The Art Of Not Caring

t w o

"I'm home!" I yelled as soon as the door shut behind me. Immediately, my mom hurried out of the living room, a pen behind her ear and still dressed in her work uniform. She'd probably only gotten home in the last hour or so.

"Hey sweetie," she said. "Doesn't that car belong to that Hendrix girl?" I internally sighed. Of course she'd see that.

"Yeah. I was just driving around and my car broke down suddenly and it was pretty far away from here. Tessa happened to drive by and offered to drive me."

"Why didn't you just call me? Where is the car now? You should've called the tow service." She said, brows furrowed in disapproval.

I held out my phone, "Dead batterie. And anyways, she was there and I didn't want you to worry if I didn't come home on time. I'll just get it towed tomorrow." My mom was still eying me skeptically, clearly not comfortable with the situation. Jeez, people treated Tessa like someone who was out to get innocent teenagers. Maybe she is, I thought, but I didn't really believe it, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself.

"That was nice of her." Everything about her expression suggested that she didn't actually think Tessa was even capable of being nice. And for some reason I felt the need to tell her that she was wrong. To defend her and show her... what exactly? I barely knew Tessa, actually I didn't know her at all. Yesterday, I had been acting like everyone else was acting towards her. Cold and distant. Any yet, something told me I had been wrong. That we all were incredibly wrong. I didn't say anything though. One car ride wasn't enough to prove someone's good nature. Was it?

Instead I said, "Could you drive me to Kat's house later? Lacey, Kat and I are having a sleepover and since my car is still in the middle of nowhere..."

"Sure. Just tell me when. And text me when I should go pick you up tomorrow."

The familiar faint ringing could be heard when I rang the doorbell to Kat's house. Moments later, I could hear someone running towards the door before it was flung open.

"You're late, Lacey and I were starting to think you bailed on us." She said. "Oh, hi Miss Mitchell! I almost didn't see you."

"Hi Katherine. It's so nice to see you again. Congratulations on becoming the cheer captain!" My mom was always exhaustingly nice to Kat, it was almost embarrassing. That was probably because Kat and her entire family was perfect.

You could tell just by looking at their house. The front yard was always immaculately cared for, and the house itself was big and impressive but not too flashy or pompous. The outer walls were repainted every couple of years and every holiday the whole house got a makeover to fit the occasion. It was the number one attraction for all trick-or-treaters every year and every little kid begged their parents to drive by as often as possible once Christmas rolled around.

The people living inside were no different. Kat was a genius, never even close to getting a bad grade in school, really good at sports - hence the cheer captain - and to top it all of beautiful. She didn't even ruin it by being mean, she was always genuinely nice to everybody, whether she knew them or not.

Except for Tessa. The thought flashed through my mind before I could properly think about it. But then again, no one was nice to Tessa.

"Thank you so much!" Kat's answer pulled me out of my contemplating and I quickly said goodbye to my mom before closing the door behind me.

Kat's house was like a second home to me so the first thing I did once inside was heading towards the fridge and pulling out the bowl of fruit Kat's mom always prepared for us and only then went into Kat's room.