and not a word now.

"Seven years," I said, answering their question from earlier. "Miranda and I had been friends since the fourth grade." They simply nodded in response as I took a few steps toward the exit.

"Lia?" one of them called out. I stopped with a grip on the handle and looked up at the girls. The blonde one of the two, toting a large make up bag in her oversized purse approached me. She reached into her alcove of beauty products and brought out a small palette of skin toned concealer. Using her index finger, she applied some of it underneath both of my eyes, covering the dark bags and mascara remnants that remained from my misery. "Don't let them see you like that. Show them, hell, show us, that he didn't completely destroy you."

Escaping her sympathetic blue-eyed gaze, I pulled on that handle and excused myself without even bothering to say thank you.

How I endured those next two classes before lunch is beyond me. I felt like I was dead inside, but I guess I lived to see another meatball surprise luncheon, and that wasn't even the part I was dreading.

As I entered the small cafeteria that belonged to Fall's Hill, I'd lost my appetite. I wasn't entirely sure if it was the wretched smell of something I think they were trying to pass off as broccoli, or the looks I was on the receiving end of when I opened the doors. I could see the people leaning into their tables to whisper whatever drama they'd decided I was involved in, true or not. As I stood by the entrance, wishing I was invisible, my eyes followed my usual path to the very center of the room. A very familiar short, blonde head of hair sat there, back to me, with her Vera Bradley book bag sitting in the seat next to her, saving it for someone I wished I'd never known. I watched as her shoulders shook with laughter at something the two girls in front of her said, and my eyes stayed with her as he strolled up beside her. She rose out of her seat to greet him, clad in her usual oversized sweater and ripped up jeans. She flipped her wavy hair to one side, exposing her perfect skin and lips and eyes and nose, as she lifted all of those features up to kiss him hello.

Knowing that he had left me for her hurt, but seeing them together killed me.

Deciding that I couldn't watch my old friends anymore, I walked as fast as I could toward the doors into the courtyard. I needed to breathe. Finding an open spot on the grass, I propped my head up with my bag and laid down on the slightly wet grass, not even caring that the skies were gray and the weather was cold.

As I slid my phone out of my back pocket and tapped on the home button, an old picture came to life with the screen. There I was, standing at the very center of the football field, clad in my black dress that clung to my body like a second skin of bandage material and sky high black pumps, staring at the man I loved posing next to me. Still towering over me in my tallest heels, he was dressed in his gray suit with the black skinny tie; Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome staring at the camera as I fell in love with him. We had just been crowned the Queen and King of the Homecoming game, because that was what we had been - the Queen and King of Fall's Hill. As I looked at the picture of us, I thought seriously about breaking the screen to match my heart, as cheesy as it may sound.

Tearing me out of my reminiscent torture, came a companion to lay down beside me on my grass bed. "Lia, if you don't talk about this, it will eat you up inside and spit you out an ever bigger mess than you are now," the familiar voice told me harshly. I turned my head to the left and met the green eyed, brown haired, chubby-faced boy that I could trust would never take my boyfriend.

"Ty, I'll tell you all about what I'm thinking when I know exactly what I'm thinking," I replied to my friend, knowing that it made my gay best friend squirm inside to not know how I was feeling every second of every day. "Besides, Mer and Jer are happy aren't they? Well, isn't that cute. Rhyming nicknames."

Tyler rolled his eyes at my snide comment. "Hating yourself for what they did to you isn't going to make this any better. We need to rise up and be better than that whore!"

I shot him a hateful glare. "We were best friends with Miranda for seven years! I introduced her to Jared, for fuck's sake! And then, one day, Jer has the nerve to come to me, admit that he loves her, and wants to end things with me so they can finally go public with what they've been hiding all this time! And, to make things worse, he just has to leave on the note of telling me that he never loved me in the first place. I am clearly not better than her, Tyler!" I shouted at him, fighting the urge for the tenth time that day to break down in a waterfall of tears. I sat up and buried my head between my legs, which is why I didn't notice when Tyler whipped out his phone to make a call.

"Hey, Lisa. It's T. Call the school, I'm taking Lia out. ...No, she's not doing any better today. ...I can try, Mrs. A. I'll have her home eventually," Tyler spoke into the phone, ending the conversation without a goodbye as he had done all of his life. "Come on, L. We're leaving."

"Why did you call my mom? I can make it through the day," I protested, knowing good and well it was a lie.

"No, you really can't. I mean, fuck, Lia. The ground is soaking wet and you're just lying here like it's just a little drop. So get the fuck up and let's get the fuck out," he demanded as he rose and pulled me up with him. "Oh, and by the way, if these grass stains don't come out of my new jeans, I'll make your life miserable too."

Drudgingly, I got up with him and gathered my things as I let him lead me back into that god forsaken cafeteria where I had to see the man I love with my best friend. I closed my eyes before I could even catch a glimpse of that platinum blonde hair.

Once we'd escaped that prison school, Tyler drove us in his beat-up Honda Pilot an hour and a half into the heart of downtown Louisville, where he knew I loved going to become invisible in the busy, constant hustle of the streets. Without even asking where I wanted to go, he led me inside of my favorite coffee shop, Jive n Java, and insisted he pay for my coffee. Taking seats near the window, he sat me down and gave me a look that burned me through and through. Pity.

"Ty, what are we doing here?" I asked, "I should be at home, in bed, watching Nicholas Sparks movies and eating ice cream."

Laughing off my proposal, he said, "Oh, no, my darling. We're not doing that today. What I have in mind for you today is so much better."

Rolling my eyes, I realized that whatever it was could either be exactly what I needed or nothing I wanted. Probably both.