Project Equality

Grad Party Drama

Jenna

I don't know why I always seemed to be at the center of drama.

Okay, that was a bitch ass lie. I know why I was at the center of drama. I caused it. When I didn't cause it, I got involved at it. After years and years of creating and influencing drama, I guess it was just attracted to me.

It started at Amilia's grad party. I thought that she should have the calmest of all of us, but as more and more people arrived, it became clear that this was not the case.

"May, Lisa, good to see you guys!" I said, since it had been almost a whole week since we last spoke. In our circle, that was a long time.

They both faked smiles and waved, and I knew immediately that something wasn't right. When they were together, they were always smiling. It was what made their relationship so beautiful. Unless . . . No. I couldn't even bring myself to entertain such a horrendous thought. May and Lisa were forever. They had to be. They were my OTP.

Well, things got started, people started talking, and I floated from conversation to conversation until I landed back with Lisa and May. They were arguing.

"May, this isn't the place."

"Like hell it is not. There is no place. For fuck's sake, Lisa, will you please look at me?"

"Don't touch me! Don't talk to me! I'm only here for Amilia, okay? It's not my fault that we happened to arrive at the same time."

They didn't come together?

"Fine, if you want to act like a child, then you can do that. I am going to go sit at the grown ups table." May stalked off, holding her head in a sort of proud determination that I hadn't seen since the eighth grade.

"Lisa?" I began, stepping over to her. "Are you guys okay?"

"Get bent, Jen." She stood up and pushed past me.

I couldn't help but feel a little hurt. After all I went through to make things right between the two of us, I hoped that it would get me in on little things like explosive fights. Still, I wasn't going to pry. I was at least above doing that. Instead, I looked for Ami.

"Hey, congrats!" I said, even though it was congrats to all of us, because we were in the same graduating class. "Small gift." I handed her a gift bag.

"Oh, Jen, you didn't have to do this." She opened it to find a paintbrush, but like one of those really expensive ones you can only find in the nice art section at Michael's. I figured that any professional painter should have one. "Oh, I love it. Thanks."

"No problem." I hugged her tightly before catching sight of the seven new Club admin. "Hey, look who came."

She turned to look and smiled wide. "Oh, good. I'm glad that they could make it."

"Hi, Jenna!" The guy I trained came running toward me.

"Oh, Anthony, it's good to see you!" I hugged him tightly. "How is Club going? You keeping everyone in line?"

"You know it. Don't worry, Jen, everything is taken care of. Your Club is in good hands, and it's going to outlive you now."

I didn't want to think about it, but I still smiled because the beauty of Club was that it was never about us in particular. It was about every life it had the ability to touch.

After catching up with all of them, I resumed floating around, looking for someone to talk to. Parties of that size were never really my thing, which was why I invited so few friends to mine, but I could at least appreciate that everyone was having a good time. For maybe the first time ever, I saw Hazel without Ami or Andrea directly beside her, so I decided to join her. She wasn't socially anxious like most of the rest of us, but that didn't mean that she couldn't still be uncomfortable in a scene of mostly strangers.