Life Of A Bitch

32

I shine the torch and there it is, my beloved pen-cap. I just saved it from going missing for ever.

"You see it, J?" Alz calls out from behind.

Right now, I'm near-stuck under my bed, trying to get my pen-cap back because if it gets lost, I swear I would shave off all my hair, shed away all my earthly desires and become a buddhist monk.

"I see it but the problem is, I'm kind of stuck and so is my arm, which is why it's not getting to the pen."

"It's all those cookies you've been eating."

"It's not. Now come on, help me."

She groans in frustration. "It's just a stupid pen cap!"

"Shh, you're hurting it's feelings," I growl. "Please. Help me."

"Why are you after a pen-cap?" She says, flopping down on the floor and lying on her face. "You don't need it, you need the pen."

"You don't know how much it pains me to see all those pens drying up and dying premature deaths just because I lost their caps. It makes me feel like a murderer- and also burns a hole in my pocket. You don't know how much I have to pay for these if they perpetually keep on drying up just after I buy them."

"Ugh, you can't be serious." She slips inside and with marvellous dexterity, grabs the cap and slips out again, standing up with a jump.

After a while of twists and turns, when I finally get back on my feet, caressing my elbow after I hit it on the bed frame, sending currents of electricity jolting within my body, I ask her for the cap.

"How did you do what you did back there?" I ask her, taking the cap back.

"Apparently, gym-ing is not the solution to a healthy life," she says, with that snooty look on her face. "Yoga and martial arts are."

"Yeah yeah, whatever, get out."

I sit on my bed and massage my elbow. Elbows and little toes are the most unfortunate parts in our bodies.

Picking up my phone, I scroll through my chats and pause over Stephanie's contact. The last message was from me, asking her where she was, on the way to Math.

No messages from her ever since.

There's a message from Lana saying she will be friends with both me and Stephanie, and also with Callaghan. And it's funny how she refers to her as Michelle, not Callaghan.

Then I arrive at Brandon's chat, so I open it. The last message is from me, telling him to meet up early at Physics, so that Callaghan doesn't spot us together.

I feel something tickling in my nose, but it doesn't come out. I keep my nose turned up and wrinkled, like that of a pig.

Finally, the sneeze comes through, but I sneeze so hard that my ribs hurt, and horrifyingly, I send Brandon a message 'gh' during the sneeze.

The message implies that I'm desperate for attention.

Shit.

In a second, a message pops in from him. 'What'.

Me: I'm sorry that was a mistake I sneezed

Him: So you had my contact open? What am I, your crush now?

Me: Don't flatter yourself, please

Him: Uh huh

Wait. Callaghan is hosting a party with spiked drinks and cigarettes and Brandon is okay with it?

Me: So i heard Michelle's hosting a party for her birthday

Him: yeah

Me: it includes underage drinking.

Him: so? I don't control her

Him: she invited you too, didn't she?

I shut the phone off and throw it away to one corner of the bed. It's a bad idea anyway. Stephanie will be there with Lana, chatting with Callaghan like they're long lost friends. And the guys are surely invited, since Callaghan described it as the hottest party of this year. I just don't want to face Aiden. I don't know why but recently, he seems more irritating to me.

That's it, I won't go.

My phone buzzes, another message from Brandon.

Do come. She didn't invite my friends or hers, just her best friend. The party will be full of people I find disgusting. Compared to them, you seem less disgusting. I could use the acquaintance of a less disgusting person there

I laugh a little and type my reply to him.

I'm in.

*
Saturday night arrives, and I'm swiping mascara on my lashes.

"Can't I go?" Alz whines, stomping her foot.

"No," I cut her off. "It's going to be full of people who didn't use their brains in their entire lives. Bad example."

"You're so egotistical," Alz huffs, kicking the dressing mirror. "You think playing football doesn't take brains?"

Since I don't have anything to say to it, I send her outside.

"Michelle invited me!"

"You're thirteen, you don't have to go to booze parties. The drinks would all be spiked there, and I don't want you to drink alcohol at such a young age."

"Mom!"

I smirk and close the door on her face. I know Mom won't take her side, for the first time in forever.

I look at my black denims and jacket, and think of the times when Stephanie would be here too, judging my dressing style, teaming up with Alz.

She was a good friend, though. Someone who made me laugh, at least.

My phone rings and I pick it up, removing the bobby pin from between my teeth to speak.

"Who's this?"

"Your fiancé, you ready?" A female voice says- or rather, grumbles.

"What?"

"It's Brenna." She says. I try to place her name, but all my mind does is draw a blank.

"Oh God. It's Brenna, from your help-me-my-account-got-hacked group. Curly black hair? Spectacles?"

Oh oh oh. Now I remember.

"Yeah, I remember. Why did you call?"

"I'm here to pick you up." She says in the most miserable tone I've ever heard.

"Why?"

"Brandon suggested."

"Brandon suggested?"

"Yeah, since I wasn't invited in the preparations of the party- even though I'm her best friend- Brandon suggested we could pair up and go."

Okay, now her patronising voice is getting on my nerves. "Hey listen, you're not doing me a favour or anything. You can go alone if you like."

"That works just fine for me." She snaps and hangs up.

She's so irritating.

I look at the mirror, at my reflection. Since there's nothing more I can change in myself without surgery, I'm ready to go.

Grabbing my purse and slipping on heels, I say bye to Mom and sulky Alz and climb down the stairs, opening the door to the garage. My phone rings again. Unknown number.

"Hel-"

"I need a person in my car!" Brenna shouts at me through the phone. "It's lonely and I binged on the Conjuring series today. I think there's someone grinning at me from the back."

I huff and drop my car keys back in my purse. "Fine. I could use a freaked out friend too."

"We're not friends."

"Whatever we are." I open the gates and there she is, in the Honda Amaze, sitting in the driver's seat with her phone on her ear.

"You're such an idiot."

"Thanks," Brenna says, pushing on the accelerator. "Learned it from you."

I roll my eyes as we head off to Callaghan's.