That Was Then

54-Now

Caleb keeps his arm securely around my waist as we weave through the growing crowd. He stops periodically to talk about the game with guys from the team. It's more to keep me steady than any kind of show of affection but I like it anyway. I let him lead me around and somehow my drink stays full even though I'm sure that I am still drinking it. I'm definitely feeling it. 

"Heyyy," I have to yell for him to hear me, "didn't you want to tell me something earlier?"

Caleb beams at me and shakes his head, "yea, but not here!" He turns his attention back to Aiden and their jock talk. 

"You good?" Eden asks me, approaching fast enough to make me dizzy. I keep hold of Caleb to keep me upright. "Nope," she answers her own question and confiscates my drink. She takes me from Caleb and leads me over to the bar. 

"Eden!" I lean into her and whisper, except it's definitely not a whisper because Eden leans away from the blast of my alcohol scented voice and the people around us turn to look. I give them a dirty 'mind your own business' look and turn my attention back to Eden, "I think I'm drunk." I punctuate the statement with a loud hiccup. Eden laughs and hands me a water bottle.

"Hey," Tatum materializes behind Eden, "I need her!" She says to me and drags Eden away. I lean against the bar and nurse my bottle of water. I stand there in my own fuzzy world for awhile before Kya's voice cuts through my haze. I turn slowly so that the room doesn't spin and she is standing on the other side of the bar with Marley, Seth and a few others who's names don't immediately come to me. Football players, cheerleaders, some girl with black hair and a mean face. No friendly faces, except for Seth's. He winks at me, or at least I think he does. Ew, too friendly. 

"Where's your cousin?" She asks me and it takes a minute to register that she is talking about Caleb. She still thinks that joke is funny. "Or, I mean boyfriend." Her words slur together, she's had a few drinks herself. I can see this getting ugly and I know I should just walk away but I don't. 

I shrug and smirk. "I dunno," I glance at Seth and back to Kya, "I don't have to keep an eye on my boyfriend all the time like you do." I let the implication hang in the air. Everyone knows that Seth cheats on Kya. Kya knows that everyone knows but all of their friends look away uncomfortably. Her ice blue eyes flare and then cool, she narrows them at me but then looks to Marley and Seth to make sure they're listening before turning back to me. I glance around and we have a bit of an audience gathering.

"No, you just have to pay him." Her voice is loud, drawing even more attention. "I mean your parents do pay them, right? You guys all know that his grandma is her family's maid right?" Kya says 'maid' like it is a dirty word, something beneath her even saying. I want her to shut up, I want to launch myself over the bar at her, tackle her to the ground and make her shut up. Her lips twist into a cruel smile, she's not done yet. "Or is it like a charity thing for you, helping the underprivileged, like his college fund from your daddy?" I gasp like she just hit me. 

My parents started a college fund for Caleb when he started school. As long as his grades were good, which they always were, they put money in every year. Any work Caleb did around the house my parents put money in for as well, even when he was six and just picking up pine cones around the house. I didn't even know that Kya knew about all of that. 

"What the hell is your problem with Caleb?!" I practically screech at her, past caring about the crowd gathered around us anymore. I am vaguely aware of Vivi pulling on my arm, I don't budge. I can see Allie out of the corner of my eye, her eyes wide and her mouth wide open. Shocked, horrified? Maybe both. 

"Caleb isn't my problem, you are! Why did you have to come back?" Her voice is so loud and full of venom that even Marley takes a step back. 

"Why did I have to leave to begin with?" I ask her, my voice turning quiet, but it doesn't matter. Somebody turned the music off and the room is so silent that everyone hears me. Confusion flashes on Seth's face behind Kya, I imagine Eden and the others wear matching expressions but I don't look to find out. "You want to get personal Kya, why don't you tell your friends about all that?" Your friends, I should have said our friends because in spite of my intentions that is what they are. Caleb grips my upper arm but I shake him off. I look around at the rest of the room, carefully avoiding Tatum's eyes when I glance in her direction. "Believe it or not, once upon a time Kya and I were best firends," I tell everyone, eyes widen around the room but nobody says a word.

"Shut up, Blakely!" Kya seethes. But I don't, I'm done shutting up. I have no doubt that if the bar wasn't between us Kya would try to make me.

"All through elementary school we were pretty much inseparable. And then middle school happened and Kya decided I wasn't good enough to be her friend anymore." My eyes burn with hot tears and they might have already spilled over my lids but I'm not entirely sure. 

"Blakely," Caleb's voice is low, a warning that I wont heed. 

"Not just that though, that would have been fine because let's be honest, she's no treat." I sneer at her. 

"Blakely," Caleb is pleading now but now that I started, I can't seem to stop.

"She and her new friends bullied me, tortured me. They broke my glasses, put my clothes in the showers during gym class," I search the room for Jackson and find him leaning against one of the glass doors, "once I had an allergic reaction and broke out in hives, they told everyone in school that I had herpes and if they touched me they would get it too. Everyone treated me like I had the plague for months!" Jackson had been a part of spreading that particular rumor, I'd been wondering for weeks now if he's forgotten all of this or if he just chooses not to acknowledge it. The look of shame on his face answers that question. "Kya wrote on the bathroom wall that I should just kill myself, and then..." my face is wet, I hadn't even realized that I'm crying. I'm too mad or too drunk to be embarrassed. "Then at the eighth grade graduation dance-"

"So what Blakely? Did you come back here to get revenge or something? Try to take all of my friends and my boyfriend and turn them against me?!" Kya all but snarls. 

"No," I lie. Maybe that's how it started off, not that I would ever admit that to anyone. But I can see the wheels turning in Allie's head when I turn to her. Comments I've made about Kya. My flat out refusal to do things in small groups with her. I never went so far as to to really try and turn them against her but maybe those little things are enough to convince them that I was trying to do just what she says. I look to Eden and she wont meet my eye, even Vivi is staring at the floor. This time when Caleb takes my arm, I let him pull me away.