Mean Girl Tendencies

18|"I don't get a bad reputation, I give one, Eric."

"Therapy? You want to know if I've ever thought of therapy?" Sam takes another scoop of vanilla ice cream and dumps it into his cup.

I grab the tub of ice cream and pull it away from him. "That's enough! If you eat anymore you'll turn into the cow that produced it." I place the tub back into the freezer. "And will you keep your voice down? My brothers trying to have his birthday party right there."

Sam rolls his eyes. "I can't believe he's not throwing a rager instead of this lame thing, it's what we did when we were his age."

"Well he's better than us."

Eric decided to have a few friends over and he rented an outdoor ice skating rink with carnival like food vendors. It did hurt the bank a little, but I didn't want him to worry about that.

"No," Sam takes a big bite into his ice cream. "therapist can't keep secrets, tabloids would find out eventually. And who would pay for it? My parents? And have them find out? Hell no. Why are we talking about this? It's over."

I watch the kids, from the backyard patio, skate, chase each other around, and laugh. I just want to keep that smile on Eric's face, for as long as possible. But I can still feel those hands on my waist, caressing my face, and playing with my hair. It causes me to shiver.

"Anyways, this is a sad topic. Let's go skate."Sam places he mug on the table that sat in between us and stood up.

He can't leave. I really need to talk about this with him. "No Sam, I-" I take a deep breath. "Somebody kissed me."

Sam stops in his tracks and looks at me. "Who?"

I shake my head. "It doesn't matter, but what does matter is that I freaked out. I just didn't want to-"

"Enough." Sam whispers. "I said I don't want to talk about it."

Those few words were enough to silence me the rest of the party. Before Sam was able to wash it away, I was able to see pain, and guilt, and fear, and anger, and just so much sadness in his face, all in a few moments. And it was like I shot him straight through the heart, so I decided to stop talking about it.

Today wasn't the day to be thinking about the past. Today was a day to think about the future. My brothers future to be exact. After skating for a few hours, we cut the cake and the fireworks went off. Then after a few more hours everyone went home. It was just me and Eric cleaning up.

"So how was being nice for a night? Did my hard work pay off?"

I pick some wrapping paper off the floor and put it in the big trash bag I was carrying around. "Don't you mean my hard work? I was the one who actually had to be nice."

Eric laughs. "Well I'm the one who had to teach you. I think I should give my teachers more credit. By teaching you, I've learned that teaching is a hard job."

I throw some wrapping paper at him. "I'm not that bad."

The fourteen year old gives me a small smile. "Honestly, you're not. Maybe if people saw you the way I saw you, then maybe you wouldn't get such a bad rep."

I sigh and put my hair up in a high ponytail. It was getting in the way of me picking up all the trash. I've been getting used to cleaning after I had to fire all of the maids last year to save money. Hopefully I don't have to fire the ground keepers, because I refuse to mow the lawn, or trim the hedges, or clean the pool, or clean the fountains.

"I don't get a bad reputation, I give one, Eric. That's one thing you should know when you go to high school. You're going to hear stuff about me, and all of them may not be true, but I'm not a goody two shoes."

"I know." He responds somberly, and dumps the rest of the birthday cake out. "But you weren't always a mean person either."

Just like Sam earlier today, Eric looked sad. But it was a little different, Eric's sadness came with disappointment. Disappointment in me. And he's probably the only person who could make me feel guilty. I knew I could never make him proud, but at least he never has to go through what I've gone through.

It was getting a little to emotional for me, so I clear my throat and say, "It' pretty late, and you have practice early in the morning. Get to bed, and I'll finish cleaning."

"Are you sure?"

I nod. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

He looks a little reluctant, but he says good night anyways. "Good night, Aurora."

"Goodnight, sport."