Life Of A Bitch

9

"Oh, there you are, Michelle!" Mom gushes. "Come inside!"

Callaghan stares at me for a moment- as if surprised herself- and smiles. "Hello, friend."

I feel a gentle prod on my back. "Jen, move. You're blocking her way." Mom admonishes.

I move aside and let her come in. I glance out of the door way again, looking for Brandon.

Is this a joke? Because if it is, I don't find it funny at all.

"Did you have any problem getting here?" Mom asks her, pouring her a cup of coffee. "You shouldn't have though, the address was clear enough and nowadays, every car has a GPS- you have a car, don't you? Miss Andrews said you have."

"Yeah, I have a car." Callaghan looks at me and forces a smile. "But you see, our school is filled with vandals and one of them vandalised my car pretty badly with spray paint. So, I'm getting it repainted."

Mom gasps. "Vandalised your car? And you didn't complain about it?"

Callaghan laughs and shakes her head. "Oh no, Mrs. Lewis! There is a case of vandalism every day at school. Our principal is tired of listening to vandalism-victims. Plus there's no proof to find the culprit, so why waste time bothering about it?"

"Such people should be punished. They don't know how much money it takes to get a car repainted."

Mom, enough.

Callaghan snatches a look at me and nods. "Yeah, they should be."

The snake.

"How about we talk about Alz now, Mom?" I say and laugh forcibly. "What to do now? What is done is done. Let us talk about the present, huh?"

Callaghan nods and smiles at Alz. The latter just huffs and looks away.

Good girl.

"So, Alice," Callaghan begins. "You are weak at Math and Physics, I presume?"

Alz stands up and stomps off to her room, banging the door shut.

"Alice!" Mom yells and smiles weakly at Callaghan. "Teenagers these days... oh, not you, dear! I will be back in a moment." Saying this, she walks briskly towards Alz's room.

Callaghan studies me, as if searching for a hint of fear in my eyes. Fear of her telling Mom about her car. I study her too, and try to find a hint of conspiracy in her eyes. None.

So, she genuinely did not know about this? This whole 'tutoring the sister of my enemy' thing?

"So," Callaghan begins first. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," I smile sweetly. "How are you, Michelle?"

She laughs and picks up the coffee cup. "Oh, my God, what a coincidence! In the morning, you trash someone's locker, in the afternoon you mess up someone's car, and in the evening, your mother invites me to come over to drink coffee and chat about her children."

I stare at her, still smiling. "You deserved what happened to your car."

She rolls her eyes and bites into a chocolate-chip cookie. To say I dislike those cookies would be a lie. But I had to dump them in order to get a '10 on 10' Barbie doll figure.

"Sorry, Alice is tired and wants to rest for a while. You know each other?" Mom comes in, with more cookies for Callaghan. Mom, what are you doing? Leave some for my guilt-eating!

"You didn't know?" Callaghan looks innocently at me, and then at Mom. "Jennifer and I are best friends!"

"Is that so?" Mom looks at me questioningly. "You have a best friend? You didn't tell me."

I glare at Callaghan. "I never found it- uh- necessary to tell you."

Mom smiles happily. "Jen, you have such a nice best-friend! I thought all your friends were-" Mom looks at Callaghan and drops her voice to a whisper. "-you know, of the bad kind."

Seriously, Mom? You are afraid to use 'bad kind' words in because Alz would hear them? Alz knows more swear-words than you.

Callaghan nods, with earnest eyes. "Yes, Mrs. Lewis. There are so many bad kids at our school, that sometimes, I think it isn't a school at all."

No, of course, it isn't a school. It's a farm where kids are trained to grow up into animals, especially pigs like you.

Mom takes Callaghan's hands into hers and says, "You are a very nice person, Michelle. Nice teenagers are rare, but you are an exception. Since you are Jen's best friend, you are like family to us and are completely free to drop by at our house anytime for a snack and some chitchat. Jen would love it, wouldn't you, Jen?"

Okay enough.

"Yeah, how about we discuss Michelle's fee?" I say, trying to remain as calm as I could be.

Mom sighs and shakes her head. "Jennifer is a very obedient and polite child, Michelle- you probably know that- but, she is very businesslike and mechanical. She has no feelings, I think. Getting good mar-"

"Mom!!" I say, very loudly and in a sing-song voice. "Shall we not discuss my personality anymore to someone who knows me very well?" I look at Callaghan. "It's unnecessary."

Callaghan suddenly looks very intrigued. Goddamit, not my marks, Mom, not my marks! Anything but my studies!

"What were you talking about, Mrs. Lewis?" Callaghan asked. "Getting what?"

Mom waved a hand through the air dismissively. "She's very modest about her scores-"

"She means embarrassed." I cut in hurriedly and shoot a glare at Mom. Stop it!

"But Michelle's your best friend," Mom argues. "You ought to share your secrets with each other."

"We respect each other's privacy and boundaries." I say, desperately trying to change the subject of the conversation.

Mom curls her lower lip outward, as if saying, 'Woah', and looks at Michelle. "Okay, to discuss about fees."

I exhale deeply and crash against the chair, my body limp with sweat. Callaghan eyes me suspiciously and continues to talk with Mom. I stand up, mumble an 'excuse me' and walk towards the kitchen. After what happened, I need a glass of water to even stay alive. I lean against the counter and drain the glass of water and fill up another. I wash my face and take a deep breath.

What would have happened if Callaghan knew you were a brilliant student?

I don't know. And please don't ask me.

Just think about the consequences-

Will you shut up?

I keep the glass on the counter and return to the living room, where surprisingly, only Mom is sitting.

"Michelle left so quickly?" I ask her.

"Yeah, she had an emergency. Told me she would call to discuss the dates and fees."

I stop in my tracks. The whole point of this meeting was to discuss dates and fees. But she left before that? Making the meeting totally useless? Something's fishy. I spin and stare hard at Mom.

"What did you exactly tell her before she left?"

Mom frowns and looks up, thinking. "Uh, nothing much, just that Alz and your nature completely differ. How she is totally uninterested in studies and more eager about football, cheerleading and fighting. While you are more of a loud bookworm, rebellious about studies-"

Oh.

My.

Fucking.

God.

"- your marks are so good while Alz's ones are.. so poor."

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Mom laughs suddenly and says, "She found it very hard to believe that you got good marks. I then pointed to the refrigerator, at your report card and said, 'That's my proof'."

Everything stops. My heartbeat too, probably.