Status Quo

Chapter 21 - Unraveling Treasures 2

The sound of Flinette's voice is ringing in my head as she drills out positions like the tyrant that she is, I try to control my breathing as Renae and I try to balance ourselves at the top of the pyramid. I shake a little as beads of sweat begin to roll down my face.

I tell myself that I can do it, I can keep the position for a few more minutes so that I can prove that I can be better than Renae at anything that I do. Flinette gives Renae and I a scrutinizing gaze before signaling for us to be let down from the pyramid. I sit on the grass on the field and resist the temptation to lay on it so I can temporarily relieve my aching muscles.

I give in to the temptation and lay back on the soft grass. The afternoon sun baths me in a soft glow and I can tell by the sounds the girls make that it really makes my hair look more vibrant. I take in greedy gulps of air while trying to control my erratic breathing. I cover my eyes with the back of my palm as my mind begins to race in directions that I can't even pinpoint.

"Here" Renae says as she blocks the sunlight from seeping through the spaces between my fingers. I open my eyes and look at her warily and my eyes travel to the water bottle in her hand.

I grunt and close my eyes, she then nudges me with her sneakers and I let out a frustrated breath, my mind is already in turmoil and I don't have the energy to deal with her today. I shift my body away from her and take in another gulp of air, she nudges me again and I grunt in response before finally sitting up and dusting my skirt.

"what?" I ask and stifle a yawn that tries to escape, she stretches her hand with the bottle water to me and I take it from her hand and take a gulp from it. She sits beside me on the ground and hugs her knees to her chest.

"The sky is really pretty" she comments, I look up from the ground and stare at it before I nod my head and take another gulp of water, "to be honest I never meant any harm"

"What?" I ask confused at where that came from

"I never meant for things to spiral out of control" she continues, "I just wanted you to feel what I had been feeling"

"Be clear" I say and close the water bottle

"When I told Kevin you were using him I didn't mean for it to harm you the way it did" she confesses, "I just didn't want you to get more popular than you already were"

"Any why might that be" I ask venomously and lean my head back and take a deep breath, "what would make you do that to me"

"You were not as great a friend as you must have thought yourself to be Jossie, you neglected me a lot" Renae states, "sometimes I would sit alone in the library waiting for you to come so we could hang and you wouldn't, I'd leave the library only to find you in a cluster of people seeking your attention"

"Is that your excuse? Petty jealousy?" I roll the bottle in my hand while telling myself to keep my emotions in check.

"I would do everything to get you to hang out with me for days and you wouldn't, I felt like crap and a lot of people asserted that to me almost every day when I was in school" she begins to pull the strings of grass, "I was the girl living in the shadow of your greatness, I couldn't even get a decent guy to talk to me without them hinting how they would like to get closer to you" she sniffs and I look away from her, "I started spreading little rumors at first, things like how you're not really what you showed them but no one gave two flying fucks, infact it even made you more desirable"

I scoff and look at the sky, "and then Jordan came along and I actually felt you giving me that attention we used to share in the past, I was elated to say the least, those days were the best for me, I smiled the sincerest then but it didn't last" she sniffles again, "Jordan couldn't hang with us all the time and when he wasn't there you weren't either because you had started fawning over that Kevin dude"