The Dude's a Girl

Chapter 18: Blast From The Past

I turned and shuffled around in my bed, not being able to sleep. I played games on my phone but the charge went and I had to let it charge for a while. I turned on the television, lowering the sound. Kayla kept groaning and growling and plus, there was nothing on, apart from those commercial programs. Turning it off, I looked at the time. Two in the morning. Peeking out the curtains, the sky was pitch black without a single star.

After getting back into my bed, I still couldn't sleep, but I was slightly more tired than usual. Eventually, I dozed off.
I woke up at late ten, quickly brushing my teeth and hair. I took a quick shower and got dressed.

Walking down to breakfast, I bumped into Tom and Matt.

"Hey, Sam." Matt smiled at me.

"Hey." Tom looked up.

"Oh, hi guys." I replied, yawning.

"You seem tired," Matt realised. "What time did you sleep last night?"

"I dunno. Three?" I sighed.

"That explains...that." Tom joked as they looked at my eye bags. I raised my eyebrows at the two boys, who were sniggering.

I got down to breakfast and had an egg sandwich with apple juice. Ugh, I had just remembered that there was school tomorrow. Anyway, I exercised after breakfast, with Matt, Tom and Kayla, who said that they wanted to go out for their last day before school.

I went upstairs to put on some mascara and eyeliner and as I fixed myself in the mirror, I heard knocking on my door. I pulled it open and saw that it was Matt and Tom.

"Hey, cupcake," Matt stepped in. "You look great."

"Well, thank you but maybe we should pass on the couple names." I suggested, chuckling.

"Yeah, me too. It did feel a little awkward." He smirked.

"So, what are we doing?" I asked.

Matt and Tom looked at each other, grinning.

"THE SPIRIT OF THE SLOP!" They yelled in unison.

I scrunched my nose, "No no no no. I don't want acne." They sighed in disappointment.

"We could go see a movie and have some frozen yoghurt." Kayla suggestion.

"Yeah, that would be a nice way to end the holidays, " I agreed and looked over at the boys to see if they agreed too.

"True," Tom grabbed his coat.

"Let's go," Matt grinned.

We made our way out of campus together and since I am unfortunately very clumsy, I bumped into someone.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I apologized, picking up her books that had fallen. And then I realised that I already knew her.

She had blonde, long hair and tanned skin. She was furrowing her perfectly plucked eyebrows at first then her mouth and hazel eyes widened.

"Sam!" She exclaimed. She then explained to my friends, "Oh, we were in the same classes for a few years!" She grinned. I bit my lip, frowning. I remember now. I used to bully her because I stupidly thought she was weird. Oh God, please say she's forgotten all about it.

"Hazel...is it?" I faked a wobbly smile. Of course I knew her name, I just wanted her to think that maybe I forgot the rest of what happened too.

"Yeah," She let out a chuckle but her eyes hid a little sadness. "You should know since you're someone who made fun of it."

I shuffled around awkwardly. She was looking at the ground, and didn't sound harsh or mean at all. Why was I so stupid? She's a great girl.

"I'm really sorry, Hazel. It's actually a really beautiful name, like you, and it matches your eyes. Please forgive me?" I pleaded.

"Well, I don't know if I can. I mean, you pulled at my hair and called me ugly and all sorts of other names. At the end of the day, I had to lie to my mother that the day was great, that I had plenty of friends," She had on a brave smile, but it disappeared.

"I'm so sorry-"

"Then, one day, she saw the bruises on my arms, the tears in my eyes. I thought I shouldn't tell her, with all the trouble and sadness of my dad passing away. She asked me questions, I refused to answer. But, she eventually got it all out of me. The next morning, she told Mrs Evans, our principle, about it, and you and your friends had gotten expelled. My life was happier, easier and, well, better."

Oh God, did she have to be so overdramatic?

"I can't believe this." Matt mumbled to himself, disappointed.

"That's what I thought," Hazel carried on. "Later that week, you came back and for months, no, years, you never spoke a word or came in contact with me. Then, we grew up, went to the same high school and I had gotten myself a boyfriend. Yeah, I wasn't the prettiest in the pack, braces and bug eyes, but, he wasn't so handsome either. He had the brains and he was just amazing."

However mad or angry Hazel was, she never shouted. Actually, her voice just went softer. Why was she doing this? She's doing this on purpose. She knows I'm sorry, she just wants revenge. She looked at my friends and told her story now.

"Sooner or later, Mom died. And don't feel sorry for me, I hate it when people do that. So, I go into school one day and see Will, my boyfriend, kissing Sam. Well, it was more of Sam kissing Will. His back was turned to me but I could see Sam and Sam could see me. She stopped for a second and smirked at me. So obviously we broke up because he actually thought he had a chance with the popular girl. Less than a week later, she broke his heart. Hard. And the thing is, she would find sneaky little ways to make me sad or annoyed every single day."

She paused, sighed and looked down.

"But, I mean, it wasn't a big deal, you know. She did that to everyone. Make mean little remarks and indirect insults. But finally, it stopped. Sam moved schools. But, before that, something happened. She was all serious and depressed, and sorry for everything."

"Mom's death." I mumbled.