Blue Letter Night

8. Mason is in on the gosip

I'll admit, finding Eddies house was not as easy as Anne said it would be. There was about a dozen big red houses on Becker street but finally, after what seemed like knocking on all the doors of red houses, I had found the red house.

Eddie answered the door. He'd grown very tall and very broad sense the last time I'd seen him, his smile was the same when he recognized me though, wide and toothy.

Eddie and I acted like we had been friends the whole nine years I had been gone. We shared stories of the last nine years on the slow walk back to Machelle's house. Around us summer flourished and was in full swing. The air smelled like pollen

"So how's Beth?" He laughed. Eddie had been there for many of my pranks in the war against Beth, though he never actually participated because he was too nice, he was good moral support. I groaned loudly in response to his question.

"You'll get along eventually," he insisted. I laughed.

"You haven't changed a bit. Still overly optimistic," I told him.

"Who are you to talk? You're as stubborn as ever. That's something you and Beth have in common," he told me. I cringed.

"Do you even know Beth?"

"Yeah, we have cooking class together at school; we're friends," he explain.

"So this is betrayal?" I told him with an air of dramatics. We laughed together and it eased the fear I had about moving back to Stanmore.

In that moment I never would've guessed I would be spending the rest of the afternoon walking around the Stanmore mall with my childhood friend, my arch rival and her best friend.

The walk had been nearly unbearable— Anne, Beth, And Eddie all chatting about a school year I wasn't apart of inside jokes I didn't know. I felt out of place amongst these people I had once known so well. I was irritated and snappy because of my bitterness and picked a fight with Beth. The situation was eased quickly over the common goal to get to the AC as quick as possible. A five minute walk later, and the four of us arrived at the crowded and noisy mall.

We pushed through the sweaty body's of the citizens of Stanmore doing some shopping for the start of summer. Parents with their screaming kids passed by while the older siblings trailed behind looking mildly embarrassed. Our peers were scattered around through out the mall.

"Don't look now, but Sebastian is over there." Anne gestured with the motion of her eyes to the large group of people around our age at the food court. A bunch of girls and guys chatted in a circle, off to the left of the group was a guy leaning over a girl who look more than a little uncomfortable. I saw the guy look up. Recognition filled his face and he was headed in our direction.

"Who's Sebasti-" I began before being cut off by Anna's frantic voice.

"Shut up, he's coming over and we need to leave." Beth tried to walk away causally but was stopped.

"Bethany," He greeted from behind Beth.

Beth turned around arms crossed, lips pursed, and sure enough we had been approached by probably the biggest douche I had ever laid eyes on. As soon as he strode up to us in the food court I could tell he was a price of work. He walked like he thought he should've been carried everywhere, and carried himself in a way that told everyone he thought he was better than them.

I couldn't see her face, but I could see the glare she had given him, mostly because I had been on the receiving end of that glare before.

"Sebastian," She replied. "I thought we agreed a long time ago you wouldn't call me that," Sebastian shrugged obviously enjoying her discomfort with him calling her by her full name.

"I see you've got another loser following you around now?," He acknowledged me from behind Beth, as confused as ever.

"Wow, you can count," She mumbled sharply, "I figured counting might've been beyond your mental capabilities," I resisted the urge to laugh. As much as I was all for the take down of assholes, I was still mortal enemies with Beth. Eddie and Anne did not hold back their laughter.

"Bethany, take a Midol and quit being such a bitch,"

Sebastian walked away after that, dignified but hugging and mumbling to himself. Beth turned swiftly and walked away quickly in the opposite direction he did. We walked in a group behind her. She looked more mad at him than she did after an argument with me.

"Who was that guy?" I asked.

At the same time she told me it was none of my business Eddie said, "Her ex,"

"Whoa whoa, you have an ex? And it's that guy?" The shock in my tone came out strongly.

"Yes I have an ex. How about you Carter? Got any ex girlfriends to brag about?" She said bitterly. I just made a pfft sound, because the last girlfriend I had was Stephenie Garble in the eighth grade for a week. Not exactly something to brag about.

"So what happened then?" I asked. Just as she told me to butt out Eddie revealed "He cheated on her,"

"Eddie!" She scolded, "come on man,"

"As much as I hate you, that's pretty messed up," I couldn't have ever imagine cheating or being cheated on. Was it so hard to dump someone before moving on?

"Thanks but I don't need your pity," Beth told me bitterly.

"Try sympathy," I sneered back mimicking her scrunched up expression.

"Sure," she told me sarcastically before suggesting that we go get soft pretzels for lunch. I let her and Anne walk in front while Anne consoled her.

"So what happened?" If I wanted to learn more about my rival, Eddie was the best way without Beth finding out.

"Uh," Eddie made a conflicted face, "it's not really my place..." but it took little to no prompting for Eddie to tell me the story.

"Last year, when Sebastian was actually a decent guy, he asked Beth out. He and Beth had been friends for a while so she said yes. It was I think a month or two before Sebastian was caught making out with Gracie Smith under the stairwell. The word spread around the school before it got to Beth,"

"That's rough," I admitted. I may not have been the biggest fan of Beth, but I wasn't lying when I said I felt sorry for her. One of my friends back in the last town I had lived in, got cheated on by his girlfriend of a year. He was really torn up by it, especially sense everyone was up in his business about it. At least she had the decency to tell my friend before the rumours spread.

"Yeah. Beth didn't take it too hard, but Sebastian and her had been friends before, and her and Gracie helped each other out in math class and we're sorta friends, which was definitely salt in the wound. After a while Sebastian kept up the streak and that relationship turned out to be the longest one he ever had," Eddie explained further.

I had a lot more questions but before I could talk about it anymore, we caught up to the girls at the pretzel cart. Beth was calm, or at least trying, as she munched on a giant mall pretzel.