That Was Then

33-Then

It didn't happen all at once, it wasn't like we walked out of fifth grade best friends and started middle school as enemies. It happened slowly but steadily. The summer had already put a damper on our friendship as our differences started to come between us. Kya wanted to go to the mall to people watch and shop, I wanted to go to the library to people watch and check out books. Kya wanted to talk about boys and I wanted to talk about... well just about anything else. I wanted to hang out with Caleb and his friends, Kya wanted to flirt with them. By the time school started, we were sick of each other but naively, we tried to hang on. Or at least, I did.

We had some of the same classes and we ate lunch together every day at first. A few weeks into the school year I got bronchitis and missed three days of school. We skipped our Friday sleepover because Mama didn't want me getting Kya sick too even though I was mostly feeling better. On Monday after our last class before lunch I waited for Kya like I always did, she was really taking her time gathering her things.

"You don't have to wait for me," she said, glancing between me and the door. I thought this was weird because we always waited for one another and walked to lunch together.

"I don't mind."

"No really, I have to stop at my locker. I'll come find you at lunch." She urged, practically shooing me away. We both knew I had nobody else to sit with at lunch.

"It's fine, I'll just go with you." I offered, not catching the obvious hints that she was trying to get rid of me. She finally sighed in compliance and walked quickly toward her locker, leaving me a step behind. At her locker two other girls were waiting. I knew who they were but had never spoken to them: Paige and Selena. They eyed me skeptically and Kya shrugged her shoulders. The four of us walked toward the cafeteria together, or actually the three of them walked down the hallway shoulder to shoulder while I trailed them.

I didn't know why they were sitting with us, it didn't occur to me yet that I was the odd girl out. They spent lunch talking about some boys from another school that Selena had met over the weekend and a party she'd been invited to. "So you'll come with me right?" She asked and even I knew she only meant Kya and Paige. When Selena mentioned that the party was on Friday I waited for Kya to tell her that she couldn't go but she didn't say anything. She wouldn't even meet my eye. I spent the rest of lunch staring at a strand of Paige's long auburn hair that dipped in and out of a cup of ranch dressing. The next day, when Paige and Selena were waiting for Kya at her locker again I suddenly remembered some makeup work I had to do from when I was sick.