The Art of Life (56 page)

               
“I don’t know,” I giggle.
 
I look down at Jeremy.
 
“Did you hurt yourself?”

               
“No, I am fine.
 
Are you okay?”

               
Nodding, I reply, “Yeah, you
broke my fall.”

               
“Okay, you guys are so weird,”
Kent emphasizes.
 
“You were in the
bathroom together and I heard Jeremy scream like a girl twice.
 
You, young lady, came out practically
skipping to your room.
 
Then this
bonehead comes out and kidnaps you.
 
You
guys go back into the bathroom.
 
Where I
hear a lot of shouting, and then Isabelle screaming, so I come to the door and
tell you to hurry up, and then Cassandra and I hear the loudest BANG in the
world.
 
We come in here to find you guys
lying together on the floor.
 
Jeremy is
only in a towel, but Isabelle is fully clothed, yet, soaking wet.
 
Can you possibly explain this?”

               
“Weird mating ritual,” Jeremy
snorts.

               
I put my face into his chest and
laugh until I cry.
 
“I need to put dry
clothes on,” I finally gasp.
 
“You need
to put on some clothes, period.”

               
“
Aww
,”
Jeremy whines.
 
“You don’t like being on
top of me, while I am almost naked?”

               
“Jeremy,” I chastise.
 
“Not in front of people,
geesh
.”
 
With that I stand up.
 
Walking into the hall, I pass Cassandra, and
OH BOY, do I get a look.

               
Jeremy and I get ready pretty
quickly.
 
I just leave my hair in
curls.
 
I don’t care anymore.
 
When we leave, Jeremy takes my hand and we go
down the steps.
 
The restaurant isn’t
very busy.
 
We are all talking and
laughing as we sit down in a booth.
 
In
the end, pretty much picking on Jeremy.
 
After the waitress takes our drink orders, I lean over onto the table
and put my head on my hand.
 
My eyes
drift across the restaurant.
 

               
To my horror, Sonya is sitting
there.
 
She is just staring at me.
 
My hand instantly goes to Jeremy’s under the
table.
 
I grip it tightly.
 
He turns and looks at me.
 
“What’s wrong?”

               
“Satan’s daughter is sitting
across the room,” I hiss.

               
Everyone at the table turns and
looks at Sonya.
 
She just crosses her
arms.
 
“That chick is a ballsy little
thing, isn’t she?” Jeremy states.

               
“Who is that?” Cassandra asks,

               
“The girl who has made my life a
living hell for five years,” I sigh.
 
“She is my tormentor.”

               
Cassandra raises her
eyebrow.
 
“That girl picks on you?”

               
Grumbling, I say, “Yeah.”

               
“Wow,” Cassandra starts, “Well,
we should piss her off as much as possible.”

               
“And how are we going to do
that?” I inquire.

               
She gets up and leans across the
table.
 
I meet her and she whispers, “We
will just drive her nuts.”

               
I sit back, a little
bewildered.
 
Turning my gaze to Jeremy, I
just give him a look.
 
He puts his arm
around and pulls me against him.
 
“Let’s
make her jealous,” he breathes against my lips, and with that he kisses
me.
   
This is the first time he is
kissing me in public, and we are in front of his friends.
 
At first I falter, but then I give in.
 
It just feels so good.
 
Finally, Jeremy pulls away.
 
“There, that is something she doesn’t have.”

               
My mind is a little muddled to
think straight.
 
I kind
of turn in my seat and stare at the table.
 
“Well then,” Kent murmurs.
 
“That seemed to irk her.”

               
“Now,” Cassandra giggles.
 
“We need to all huddle together, then look at
her and laugh.
 
She will think we are all
talking about her.”

               
“That’s a little devious,” I
say.

               
Cassandra winks at me.
 
“That’s the fun part.
 
Come here.”
 
We all lean and Cassandra whispers, “Okay, we all turn now and look at
her, and then look back at each other and laugh.
 
It will make her so mad.”

               
So, on cue, we do as she
says.
 
Once we look back at each other,
we all laugh hysterically, probably because of what we were doing.
 
I giggle even harder out of nervousness.
 
“She is going to KILL me!” I hiss.

               
“Hey, now you know some
defensive moves,” Kent reminds me.
 
“You
can kick her butt.”

               
“Violence doesn’t solve
anything,” Cassandra counters.

               
I add on, “Amen to that.”

               
Jeremy reaches down and takes my
hand.
 
He brings it up to kiss it.
 
“Don’t let her get to you.”

               
“She is fuming mad right now,
from the look on her face,” Kent whispers.

               
Looking at Jeremy, I reply, “I
don’t care.”

