Playing With Fire

A Little More Lacie

"No," is all Callie says in response to my confession.

"Callie, listen," I start, only to have her cut me off.

"What? He's actually really sweet? You feel like you have a connection? There was a spark and you know he felt it too? Please. I've heard it all. Haylee, Lacie, all of them. He hasn't ever been serious. Ever. Blaire, you are literally setting yourself up for heartbreak," she hisses.

"Callie, I might give birth to his child. Does that count for anything?" I argue.She just laughs and rolls her eyes.

"You think you're so different, Blaire. So special. What, did he tell you the condom broke? Do you remember anything that happened last night? Chances are good he didn't even use one! His favorite thing to do is bring girls home that are completely trashed, do it with no protection, and then act all innocent on the off chance of a pregnancy," she snorts.

"How would you know?" I growl.

"Because I was one of those girls. Except I actually wasn't as trashed as I was acting and I remembered that night," she admits quietly.

"When?" I screech, causing her to wince and grab her head.

"Hey, just because you aren't hungover doesn't mean you should make other's feel even worse! And it was a year ago," she sighs.

"Did you tell him you knew?" I question.

"Yep, and the look on his face was priceless. And then he told me, 'good, that means you were sober enough to know what you were doing so if you have a child, I don't have to take responsibility or anything,' and walked away," she explains.

"That jerk!"

"He apologized later. And then he actually stuck around for a while, but I didn't want to be anything more than friends. When I found out I wasn't pregnant, we quit hanging out all the time and ended up just talking in detention."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Yeah, he isn't the best guy ever. I would rather not be super close with him."

"Well that's understandable."

"Yeah. So, want to go get breakfast?" Callie quickly changed the subject. I nodded, she took a couple of ibuprofen pills, and then we left her house.

After driving for a while, Callie and I ended up at some small, family-ran business that served breakfast. We didn't really talk until we had sat down and ordered, but as soon as the waiter walked away, we were back to talking in hushed voices about the past.

"Is it true that you and Haylee used to be really close?" I asked before Callie had the chance to choose a topic.

"Yeah," she replied slowly, unsure of where I was going with this.

"What happened? Did Lacie just come between you guys or what?"

"No, we didn't let people come between us. For a week or two, Haylee was friends with both of us. It was when Haylee changed that we split."

"Changed?"

"Started letting Lacie influence her. Started doing drugs. Started vandalizing everything in sight. Started harassing cops and anonymously harassing our friends at school and started becoming the biggest bad girl in town. Right before Lacie died, she was at the point that, after hitting on Dillon all night, he told her he would rather not be caught up in the train wreck that will be her life if she keeps going like that."

"What made her quit?"

"Lacie's death," Callie says it like it's the most obvious answer ever.

"What happened to Lacie?"