Opposites

1.1

tw: alcohol

I couldn’t sleep after that. My dreams were shattered and on top of all that, it had already been one of the worst days of my entire life. I got up extra early and squeezed into my uniform. I threw my hair up into a ponytail and applied some dark eye shadow and was basically set for the day. I grabbed my purse and began to walk down to the diner so I wouldn’t have to face seeing Mary or Jake that morning, let alone drive with them. Although, walking did make me ten minutes late for my seven am shift at the diner. 

“You’re lucky Davie isn’t here yet.” Anne said as I walked into the diner. Davie was the manager of the diner.

“Nice to see you too, Annie.” I smiled wide at her. 

“Don’t act so damn chummy with me.” Anne growled back. 

“You know what? That’s it,” I slammed my bag down onto the counter and approached Anne, “You can act as sour and pissy about this as you want, but I didn’t bang your ex-boyfriend you’re obviously still infatuated with. The truth is, you can do better than that douche and even you know that. You just don’t think you’re good enough for anyone else. Go on, act like you hate me. Act like you couldn’t care less about me, but I know we’re best friends. I’m the one that was always there for you, so grow the hell up and stop acting so damn selfish.” I shouted furiously. Stacy, a middle aged coworker, stared bewildered at us. I’m pretty sure a customer or two got up and left. I should have kept my mouth shut. 

Anne clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes. I thought she was going to reply but she only turned around and walked into the kitchen. It made sense. I was losing everything I wanted. I should have seen Anne was eventually going to walk away someday too. After serving a few customers, my phone began to buzz in my pocket. I pulled off my apron and picked up the phone. 

“Hello?” I asked as I walked outside and sat on the wooden bench in front of the diner. 

“Hey, Cali. It’s Tamara. I’m having a bonfire tonight at my place and I want you and Anne to come.” Oh my god. I didn’t actually think Tamara even liked me.

***

About eleven hours later, I arrived at Tamara’s house. The house was a large, two-story suburban home, and was spaced about thirty feet away from all the neighbors. It reminded me of Mack’s party with a bunch of random people dancing and drinking. There was one large fire pit in the middle of the back yard about thirty people were huddled around. Everyone else was either eating or dancing. Music was blaring and teenagers were all over each other. I spotted Aimee first and made my way over to her. 

“Cali! Oh my god, you’re here. I need you to meet some people.” Aimee helped pull me through the giant crowd to another group of people. 

“This is Greg, Val, Kent, Marissa, and Luke. Guys, this is Cali.” They all smiled at me and said hello.

Aimee walked over and sat down next to Luke. He slung his arm around her and kissed her cheek.

“Gosh, Luke, don’t be such a pansy. You’re embarrassing me.” Aimee blushed and punched him in the arm. 

I couldn’t hold my laughter in so I walked away quickly. I sat by the fire with a bunch of drunk strangers as they passed around a bottle of vodka. 

“Hey, blue!” I turned around as I realized the mention was probably to me because of my hair.

“Hey, Justin!” I got up and walked over to him.