The Other Girl

Chapter XVI

Karen hated Stacey's blog. She thought it was judgemental and entirely untrue—"like Gossip Girl, except worse," she'd said once. "Except this time it's my friend. It's personal."

"I would never post about my friends!" Stacey cried back at Karen's implications, shock written all over her face. "Do I really seem like a person that'd turn my back on my friends?"

Her question had guilted Karen into silence, and the clique put the argument into the past. However, a post about Whitney one Thursday during freshman year of uni unearthed the argument and allowed it to bloom.

"How could you?" Karen had raged at Stacey, who looked back guilty but defiant.

"She's an icon!" Stacey had shot back. "I've written the same piece on all of us, so why're you so angry at this one?"

"Because you didn't tell the truth about your post!" Karen'd yelled at Stacey, Whitney standing quietly behind her. "Because you didn't tell us you'd make her out to be a trophy!"

"I'm sorry I glorified her virginity, alright?" Stacey had growled, anger ebbing as guilt took over. "I'll take it down—I'll rewrite it—"

"What's the use?" Karen asked, looking sad and tired now. "Everyone's already read it. Congrats by the way—your blog is now more famous than it's ever been."

"I didn't mean for it to be like this," Stacey had started, looking at Whitney apologetically. "I didn't mean—"

"It doesn't matter what you meant," Karen had said, sighing. "Now we'll never know whether the boys that approach her are assholes or not."

"It's alright, Karen," Whitney'd interrupted quietly, giving Stacey a mute glance of forgiveness. "Stacey, I hope you realize that I don't appreciate what you've posted about me. However, you mean more to me than any boy. All of you are more important to me than any love interest I could have."

And so Whitney's gentle words had mended the fraying know. Although her reminder of the importance of our friendship served to tie us all closer than ever, it scared me to think of what would have happened if one day, a boy did matter more.

Because family did. And boys grew up to become men, and men helped form families.

---

It became apparent that Jeremy would be taking the presidential position in the council, so most of the presidential candidates opted to run for other positions. Kimberly and Rachel were now running for VP.

The speech incident had shocked Kimberly, who'd never thought that people could be so despicable. In her mind people were naturally kind and selfless, and Rachel's actions seemed to violate those bounds. "How could she be so evil?" Kimberly had asked Karen one day during lunch, receiving a sorrowfully sympathetic look in response.

I ended up confronting Stacey—briefly, and most likely ineffectively.

"Her face when it hit her!" Stacey had shrieked, doubling over in laughter. "Priceless!"

"Wasn't it a bit obvious?" I'd asked, fretting over the possibility that the scandal would be connected back to Stacey, then me. " Is Rachel really trustworthy?"

"When it comes down to it? No," Stacey admitted before breaking out into a grin. "Thankfully Kimberly's too naive to stand up to her—a wise choice on her part, for once."

I must have looked uncomfortable as Stacey promptly burst out laughing before calming down and patting my shoulder comfortingly.

"Don't worry about a thing—at least not yet," she told me with a conspiratorial grin. "I'm not done with her yet."