At Aunt Amy's

Chapter 14

 "We're kicking her ass," Hazel declared, hopping up and down on her bed.

"A little bit dramatic, but I get the gist," I told her, trying to ignore her tone.

"I could use those snares Ms.Hayworth showed me!"

"Nope. Nope. We're not trapping her. We just gotta march up to her and tell her to-"

"Cut the s***?"

"...yes."

"Can we do it...while she's in a net?"

"Enough with the violence! We're being trying to be mature."

"As opposed to dominant?"

"Yes! C'mon, last time one of your pranks got out of hand I almost died."

I shuddered just and the memory. So did Hazel.

"Okay...well what are you gonna do, then?" Hazel asked.

"I dunno...text her to meet me outside, or-"

"That's it?"

"I guess..."

"You're not just gonna talk it out."

"Would you rather I yell it out?"

"Yeah!" Hazel grinned.

"Oh my God," I mumbled under my breath.

Sighing and rolling her eyes, Hazel told me, "Listen bud, she's not just gonna listen to some empty threat. She's going to keep doing this until the sun burns out of the sky! She's persistent. You have to really convince her. You gotta take her pettiness, and stick it in her-"

"I don't need the details."

"Okay, how about this, you meet her outside during lunch, and like yell up a storm. You gotta get in her face and tell her "That's enough of your B.S.! You stop being a little piss and leave my bestie alone or I'm gonna cut out your liver!"

"A little dramatic, but I get the point."

"Yeah! Now go scream in a mirror for practice." As she pushed me out of her room, she asked, "Hey, when do you eat lunch?"

"10:40."

"God, that's early. Now go practice! By tomorrow, I want you to be the baddest b**** on the block!"

She slammed the door the second my foot crossed the threshold.

The next day, at lunch, I waited outside for what felt like an hour (even though it was three minutes top). Hazel said she'd send a threat (or as she called it, 'message) to Charlie so she'd meet me here. Now all I had to do was wait and pray for the best.

Charlie strutted outside to the empty courtyard and immediately looked at me with disgust.

"You're the one who snap chatted me?" She asked. "You asking me out for that little friend of yours?"

"Nope, and it was my sister."

"Oh, the one who threw that party?"

"'Fraid so."

"Aw, tell her how much I love her next time ya see her!"

"Fine." I grit my teeth, reminding myself to look intimidating.

"So, are you gonna pound me or something?" She took out her phone and tried to pull up a text. She slowly trudged across a pile of leaves to me, cautious about her shoes. "'Cause your sis said that you were gonna beat my a-"

There were a snap and a bang, and suddenly Charlie was six feet in the air. She was tangled in a mess of ropes and leaves suspended from the overhead tree. She kicked and screamed like crazy as I tried to process what was going on.

She was trapped in a Goddamn net.

As Charlie continued shrieking, I whipped out my phone and called Hazel. Surprisingly, she picked up immediately.

"HAZEL WHAT THE HELL?" I screamed at the phone.

"Wanna hear about how I lined up your schedule with mine and planned to use the restroom at this exact moment so I could call you as it was all happening?"

"No! What did you do!?"

"I told you I was gonna use those snares!"

"Why would use a net? Why do you have a net? Why can't you be like a-"

"I'm sorry, okay!?" Charlie shrieked from above, rambling in panic. "I only did it 'cause I liked her back!"

Pausing and staring up at the net, I put Hazel on speaker phone and whispered, "What did you just say?"

Panting, she continued, "I stopped being friends with Jenna...because I liked her too...and was too scared to tell anyone. I was so confused to learn that someone else felt that way, so...I pushed her away."

"Ooh! Bi****, hang up on me and call Jenna! She needs to hear that tea."

So I hung up on Hazel...and called Jenna. I was already pretty tall, so I didn't have to try to hard to put the phone up against the net. When Jenna picked up, Charlie squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath.

"Jenna...I'm sorry," Charlie admitted.

"What? Is that you, Charlie? Avery, what's-"

"Charlie has something to admit!" I exclaimed.

Trying again, Charlie told her ex-best-friend, "Okay, you wanna know why I stopped being friends with you when you came out?"

"...what?!" Jenna responded.

"I didn't leave you because I thought you liked me. I left because I liked you."

Jenna was silent for a second. "Really?"

"Yeah...yeah..." Charlie panted.

"God...I'm kinda sorry. I mean, it explains a lot..."

"Yeah, yeah, it does. So...do you still wanna be friends?"

"Honestly...not really. We really have nothing in common."

"True. But...could we not hate each other?"

"Yeah, sure."

"And a quick note...I have a...little crush on Gretel."

"Oh...well...is she into you?"

"I don't know? Avery?"

"Don't ask me, babe. I'm not into anyone," I told Charlie.

"Anyone?" Charlie questioned.

"Anyone."

"Damn...well, can you get me down from here, now?"
"Down from here? What the-" Jenna blurted out before I anxiously hung up on her. I immediately called Hazel and demanded, "How do I get Charlie down?"

"Oh...I stuck a knife in the tree. That'll work."

"A knife? Wait how am I supposed to get up there and cut the ropes and is she just gonna fall, or-"

Just then, Hazel hung up.