How To Be A Bitch (On Hold)

➸ twenty one: mother chucker

➸ twenty one: mother chucker

« band-aids don't fix bullet holes. »

The walk to the parking lot took approximately ten minutes. Not that I was a slow walker or anything. In fact, I dragged my feet the entire way – on purpose – so that the person waiting for me on the other end would have to suffer for just a bit longer.

Humming a soft tune, I kicked a pebble that was lying in the middle of the path, took almost a minute to tie up the lace of my converse and then started walking again, swaying my body from left to right. Suffice to say, I was having the time of my life.

But it ended a bit too soon when the all too familiar parking lot came into view. I could see Grace waiting near a beat-up car, tapping her foot impatiently on the ground. My mood went up a little when I realized that she was wearing heels bigger than...Let's just move on.

I walked up to her with a bored expression on my face and leaned on the car opposite to the one she was standing next to. "Make it quick."

"What? Oh, yeah sure," she said before rummaging through her bag and fishing out an envelope with a pumpkin seal on it. "I wanted to invite you to my Halloween treasure hunt. It's tomorrow at midnight and I'm sure you know how it works."

Even though I might as well have been a social pariah throughout my high school life, I knew how the Halloween celebration went in our town. The seniors from our school and the private school across the river teamed up for this event, which was the only time they ever worked together for anything. Only the popular crowd was invited for this treasure hunt and some lucky normal people. If I was still the old Caroline van der Woodson, there was a ninety nine point nine percent chance that I wasn't going to be invited but this year, not-so-surprisingly, I was.

I wasn't shocked about the fact that I was invited. I wasn't even shocked that Grace White of all people was chosen by the council to hold the treasure hunt this year. I was shocked that she thought me of all people would be stupid enough to go to a party that was held by Grace fucking White.

And so, I told her, "What makes you think I'm going to attend your party?"

She smiled nervously and held up a finger. "Give me a second, I'm thinking." It took everything in me to stop myself from holding her finger and snapping it into two. "Um, well, Daniel Baker is going to be there and since you two are like best friends now I thought you wanted to come with him."

"I'm sorry, what? I lost you after I heard that Daniel's going to be there."

"He didn't tell you?" She gasped dramatically.

I was surprised that this woman standing in front of me had the guts to do that let alone talk to me after all that she had done. "Grace, honey," I started with a sympathetic tone, "I do not give a flying rat's shit if Daniel Baker is going to be there. The only reason I would ever attend any party of yours would be to sabotage it. On second thought, I guess I will be attending it."