The Last Great American Dynasty - A Folklore Novella

Betty

Chapter Two

Betty

It was the last weekend and the end of the cruelest summer. Betty's grandma suddenly passed away, which was the worst thing that had happened to Betty in all her short thirteen years. Betty knew she was lucky to have a grandma like her Grandma Marjorie. It was a huge loss in Betty's life. Grandma Marjorie lived with Betty and her mom, so now Marjorie's bedroom sat empty. Filled with her belongings, untouched and just like the day she passed. Betty looked at Marjorie's slippers just sitting at the side of her bed. Her makeup brushes were still on the vanity table. Her jewelry box was still open and sitting there, a collection of years' worth of earrings and rings. Her old sheet music sprawled across the top of the piano in the living room. Her records were spread out on the bookcase, a record still in the machine fresh from being played by Marjorie just last week. Her death was sudden and unexpected. There was no warning, no goodbye. Marjorie's heart gave out and she was gone so quickly, that Betty never had the chance to say goodbye.

Betty cried every night before going to sleep. It felt good and if she cried hard enough it was almost like she could hug herself with her stupid tears.

Betty's summer was almost over. It had been a blur of sleeping in too late, waiting for James or Ivy to text her back, daydreaming, trying to write song lyrics, and learning chords on her guitar.

James was seventeen and worked at the frozen yogurt shop. He had sandy brown hair and brown eyes. His face was soft, and he had the nicest smile. Ivy and Betty had spent the entire month of June joking about what they would do if he ever noticed them. Until one day, James did notice Betty. James had gotten Betty's number somehow, and they had started texting back and forth. The conversation hadn't stopped.

Betty would live for the ding of her phone. James was good at answering just enough to keep her on the hook. Disappointment overtook Betty whenever the text was from Ivy or her mom, instead of James.

Betty and James had only hung out once that summer in person. He had given her a ride in his car when he saw her waiting at the bus stop. Betty was shy and awkward. James was cool and calm. It was an unlikely pairing, but something about Betty intrigued James. She had a sparkle in her he didn't see in other girls. She looked at him with longing and wonder, and James liked to be admired like that. No girl had ever looked at James the way Betty looked at him. They both knew the four-year age gap was a problem, and so they kept their friendship secret in the night with only texts to each other, full of their hopes and dreams, thoughts and ideas, and affection for each other.

Something had changed in James' texts in the past week though, and it had left Betty completely perplexed. She was worried James had realized school would be starting soon, and their relationship would no longer just be within the confines of their cell phone screens. On the Friday before school started, James didn't reply to Betty at all. She texted him a second time. Still nothing. She decided to send one last text. Still nothing three days later. James had ghosted her. She found herself sinking into an even lower and depressive state hoping to see his name pop up on her phone.

High school was starting tomorrow, and Betty sat on her bed agonizing over what to wear. Her room was covered in clothes from last year and nothing was good enough. Betty and Ivy's back-to-school shopping trip abruptly ended that afternoon when Ivy disappeared while Betty was trying on jeans. Shopping alone was not an option for Betty. She didn't like walking into the store. Her voice cracked if she had to talk to salespeople alone. She could barely get two words out. Ivy was the outgoing one and always answered for Betty. But Ivy left Betty in an Old Navy change room and now she wouldn't reply to her texts either.

Ivy and Betty's friendship had become complicated over the summer. They had been best friends since she moved here three years ago. Ivy lived down the street from her and they did everything together. Sleepovers, swimming, shopping, Starbucks fraps, everything. They were inseparable.

Betty looked over at the friendship bracelet collection on her dresser. All from Ivy. She decided not to wear any of it tomorrow because she didn't think Ivy would either. They were in high school now, and she got the sense that Ivy thought that stuff seemed cool last year, but this year was somehow going to be different.

Betty knew part of the problem was that Ivy had become closer with a girl named Grace, who had a habit of always making snarky comments about Betty, right to her face. She was always "joking". Nice shirt! You have food on your face! She would scoff at Betty's ideas at recess and always found something to get mad at her about in every single gym class. Grace had decided last year that she didn't like Betty. It didn't matter what Betty did, wore, or said. She was a loser in Grace's mind. Grace liked Ivy though. This had become bad for Betty this past summer. Ivy had slowly started to do the things that Grace did. Telling her that her hair looked weird, her shoes weren't in style, her shirt was lame. It made it even more complicated that Grace and James were cousins.

Ivy seemed to only tolerate Betty ever since she started hanging out with Grace, and their closeness had gone from the strongest bond two friends could have to hanging on by an invisible and tiny thin string.

Betty's phone dinged, four hours after she took the bus home alone.

Where did you go?

I couldn't find you and I ran

into Grace and James Sorry.

Betty's face burned. She knew Ivy had ditched her on purpose. Even worse than that, it confirmed what Betty had suspected. James had ghosted her because he had started hanging out with Ivy.

Betty braced herself for the morning. She felt nervous and panicked. She would have to face them all tomorrow.