The Same Mistakes Club

Chapter Eight

"You agreed to do what?" Margaret practically ran off the side of the road when I told her the next morning. "Seriously, Alissa, she's on some sort of medication. There's something off upstairs."

"I know - I see her talking to everybody." I tried to not laugh.

"You don't understand - you don't have any classes with her. I've got two - before lunch. And all she did yesterday was come over and talk to me in that cheerleadery way she has."

"Yeah, well, I'm not that worried about it. She'll cancel on me. End of story."

I guess in a way Maishely prepared me for being dumped by guys. With her it was the same thing as any guy - the calls not being returned, avoiding me in the hallways, talking behind my back.

Margaret's cell phone ran. She threw her headset on, answered, listened for about three seconds, then screamed, "WHAT?"

I instinctively grabbed the wheel to steady her driving.

"Are you even serious? When?" Margaret grabbed my arm. "Oh my God!"

I wanted to hit her, but didn't want to die on my way to school. Margaret just kept on screaming and asking questions. When she finally got off the phone, a look of smugness settled on her face.

"You're not going to believe it," she said. "Gabriel broke up with Maishely."

"WHAT?" I screamed so loud, Margaret winced. "You can't be serious. I've seen Maishely at Gabriel's locker -"

Margaret shook her head. "Marissa went in early this morning with the cross country team to practice, and the news broke. From what she knows, he broke up with her at the start of summer before she went away on vacation, but nobody really knew about it since Gabriel didn't want to, I don't know, spread gossip or whatevs while she was away. They wanted to wait a few more days to tell people, but Jacob ended up spilling it to Natalia Raina, and you can imagine where it went from there."

"That's impossible," I replied. Maishely Creston and Gabriel Smithers had been together for four years. They were supposed to get married, have 2.4 kids, and have a 50 percent chance of living happily ever after.

"It all makes perfect sense! This is why she's being so nice to everybody, that fake little bee-yotch." Margaret glared at me. "And now we know exactly what she wants."

I looked at Margaret in confusion. What did Maishely want?

"She thinks that now she's single, she can come running back to her old friend Alissa."

I tried to wrap my head around it. Maishely dumped me for Gabriel, Gabriel dumped Maishely, and now she expected us to be friends again.

I don't think so.

"Wait a second," Mordecai interrupted. "You're friends with Maishely Creston?"

"No, we used to be friends."

"Wow." Mordecai looked impressed. "She's hot. Do you think you can introduce her to me?"

"Get out of the car!" Margaret screamed. Mordecai rolled his eyes, and he jumped out as soon as Margaret pulled into the parking lot.

"How stupid does she think I am?" I asked. "After not talking to me for four years, she wants me to mop up after Gabriel. I've got my own guy problems, thank you very much. I'm so cancelling on her."

"What?" Margaret's eyes opened wide. "No way - you have to go!"

I couldn't believe she was being serious. Margaret hated Maishely and she wanted me to hang out with her?

"You have got to get the scoop. Find out why he dumped her skinny ass and then get up and leave. You don't owe her anything. See how she feels being used for once."

"But I..."

"Come on, Alissa. I wish I could go and hear her poor sad sob story. Oh, I'm so happy Gabriel finally came to his senses. Hmmm, I wonder if I should put him on the list." Margaret looked thoughtful for a moment. "Nah, I've always thought he'd be better for you. Not that you're dating or anything."

I felt a migraine coming on.