Revenge Of A Band Geek Gone Bad (23 page)

"I'm
Josch
," he interrupted —- and belched loudly.

Kathy raised her eyebrows.  "Well, now's your one n’ only chance
ta
make a move on him, Mel. 
She
hiccuped
.
  "I'll bet he'd be wit
anythink
tat
moves at dis point."

"Damn it, Kathy, just shut up!"  I said.  Josh was now sitting at the table with his head in his hands.

Kathy wouldn't let up.  "I
tink
heesh
‘bout to
passch
out," she slurred.  "And who can blame him? 
Smellinda's
garbage face could stun anyone!"  She cracked up at her own joke.  Then before I could stop her, she did the unthinkable: she marched —- well, hobbled -- right up to Josh and planted a kiss on his lips.  At first, he seemed shocked by the move but then started to get into it.  Their arms twined around each other as their faces mashed together and her mouth brushed against his.  She pulled him closer and moved her hand down to his ass, but he didn't try to stop her.  He even seemed to be
enjoying
it.

"See that?" 
she
said, giving me a smug look when they'd finally finished.  Her lipstick was smeared and her eyes were glazed over.  "I told you he'd
kissh
anyone tonight."

I just stood there, continuing to stare at them.  It took me a minute to grasp what had just happened.  When I did, I didn't bother to answer her or stick around.  I turned and ran out of the basement while Kathy and her friends laughed.

As I made my way upstairs
,  Josh
followed me.  "Mel!" he called, stumbling after me.  I ignored him and kept going.  I went to find Lana.

"Mel, wait!" 
he
pleaded.  He still hadn't put on a shirt.

I looked around the living room and finally spotted Lana ... going at it with
Lenny
.  But by then I was too upset to be shocked by anything else.  I pulled her off of him.

"Dude..." he began.

"Hey..." she yelled, annoyed.  She then saw me crying. "Honey, what is it...?"

Josh staggered over to us, panting.  He held onto the wall for balance.  "Melinda, don't leave," he pleaded.  "Don't leave mad."

Lana looked from him to me.  "Geez, he's hammered!"  As soon as she opened
her mouth, I was hit by the odor of beer.  Judging from her choice of
makeout
partners, she was pretty far gone herself, I realized.  But I didn't want to leave by myself.

"Please," I begged.  "Let's go home. 
Now."
 

Lana nodded.  She grabbed her coat and gave Lenny an apologetic look.  "Ladies, do you need a ride?" he offered.

"We're fine," Lana told him, dialing her sister on her cell phone.  "We need some girl time."

"I understand," Lenny answered.

It had started to snow.  I walked as quickly as I could without sliding across the pavement.  Josh followed us out.

"Mel, please
tawk
ta me!" he slurred.  "I can't
styand
if it you're angry
wit
me. 
I
wuz
stoopid
."

Lana was worried.  "Mel, just tell me what's going on."

"I just want to get out of here," I said.  I willed myself not to look back at him.  I couldn't bear the idea of seeing him stumbling drunk and half-naked through the snow.  "Just walk as fast as you can.  I want to get away from him."

We made our way down the block to the corner, never once turning around.  But I could hear Josh screaming my name.

CHAPTER 14

"Mel, honey, you've got to calm down," Lana said when we got home.  She'd decided to sleep over.  I was still sobbing.  I flopped, face-down on my bed, not wanting to even talk with her.  I was glad my parents were asleep.

"Here, have some hot chocolate," Lana said, placing the mug on my night stand.  "I even put little marshmallows in it."

"I--
I
don't want--it," I sputtered, pushing it away.  "Just leave me alone."  I kept hoping that if I tried hard enough, I'd wake up from this nightmare, but I couldn't erase the image of Kathy and Josh kissing from my head.  I burst out a fresh set of tears as I envisioned them with their lips mashed together.

"
Shhh
, sweetie, come on, it's not that bad. 
Really."
  Lana soothed.  "It's not that bad," she repeated.

"It is!" I cried, lifting my head.  "You didn't see him!  He was kissing
Kathy
!.
  And to think, I was feeling sorry for her.  I even reached out to that nasty
beyotch
.  I'm
sooo
stupid
!"

"Josh was drunk," Lana said.  She shrugged.  "So was she, I think." 
She
hiccuped
.
"I am a little, too," she admitted.

"Well that's no excuse; he should've stopped her.  They were kissing for, like, a whole minute!"  I blew my nose.

"It didn't mean anything, Mel.  Sometimes weird things happen at parties -- like
drunk
people kissing."  She smiled, probably thinking about her evening with Lenny.

"Yeah, well, when Josh kissed me the other day, I thought it meant something, even though it was just a quick one.  But he was willing to shove his tongue down the throat of someone he supposedly hates!"  Lana handed me the box of Kleenex.  "He's such a jerk."

"Mel, I agree, Josh acted like a total tool tonight, but don't you think you might be overreacting -- just a teensy bit?"

"No.  I'm such an idiot
for ever
thinking he might like me."

"He
does
," Lana said.  "Trust me, he likes you a lot.  I think you'll see how not-so-bad this is tomorrow, how Josh's mistake isn't the end of the world.  Yeah, it was dumb, but he probably didn't even realize it was Kathy he was kissing."

"Oh, he knew he did something wrong," I growled.  "You saw the way he kept
apologizing."

"Because he cares about you," Lana reminded me.

"Because he felt stupid about getting caught."

