Ch. 21: Betrayal

Myra finds out that not everyone can be trusted

The next few days at home were tense. Mom found out about the rumor mill, but she didn't react like she normally would have because she'd found a new boyfriend. It was the wacko from the pet store and by Thursday evening he was having dinner with us or at least with mom and I.

 

"So Myra I hear you're going to be a freshmen this fall. Are you excited?" he asked.

 

"Myra, Arthur has a daughter in the tenth grade who you'll be going to school with this fall," Mom gushed.

 

"Oh," was all I could answer to the both of them.

 

Tonight we had take out. This time it was Mandarin food which was my second favorite to Chinese.

 

"After this we're going out to the movies. Do you want to come, Myra," Arthur asked me.

 

Mom tensed up. I knew it would be the death of me if I accepted that invite. I smiled as best as I could and politely declined.

 

"My friend is coming over tonight and we've got gossip to catch up on," I said to Arthur and mom's ears perked up.

 

"What friend?" Mom asked me.

 

"Greg," I replied and her face went sour.

 

"Don't spend too much time alone with him Myra," Mom said chastised.

 

"I haven't seen him in days and besides I need some positive male attention of my own," I said.

 

Mom sipped her white zinfandel and glared at me. Buster came walking through the room with his nails lightly taping against the granite.

 

"Hey Busty boy. Sounds like your nails could use a trimming," Arthur said.

 

"Oh, I was just thinking that," Mom agreed and she went on about how much work a little dog could be.

 

Soon she and Arthur were so engrossed that I quietly slipped away from the table and up to my room where I opened up the laptop and went straight to my Facebook page. I hadn't looked at it since last Sunday and I'd been dying for updates on my friend.

 

So far three girls from my field clique were out of town. Others had been hitting up party after party and there were many pics to look at. I peaked at a few and immediately became jealous. There they were my friends having the time of their life and here I was stuck in misery.

 

I went to my inbox where I had 13 unread messages. Most were from people wanting to know how I was doing, but one was from Kimmi. I thought that was odd because she hadn't called or texted me in awhile so I clicked on it. There was a link to a video so I clicked the play button. The video was of Rick and I last Saturday night at the drive in making out. I immediately exited the video and went to write her a bitchy message when then I saw her default pic. Posing together with their lips puckered and peace signs in each hand were Kimmi and Daisy. That just didn't make sense. I looked at the date on the message and it was this passed Monday. I clicked on Kimmi's picture and went to her page. All her status updates were on what her and Daisy were doing or planning on doing. Daisy was commenting on her statuses non-stop since last Sunday.

 

I hadn't looked at Kimmi's page then so I had no idea how long she and Daisy had been getting friendly. I went to Kimmi's photo albums, but there were no dates stamped on any of her photos. People had commented on their pics together and I saw that a lot of them hinted at mean things being said about me.

 

"You two are way hotter than her anyways," one person wrote.

 

"Never liked it much around her, but you two are way more fun. See you at Scott's," another said.

 

"I can't quit playing the vid. You two are sinister, but not like her, ha ha," was the last comment I read.

 

Since when was Daisy fun? Since when did Kimmi go to parties with people our age?

 

I was pondering all of this when my door opened and closed lightly.

 

"Uh oh, you look mad. Was it me?" Greg asked.

 

"Not even remotely. Come look," I said turning the laptop toward Greg.

 

Greg scanned the screen and went up to the picture.

 

"Is that Daisy?" Greg asked.

 

"Yes," I answered him and I could feel my anger coming to the surface.

 

"Oh and I remember the other girl...Lilly or something," Greg stumbled and I went on to correct him.

 

"Kimmi, she's the one I went to juvi with. Apparently her and Daisy are best friends now and look at what Kimmi sent me on Monday," I said turning the screen back to me and playing the video to Greg.

 

"Oh you girls are so mean to each other. What's the point of sending a link like that?" Greg asked.

 

"To rub the fact that they're fun and I'm not in my face," I pouted.

 

"That's not true," Greg said quickly and sat on the bed with me.

 

"Is my mom still here?" I asked.

 

"Yes, she's downstairs with some guy. New boyfriend?" Greg asked.

 

"Uh huh," I said laying my head back on my pilling and sighing.

 

"I don't know what to say except take those girls off your friends list and be done with them," Greg advised me.

 

I began to smile when my phone rang. It was lying on my nightstand and when I saw who was calling I perked up.

 

"Hey," I said moving the laptop out my way and getting off the bed.

 

"Hi, how are you?" David asked.

 

"I'm fine and you?" I asked.

 

"Great. I'm calling to see if you changed your mind about tomorrow night," David inquired and I knew my face lit up by the way Greg stared at me.

 

"No, I haven't have, have you?" I asked with my heart racing.

 

"I still want to take you out. I was just calling for directions to your place," David said.

 

"Oh ok, well since you live downtown just take the..." I said and then I gave him directions to my house..

 

"Thanks and I can't wait to see you. I hope you like baseball," David said.

 

"I love it," I answered.

 

"Alright, well I'll call you before I leave tomorrow to pick you up," David said.

 

"Ok see you then," I said.

 

"Bye," David said.

 

"Bye," I said and hung up.

 

"Who was that?" Greg asked me with his eyes narrowed.

 

"Just a friend I met last weekend at the mall," I lied to him.

 

"Oh," Greg said getting suspicious.

 

"Anyways, I'm going to text Daisy right now," I announced to Greg and he grimaced.

 

"I wouldn't," Greg told me and I just laughed.

 

"I know you wouldn't, but what's going on between us is girl world stuff. Issues like this have to be dealt with and not just swept under the rug," I said to Greg laying out the rules that had to be followed.

