Sometimes, I just hate people. If you can't already tell. I wonder a lot. I wonder if my friends are really friends, if my parents were really my parents...I wonder if I'm lying to myself about my life. Wait what? She has a life? You're probably thinking. That's okay, I know I don't.
***
Katherine wraps her arms around Levi's neck, and I resist the urge to scream. "Hey Levi," she pecks him on the cheek.
Levi's face turns the color of a ripe cherry. Either because he's mortified or he just loving Katherine's mushy, affectionate displays and stuff. "Hey Kath," is all he says as he averts his eyes from me and becomes very interested at observing the ants crawling around on the sidewalk.
Too furious to look at Levi and Katherine, I turn towards Ben and he looks like he's just seen a chocolate ogre jumping over a rainbow. Making eye contact with Ben, he mouths an unpleasant curse that starts with an 's' and means poo. I nod in agreement.
Katherine seems to notice our confusion and shock, "What?" she stares blankly at Ben and me. "He's my boyfriend." She then released her arms around Levi's neck and then held Levi close, grabbing his hand.
"Wonderful," I don't try to conceal the bitterness entering my heart.
I hear Ben mumble, "Congratulations."
Then I say--"Luna," Ben stops me from blurting out the worst. "I forgot that I had to go to the library to return some books." He then takes me by the arm, practically dragging me away from Katherine, not bothering to acknowledge Levi and Katherine of our leaving. Blood still boiling, I look back at my nemesis. I see that she's wickedly smiling behind Levi's shoulder.
At the library. Yes, legitimately the library. I know, I thought Ben meant the "library", not the actual library!
"You alive?" he says, sitting down at a circular table with two plush chairs.
"No," I sit in the other plushy chair.
Ben sighs and ruffles his hair, making them look like brown panels turning, only to be flat again.
A silence passes between us, and I think he's trying to make up something nice to say. A comforting thing. A lie. A sugar-coated lie. A half-truth. A statement only to make things seem worse. Words saying the opposite. Words hiding the truth. Hiding the horrible betrayal. But he doesn't. Instead he says, "I know that things are weird right now but, I think," Ben pauses and I can tell that he's struggling to get his words out, "I think that--" he clears his throat. "I think that I like someone."
Hearing this, I move to the edge of my seat, full of anticipation. "Who?"
"You."