"Because he never meant to hurt you."

I played with the edge of the Kleenex box.  "You know, for someone who's supposed to be my best friend, Lana, you sure seem like you're taking his side," I said quietly.  "Guess when you get drunk, you'll forgive anyone else who does."  I knew it was a low blow, but I didn't care.  I felt like being angry with someone and Lana was the only one there.

"Excuse me?"  Lana narrowed her eyes.  "Remind me again who you pulled away from a good time ... to go home and comfort
you
."

"Oh, well, I didn't realize that weirdo Lenny was more important than me."  I knew I was hurting her feelings, but the words still came out of my mouth.

Lana wouldn't have it.  "You know, it's not always about you, Melinda," she said.  "From the moment we set foot in Jan's house, you were being a total party pooper.  But I was having
fun
.  It was the first time in months that I was able to be with a guy who just liked me and didn't know or care about Ken or what people have been saying about me all year."

"Lana, I'm sorry..."  I started.

"You should be," she said.  "This whole year, I've done nothing but try to help you with Josh, even though I knew that you being with him would mean I'd get to see less of you.  Maybe it's time you stop being so
uptight
about everything."

"Maybe you're just jealous!"  I retorted.  "You hate that I've been spending time with a guy while you haven't!"

"I've
never
said or thought that," she said in a low voice.

When had this fight turned into one between Lana and me?  At this point, I was confused about the whole evening.  I knew I should apologize to my friend for being out of line, but I didn't.  Instead I hissed, "Go home!  I don't need you."

She wouldn't go.  "I'm staying because I know you need me," she said.  "And one of us has to be mature here."

"Fine!"

"
Fine
!"
  She got up and clicked off the light, but we both knew neither of us
was going to get much sleep that night.

###

I woke up that afternoon not feeling much better than I had the night before.  My mood worsened when my mom came in to give me some phone messages ... all of which were from
him
.

"Mel, Josh has been calling and texting all morning," Mom said, sticking her head into my room.  "Are you going to answer?"

"No!" I said.  I pulled the covers up over my head and slid down beneath them.

"Do you
wanna
tell me what's going on?"

"It's nothing," I grumbled.  "Just ignore him."

"Uh, that's pretty difficult to do when someone's called five times," she said.  "Can you please just talk to him already?  He obviously has something important to say."

"No, he doesn't.  Tell him that if he doesn't stop, I'm going to get a restraining order."

My mom turned to Lana.  "Do you know what's going on with my daughter since she refuses to fill me in?"

I peeked out from under the covers and saw Lana shake her head.  "I think Mel just has major PMS or something."

Just then, my phone rang.  My mother picked it up.  "Sure, she's right here," she said.  She handed it to me, or well, the lump under my covers that was shaped a lot like me.  "It's Josh.
Again
."

I burrowed deeper beneath them.  "Lana, will you talk to him?  I can't deal with this," my mom said.  I heard Lana sigh and take the phone. 
Traitor.

"Yeah, yeah," Lana was saying.  Pretty soon, a hand appeared beneath my covers and held the phone next to my ear.  I tried to squirm away, but she just kept pressing the phone against me.  "You keep doing that and I'll join you under there," Lana warned.

"Okay, okay," I said, realizing I was outnumbered. 
"
Gimme
the damn phone."

"Mel, I'm so sorry," Josh said as soon as he heard me breathing on the other end. 
"Really, really sorry."

"That's nice," I sneered.

"I don't even know where to begin about last night. Truthfully, I don't remember half of it.  But I know I was a jerk to you, and I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you were a jerk," I replied.  "No ... come to think of it, that's an understatement.  Look, Josh, what it comes down to is, I don't think you possibly know how much you hurt me last night.  I can't even express it." 

"Oh..."  He didn't seem to know what to say.  "Um, well... I don't even know how to apologize. I know I was wrong.  But if you'd just give me a chance ... I promise I'll make this up to you.  That's all I want, another chance."

I hung up the phone before he could say anything more.

###

After that, Lana came and sat on the edge of my bed.  Her eyes were red, probably from crying all night.  "Mel, I don't want to fight with you," she said softly.  "Can we please just forget whatever it was that happened between us?"

"Yeah," I said, sitting up.  "I don't want to fight with you either."

She stretched her arms above her
head  "
I am on your side, you know.  I guess I was just trying to prevent you from losing someone you care about.  But I do understand how much this hurts.  And I do think he's an idiot for what he did, drunk or not."

"Thanks."  I hugged her.

"You know this will be okay, right?  That everything will blow over soon enough?"

"Maybe," I said, "but I'm just tired of people finding reasons to laugh at me.  I finally thought I met someone ... and then he went and humiliated me along with the person who hates me most.  It's just so messed up."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I doubt their kiss was that great anyway.  They probably both tasted like beer.  That's so gross.  Yuck."  She stuck out her tongue.  "I can barely stand how my mouth tastes right now.  About the last thing I can think of doing is kissing someone else with beer breath."

"You really think their kiss sucked?"

"Yeah.
  Trust me --
that
type of kiss so doesn't count.  Maybe you didn't kiss for as long, but at least he was sober."

I nodded.  "That's true."

"You know, you said some mean things last night.  But for the record, I just want you to be happy," Lana said.

"I was just upset," I said.  "I didn't mean to make you my punching bag."  I stood up on my bed and jumped up and down a little.  "You know, you were right, I do feel better now."