Against all Sanity

~29~

The last official update will be a double update so lets go!

Things could not go back to the way they were. At least it didn't seem like it would happen anytime soon.

Within a couple of days – which was remarkably fast even for Emily, and it gave me hope that the girls perhaps weren't as mad at me as I thought – Emily had arranged a meeting with the other girls. A meeting sounded so formal, but essentially that was what it was. I was going to present my side of the case and they would judge, kind of like a court case.

At least it felt like I was being prosecuted, because as soon as I entered the local café – it was a small café, but none the less a public place in case one of them felt like making a scene – all of their eyes were on me and none of them looked particularly happy to see me. With the exception of Emily everyone was giving me death stares, and the small hope that I had had that everything would be okay, was put out in less than a second.

"Hey." My voice was merely a whisper when I arrived to their table, both of my hands buried deep in my pockets to keep them from fidgeting. I had contemplated buying something to drink, but in reality I was too nervous to drink anything and I was just going to end up wasting money.

"Don't think any of us want to be here." Anya was the first one to speak; her tone was as hard as her gaze. I took a step back, feeling the force behind her words. "We're only doing this because Emily wouldn't stop talking about you."

Vivian nodded in agreement, Emily looked at me with sympathy and Skylar... she hadn't looked up from her coffee since I entered the café. I winced.

"Well, thank you for being here anyway," I muttered as I took a seat at the table, the only free seat beside Emily and Vivian, and across from Skylar and Anya.

Anya scoffed, but none of the others said anything. It was clear to see that Anya was the most aggressive of them all, and like I said before no one could hold a grudge like her. And Vivian would most likely follow her so the chances of getting either of them to forgive me were very slim. Emily was goodness herself and she had already forgiven me, so with that in mind I decided to concentrate my efforts on the one person I wanted to forgive me the most: Skylar.

"I'm so sorry," I started off, my words directed to all of them but my eyes focused on one person. "I don't know if Emily already told you, but-"

"She did," Anya cut me off. "She told us about how you lied to become more popular."

I winced again. That hadn't been my intention, but wasn't that really what I had ended up doing? I had enjoyed having the power, and although most of the reason I hadn't wanted the secret to come out was because of my friends, deep down I couldn't deny that I had been selfish. I knew it, and now I was paying for it.

I chose to not comment on her accusation however. "I just didn't want to be treated like the other 'poor' kids. I wanted a fair chance to become who I wanted to be. It got out of control and before I knew it my whole High School life was built on the ground of a lie."

"I wanted to tell you, believe me," I continued, "but I didn't want it to end like... well, this."

The silence seemed to stretch on for years, all of us tempted to break it but none of us daring to ruin the fragile peace. It wasn't a comfortable silence; it was suffocating you until you had no choice but to give in. Anya was the first one to do so.

"I'm sorry, but for me that's just not enough." Her eyes were sad but it didn't look like she was really regretting anything. She then got up and left.