The Same Mistakes Club

Chapter Thirty-One

While I fully enjoyed Margaret's rules for the Club, there was a very important one she missed. What happens in The Same Mistakes Club, stays in The Same Mistakes Club.

I'd thought that was a given.

If you couldn't trust a member of the Club, who could you trust?

But I hadn't counted on one very shootworthy messenger.

Margaret, Maishely, and I were walking into school together on Monday morning, talking about Melany and Kadan, hoping his audition had gone well and he was ready to ask her out. We were just rounding the corner when Maishely's expression fell.

"Oh, no," she said. Both Margaret and I followed her gaze and saw Hadassa talking to Gabriel at his locker with a smug look on her face.

This couldn't have been good.

Maishely quickened her pace, and Gabriel spotted the three of us walking over. He gave me a hurt look before slamming his locker and walking away.

"Let me talk to him." Maishely headed after him.

I could tell Margaret was about ready to go after Hadassa, but she stopped when she noticed the panicked expression on my face. "It's okay, Alissa," she said. "She's a jerk."

I nodded slowly. A numbness had spread over my body.

"That's it, she's out of the Club," Margaret went on. "I'll tell her." Margaret guided me to my locker and opened it up for me. All I could do was stare straight ahead.

"No, I'll tell her," I said. "At lunch." I could hardly get the words out.

"Okay." Margaret got my books for me. "Do you need anything else?"

Yes, I needed to know why, if I didn't have any feelings for Gabriel, I felt so demolished.

***

Maishely filled me in right before lunch. "Hadassa told Gabriel that basically you declared in front of the entire Club that you think he's pathetic, that you don't even like him as a friend, and that you would never go on a date with him."

"That's not what I said!" I protested.

Well, not the first two parts.

"That's what I told him, but he's still pretty upset. I don't think he liked the fact that you would talk about him to the Club."

"All right," Margaret chimed in. "Let's slow down for a second and catch our breath." She put her arm around me and looked me in the eye. "Are you sure you want to do this now?"

I couldn't believe that at a time like this Margaret had decided to be the voice of reason. Even Maishely looked at her like she was mental. Of course I wanted to do this.

Right.

Now.

"Yes."

I marched into the cafeteria like a soldier off to battle, with Maishely and Margaret right behind me. Hadassa was at the end of the table talking poor Jacky's and Aileen's ears off. She jumped a bit when I slammed down my books next to her. The entire table went silent.

"I have something I need to say." I was looking at Hadassa, but said it loud enough for everyone to hear. "There are certain people who are here for the wrong reasons. Certain people who aren't here because of friendship. People who are manipulative and wouldn't know how to be a good friend even if their bony ass depended on it. They're here because they want to be popular. Well, you know what? I've been used far too much in my life to stand here and let it happen to me again. It's bad enough that I've been screwed around by boys. But to be screwed around by a girl... a supposed friend... is even worse. Underminers are not welcome in The Same Mistakes Club any longer."