 

I grabbed my phone and sent a text saying: 'very funny' to Daisy. I got a response almost immediately.

 

"What?" she asked.

 

"The little video Kimmi sent me," I replied.

 

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Daisy replied back to me.

 

"Right, so you and Kimmi haven't been attached at the hip for these past few days right?" I asked her.

 

"Whatever, I told you not to go out with him," Daisy replied back to me and I could read the snippiness in her text.

 

"Yea, and I told you to mind your own business," I typed back.

 

"She had the right to know," Daisy sent me.

 

"Who did?" I asked.

 

"Laura," Daisy replied.

 

"So you told her?" I asked.

 

"No," Daisy said.

 

"You're woofing," I said.

 

"I'm not. It wasn't me. Now I'm busy," Daisy said.

 

The anger came to the surface and knew what was about to happen would not be under any of my control.

 

"What's going on?" Greg asked me and now he was sitting on at my desk.

 

"Apparently Daisy felt that it was her right to inform Laura about my date with Ricky," I explained to Greg and now I was moving around.

 

"She had the right," Greg muttered.

 

"Oh, what is it with people? I don't tell anyone else how to live their life and yet they feel that it's their right to tell me how to live mines. I'm sick of it!" I screamed at Greg.

 

"Maybe I should go," Greg getting up off my desk chair.

 

"I just don't want to be alone," I said calming down, but still moving about my room in circles.

 

"Let's go out tonight," Greg suggested.

 

"Where, to the park?" I asked him since that was the only place to go to at this time of the night.

 

"No, Donald is out of town and he left his car and I know where the keys are," Greg said.

 

"Joyride?" I asked getting excited.

 

"Yea, stay here and I'll call you in fifteen minutes when I have the car in front of your house," Greg said and now I was excited.

 

"Ok," I said going to my closet.

 

"You don't need to get dressed up we're not going anywhere special," Greg laughed.

 

"A girl always has to look her best, Greggy," I said and he walked out the room.

 

Greg called me no more than ten minutes after leaving. By the time I got downstairs mom and Arthur were gone and the house was deserted. I locked the door behind me and skipped down the walk way and the driveway to the car.

 

"Hurry up, my mom is a light sleeper," Greg said said to me half screaming since I was a little ways away from the car.

 

I climbed in and he sped off way too quickly and I didn't have my seatbelt on.

 

"Cool it," I said to Greg once I was settled in.

 

"Ok, once we get passed these stoplights," Greg said and did as he promised.

 

"So where to?" I asked snapping my belt on.

 

"Are you hungry? We can do drive thru," Greg asked me.

 

"No, I ate already, but if you want to go I don't mind," I said and Greg nodded.

 

I went to turn on the radio and began happily singing along. Greg eased up on the wheel and ten minutes later we were at another burger place that was popular with the young crowd. I sat scanning the faces, but I saw no one I knew. Greg's order came fast and soon we were parked at the edge of the parking lot with the music going low.

 

"It's a nice night," Greg commented.

 

"Beautiful for the summer. I can't wait to go to high school. I just want to get it over with and then go to college and get a job and a husband and some kids," I said revealing my deepest desires.

 

"You've got big plans, Myra," Greg said.

 

"And so do you Mr. Columbia," I teased Greg.

 

"I know. It just sucks I'll be on the East coast and you'll be here," Greg told me and I could feel the sadness.

 

"We can talk, text, and Facebook," I said counting off all the ways that Greg and I could stay in touch.

 

"Yea those things are nice, but just being with you like this is just heaven for me," Greg said and I felt so warm on the inside.

 

Before I could answer a group of kids pulled up to the drive thru with their music blaring. The car was an Escalade SUV and when the doors open people poured out. To my shock I recognized Kimmi and Daisy among them laughing and walking hand in hand with some boys I didn't know. Greg looked over as he took a sip of his soda.

 

"Sonofabitch," I said reaching for the door hand.

 

"Don't," Greg said pulling me back.

 

"It's about pride, Greg," I said as I looked him in the eyes.

 

"Well at least let me finish so I can go with you. Those guys look like they'd do something stupid," Greg observed as we both watched the crowd.

 

I nodded all the while fuming. It hadn't even been a week since school had let out and Daisy was trying to climb the social ladder. I had introduced the two and Kimmi immediately disliked Daisy's rude disposition. Daisy hated that Kimmi was so wannabe tough.

 

They went up to the counter and were ordering. Daisy gave the guy she was holding hands with a kiss. Kimmi was snuggled up with hers and she had her head on his shoulder. My blood was boiling.

 

Of the two boys Kimmi's date was taller and leaner than Greg, but Daisy's date was more her height with a thinner build. Greg could probably take them both if it came to that. The other kids that had come with them were lining up behind them laughing and goofing around. The driver was still in the car talking on the phone. I could see it was a female.

 

I dug in my purse and found a hair tie and put my hair in a high ponytail. Then I removed my earing and placed them inside my purse for safekeeping.

 

"Keep the doors of the car unlocked," I told Greg as he finished up.

 

"Ok," Greg said.

 

"Oh, and just for tonight you're my boyfriend. We're going to walk up to the counter holding hands," I said mapping out how I wanted this entire thing to go down.

 

"I don't think that's a good idea," Greg said once again and this pained me.

 

"Please, Greg do it for me," I begged him and he gave up.

 

Greg shook his head and we got out the car. I quickly went around to his side and grabbed his hand. We walked stride fully where Kimmi and Daisy were waiting to get their orders. No one was paying attention to us, but out of the corner of my eye I could see the driver of the SUV staring daggers at us.

Reviews

[Tina Kline]

What a really great chapter! Things keep
getting more complicated for Myra!
It's excellent read, though!