               
“That’s my girl,” Jeremy emphasizes.
 
He puts his arm around me, and pulls me close.
 
I lay my head on his shoulder, and that is
how we sit.
 
Cassandra and Kent seem to
think nothing of it.
 
Cassandra is pretty
sassy, though.
 
She doesn’t talk about
Sonya, but every once in a while, she looks at her and laughs.
 
 

               
“You are evil,” I giggle, as we
eat.

               
Cassandra smirks.
 
“I hate girls like her.
 
They serve no purpose.
 
It is just giving her a taste of her own
medicine.”

               
“Are you done?” Jeremy asks me.

               
“With what?”

               
Smiling, he replies, “With your
food.”

               
“What?
 
Why?” I question, curious.

               
He frowns, “I ate all of mine
and I am still hungry.”

               
 
A snort comes out of me, and I push my plate
between us.
 
“Here, we can share.”

               
“Awesome!” Jeremy exclaims,
stabbing part of my burrito.

               
From that point on, we fight
over the food.
 
There is a lot of pushing
and shoving, and making a general mess of things.
 
By the time we leave, we are all laughing
pretty hard.
 
As, we walk out the door,
Sonya comes up behind us.
 
“Nice scarf,”
she says.

               
“What are you doing?” Jeremy
snaps.

               
“I am going to my car,” Sonya
slithers, giving him a seductive smile.
 
Jeremy just looks at her like she is nuts.
  
“Anyway,” she says, “I was just going to
compliment Isabelle on her scarf.”

               
My hand instantly goes to my
neck and my stomach turns.
 
All I whisper
is, “Jeremy.”

               
“Yes, well we were leaving,” he
growls.
 
Jeremy puts his arm around my
back, and leads me outside.

               
I start to choke on my
breath.
 
My chest tightens and tears well
up in my eyes.
 
“Did she see?” I
gasp.
 
“Did she see!?”

               
“No,” Cassandra says, coming up
next to me.
 
“You can’t see
anything.
 
I promise.”

               
We get to the car, and I climb
in back.
 
I hang my head and start to
cry.
 
Jeremy actually gets in on the
other side of the car and sits next to me.
 
He wraps his arms around me.
 
I
place my face into his shoulder as the tears come out.
 
“She is such a…..” Jeremy growls.

               
“Isabelle,” Kent says.
 
“We promise she didn’t see anything.
 
It’s not visible.
 
The scarf completely covers it, and we
wouldn’t let you go out if it didn’t.”

               
I look up and sniffle.
 
“I….I just don’t want anyone to see,
especially her.
 
I mean if she saw it, it
would become so bad.
 
The whole school
would know and who knows where she would say that it came from.”
 
My head turns to Jeremy.
 
“I am afraid people will think it’s you,
because they know nothing of my home life.”

               
Jeremy grimaces.
 
“
Geesh
, I never
thought about that, but I don’t care what people think.
 
As long as the police know the truth, we are
all good.
 
The other ones can kiss my
butt.
 
The people who matter know I would
never, ever, ever hurt you.”

               
“I know,” I whisper.
 
We just stare into each other’s eyes and he
strokes his fingers down the sides of my face.

               
“Well, I thoroughly dislike that
girl,” Cassandra declares in the front seat.
 
“We were having such a good time, and she ruined it.”

               
Shaking my head, I say, “No, I
think I got it out of my system.
 
I am
with you guys now and I know nothing will happen.
 
It just scared me so badly.
 
If she saw……it would be the end to a lot of
things.”

               
“Well, what do you want to do
now?” Jeremy asks me.

               
I think about it for a moment
and reply, “Go grocery shopping.
 
There
is this tea that I want to get.
 
It helps
me sleep at night.
 
If
that’s alright with you.”

               
“Most definitely,” Jeremy states.
 
“Do you guys want to drop us off at my car?”

               
“No,” Kent says.
 
“I need to pick up a few things, too, so we
will go with.”

               
Sitting back in my chair, I
smile.
 
I need to learn to not let Sonya
get to me.
 
These are the people who care
about me.
 
I need to concentrate on that.

               
We go grocery shopping and it is
absolutely ridiculous.
 
Cassandra and I
have to keep putting food back, because the guys want to buy every piece of
junk food that we see.
 
When we get home,
Cassandra and Kent leave right away.

               
As they are walking out,
Cassandra turns to me.
 
“I am coming to
hang out with you tomorrow while Jeremy is at work.
 
Plan to have a fun day.”

               
“What are we doing?” I inquire.

               
“It’s a surprise,” Cassandra replies.
 
“Just be ready by 10.”

               
With a chuckle, I sigh, “Okay.”