The Lying Serpent

Chapter Twenty-Six: Seventh Grade

Hey guys!

I should be studying but I thought I'd take a break to give you some long awaited answers. i will resume uploads after exams (1st of December). Thanks for bearing with me!

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Oh. That's all that I could think as I stood there, staring at Nita's phone.

"Um, do you think she'll still be at the festival?" I asked Nita.

"Probably? Let's all go, we need to collect our cars anyway," Nita reasoned.

"What's going on?" Ley asked, worrying at her lip.

"I'll tell you along the way."

I hurried down the street, desperate to get to the Festival before Sabrina left. If she was even still there. The walk back seemed torturously long, but eventually we arrived at the Festival, the celebration still in full swing despite the vicious post about Sabrina. I wandered the stalls, searching for her, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Ugh, where is she? What if she already left?"

"Check the school bathrooms?" Lissie suggested. I nodded, rushing to the school grounds.

Entering the school bathrooms, I checked the stalls for her, and finally saw yellow fabric pooled on the floor of the stall at the end of the row.

"Sabrina?" I called tentatively.

"Go away."

"It's me...Melinda."

"Linny?" She surprised me with my childhood nickname.

"Yeah, Breeny it's me."

She laughed humorlessly. "Why are you here? Here to shame me for my sexuality?"

"No! I'd never do that. Look Sabrina, I just want to make sure you're ok. Whoever is behind that account shouldn't have exposed you like that. "

"You don't think it's me anymore?"

I leaned against her stall door, and slid to the floor, hugging my knees to my chest. "No, I don't think you would keep a secret for so many years and then disclose it to the whole world in such a discriminatory and hateful way."

"Well, that's something I guess."

"Sabrina...why keep your sexuality a secret?"

She scoffed. "Melinda, sexuality isn't like race. As a girl of Chinese descent, I am sure you have faced prejudice before, especially in this school. If you could hide your race, would you?"

I pondered over her question. "Maybe at one point, when I was younger But not anymore. Besides, I'm only half-Chinese, and I don't even know the language, or the culture. I guess you could say I'm a banana," I laughed. "Asian on the outside, but American on the inside."

"Well, lucky for you, I guess. It was better for me to keep my sexuality a secret, especially with how my mother acted when she found out."

I was almost too scared to ask. "What did she say?"

"Oh Linny. Remember how we used to be best friends? And then in seventh grade, I told everyone that you were a bitch and you had a crush on John the druggie, even though you didn't? When I never spoke to you, except when it was to insult you? Well, there's a reason for that. A poor one, but albeit, still a reason."

She paused.

"Go on," I urged, my mind filled with bitter thoughts as I reflected back on seventh grade.

"Well, you see I always had a suspicion I was different. I always found girls so...pretty. And not your normal 'wow give me makeup tips' pretty. But the 'can I date you?' kind of pretty. So, for a long time I passed my attraction to girls off as simple adoration and support of how a girl looked. I thought that maybe, just maybe, the attraction wasn't me being lesbian, but me lifting ourselves up as women. After all, women should support each other, not bring each other down, right? And one of the most common reasons for jealousy was a girl's looks. But then seventh grade happened. In seventh grade, I had no choice but to accept that I was not into guys, and only into girls. I had to accept that I am a lesbian. Seventh grade was when I realised that I had a crush on you. I knew you weren't into girls, after all, how many times did you swoon over Henry?"

At the mention of my old crush, a slight tinge of pink reached my cheeks and Sabrina laughed.

"I have a feeling someone else has captured your attention now," she winked, not elaborating when I threw her a questioning look. "Anyway, I had no one to confess or vent to. After all you were my best friend, you were meant to be my confidant. But how could I confide to my crush about my crush? So, I decided to keep a diary. Unfortunately, my mother found that diary pretty quickly."

I held my breath, awaiting the inevitable. Mrs. Gordon had been nothing but lovely when I was a child. I had a feeling that was all about to change.

"You should have heard all the things she said! I remember her exact wording. She said to me, "Bri, what is this? You're a- a lesbian?! This is outrageous! Oh, why couldn't you be normal? And what of Linda, is she lesbian too? Is she sick like you? Are you having some dirty, secret relationship?" I said to her "No Mum, I swear I'm not in a relationship with her. She isn't into me like that." Oh, that just made it worse. She was screeching now, "But you are? Is that it Sabrina?! Get rid of your filthy diary and never speak of this again." As I left for my room, I heard her whisper "Why couldn't she be like Melinda?" And that was the day I decided to hate you."

"Oh, Breeny.."

"It's alright Linny. And so, the guys I dated were just cover stories. They knew the truth, I would never deceive them that way. I made sure they were guys I could trust. That picture The Lying Serpent posted a few weeks back, the one of me and someone kissing? Well, I was technically cheating, but the guy knew about it. And it was a girl I kissed, not a guy. Only me and a few of the guys who helped me knew about me. Oh- and my family. Oh, and um, just to clarify, I no longer like you that way. I'm really sorry for how I treated you back then. I was confused and hurt, but that is definitely no excuse. And I don't expect this to be some miraculous bridge to our old friendship."

"Well, it's certainly not a bridge to our old friendship." Silence from the other side of the door. "However, it's certainly a bridge to a new friendship."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we could start again. A fresh start, a new friendship between us. Clean slate."

"Well, I guess that could work."

"So, what do you say? Truce, Demon?"

Sabrina laughed. "Oh, it's a truce, Giraffe."

"Then prove it and come out here."

"Fine, but I'm warning you, I look a right mess." The door swung open, and despite the mascara running down her cheeks, Sabrina looked as beautiful as ever.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up."

"I really am sorry, you know," she burbled, water cascading down her face as she futilely attempted to get rid of her mascara.

"It's fine Sabrina. It was a long time ago, we're older and more mature now. Or, I'd like to think so. I guess I haven't acted so mature these past few weeks, huh? I'm sorry for the way I've acted these past few years. You just turned on me so suddenly all those years ago, I never really understood. But, now I do. So, let's put all this behind us and focus on better things. Yeah?"

"Yeah, ok."

"Well, well, if it isn't my least favourite and my favourite people in the same room. Talking civilly, for once!"

Both of our heads whipped around to the entrance of the bathroom, where a blonde girl stood.

"Summer?"

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A/N: HEHHHEHE I know I'm evil ;). Anyway, until December 1st! I will try working more on one of my other stories now that this story is coming to a close. Happy reading! Deds to AvaViolet for keeping me up till 2 am for the past few nights with her amazing stories when I should have been studying lmao <3