Another Stupid Boy

Chapter Five

"OMG! I had the most unbelievable, amazing weekend!" Nikki glowed with happiness. She spun around twice before grabbing my arms and spinning me in a wide circle.

"Mine was pretty spectacular, too!" Swimming almost 24/7? Heaven!

Nikki released me before we'd come to a complete stop, and I twirled into my locker door. "Uh, thanks for the concussion, Nicole."

"Puh-leez. I'm on such a high that I can't feel anything except happiness." She grabbed my arms again. "A whole weekend with Kaitlyn and Seth. And thanks to you, I get to do it all again this weekend."

I really tried not to let my feelings get hurt. If I spent the weekend with the McMahon's, maybe I would be self-absorbed and only care about sharing my weekend details instead of listening to my bestie. Ok, that wasn't really fair. I wanted to tell her about my swim-a-thon weekend, which, compared to attention from a hot guy, sounded a little less thrilling.

"So. I passed the sitter test?"

"Kaitlyn said her parents were thrilled. They spoke with the neighbors, and, except for the fact that you're a weirdo swimming outside in February, you were a model teen."

Another weekend of swimming in my future eased the sting from my best friends neglect.

"So, what did you guys do, anyways? Why is the McMahon clan leaving town every weekend?"

Nikki opened her locker and pulled a couple of books out. "Remember their brother, Dean?"

I rolled my eyes. How could I forget the second most annoying boy in the world? First place in that category was reserved for Seth, he got first place in everything.

"He's a competitive swimmer." Nikki got a text. Her smile got even bigger as she read the message, and I waited for her to share whatever had made her so happy.

And I waited.

And I waited.

"Yeah?" I'm not really known for my patience.

"Oh," she glanced at me and placed her phone in her purse. "Yeah, he has all these competitions coming up, and they're going to cheer him on."

It took me a second to realize that my best friend, for the first time in my memory, excluded me from reading one of her texts. And her going back to the topic of Dean meant she had no intention of sharing that text with me.

Well, she knew me well enough to know that I wouldn't let that go.

"Who sent you a text?"

Her eyes slightly widened. "Um, joke of the day app."

"You're lying." She definitely knew she'd never keep a secret from me. I knew every little signal from her body language, especially the I-don't-want-to-get-in-trouble wide-eyed stare.

"I know your password, if you won't tell me, I'll just look at it myself." I grabbed her purse and had it open in a mere couple of seconds.

"Fine," she snatched it back. "It's Kaitlyn. She texted, 'Don't waste it.' it's kind of a private joke between us. I didn't want you to feel left out."

"Then tell me about it, and I'll be in on the private joke, too."

Nikki shrugged, "You kinda had to be there. It won't be as funny just telling you about it."

"Well, I couldn't be there, now could I? I was the reason you even got to go, remember. Because I don't have any friends."

"Ugh, Paige," Nikki wrapped her arm around my shoulders, "don't get all prissy on me. We can have other friends."