Jessica's Fate

Chapter 29

I had to wait for a stall to open, finding myself uncomfortably staring at one of my former friends. She'd dropped me along the lines somewhere after it was broadcast to the entire school that I was a scholarship student. My eyes met hers and she flushed uncomfortably. "Hi Shelby." I mumbled, moving aside so she could exit the stall and I could go into it. I closed the door quickly, unable to hear or tell if she'd said anything. I took several deep breaths and hurried through what I needed to do before exiting the stall.

Shelby was still at the sink, working on her make-up and I stepped up next to her, setting my bag down and washing my hands quickly. "Hey Jess." She murmured, her eyes meeting mine in the mirror.

"Having fun?" I asked before digging my lip gloss out and applying a new coat to my lips.

"It's nice." She said. "Are you having fun?"

"I am." I nodded before the silence fell awkwardly between us again. "Are you here with Matt?" I blurted

"Yes. We've been dating for so long." She said. "I saw your date. He looks nice."

"He's very nice. I like him a lot."

"Been dating long?"

"Almost 6 weeks." I said, tucking my lip gloss away.

"Look..." she hesitated as she studied me. "I'm sorry. I never meant to lose you as a friend."

I shrugged lightly. "It's been years." I said. "I've come to grips with the fact that you weren't a friend anymore."

"I didn't mean to."

The edge in her voice made me look up at her again. "What do you mean? We stopped being study buddies and friends. I just figured it had more to do with the fact I couldn't ever go anywhere to meet you outside of school. Maybe a bit to do with the fact I was a scholarship student."

Shelby's face flushed again with color. "Well. It did have to do with your scholarship status." She hedged.

"Nice." I rolled my eyes. "I didn't even know that I was a scholarship student until that news broke across the entire school."

Her color deepened. "Oh. You didn't?"

I shook my head. "Didn't take long or much work for me to piece together the information." I said. "By then, I didn't have any friends left and all the parties started being these huge over the top deals that I couldn't have afforded to go to after I'd bought a gift and paid for bus fare or a cab to get there."

"I ... it was my fault." She said. "I told them. I found out because I was in the office one day and your file was sitting right there in the scholarship pile." She dropped her gaze. "I really wanted in to Buffy's group. I know she's horrible but it was something I craved that year and she made me do an initiation and my initiation hazing, if you will was to trash you somehow. And that was it, telling her that you were a scholarship student got me in. She dropped the bombshell and passed the information all over but she got it from me."

I blinked at her and my hands clenched into fists. This girl. This friend that I'd had... the only friend I had at that point had sold me out just to be included in Buffy's circle. My mortal enemy, Buffy. "Seriously?" I gritted my teeth. "That almost destroyed me. And YOU did it to me. Not her like I thought."

"Oh, she did it."

"BECAUSE you gave her what she needed to do it. God. Shelby, I can't believe you. You were my only friend and you sold me out. I didn't even know that I was on scholarship until that information hit and everyone turned against me. Including you."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't say that just because you feel bad and now that I've got a hot boyfriend, I'm suddenly interesting again and worth knowing." I glared at her. "I trusted you. You were the only person that ever talked to me. And now, we're seniors and the only people at this school that don't make my life a living hell are the guys in my study group. And they only put up with me because I help them more with studying for tests. Did you know that they all have girlfriends that go to other schools? I didn't really until tonight and I met them all. And they all hated me because apparently, I'm the only person outside of themselves, that they talk about to their girlfriends." My hands slowly relaxed out of the fists I'd had them tight in. "I'm going to walk out of here and you're never going to talk to me again. Just like you haven't talked to me for the last almost 6 years we've gone to school here." My eyes narrowed at her. "So why aren't you in Buffy's group anymore? Didn't want to drink the Kool aid she serves with the side of a few lines of coke?" I arched an eyebrow at her.

Her eyes filled with tears as her shoulders slumped. "Pretty much." She mumbled. "After I gave her the information on you and I did what she asked in turning my back on you and not being your friend anymore, she got mad at me when I couldn't give her any more information on you and then she got really mad when I refused to do the drugs. So, I am sorry. I turned on MY only friend and traded her in because I thought I could move up in the friend realm. I shouldn't have done it and when I figured out what she was going to try and make me do, I should have begged your forgiveness 4 years ago, and told you that it was me." She wiped at the tears that were falling. "That's on me. I should have done it and I didn't so you're mad at me even more now and that's my fault." She said. "But some day if you stop being mad at me, I'd like to start over. Just message me on Facebook or something." She glanced at me for a long moment before she started to work on her makeup again.

I frowned. "Okay." I mumbled before I turned away from her and headed out of the restroom to find Zack again.

I was a bit surprised to find him right outside the door, where I'd left him. Only not alone any more. He'd managed to gather a bit of a crowd. I tilted my head to look at him and he raised his head slightly, eyes meeting mine before he smiled. I blinked and managed a smile back before I realized he was actually in the middle of a group of guys.

Guys that had put me on the one and done list.

And their prom dates apparently were an even mix between mean girls and former friends and my hands clenched into fists again at the looks on some of their faces.

I wanted to snarl at them and scowl and issue a possessive, back off he's mine sort of statement because those were the looks that said. 'oooh, yummy man here."

He quirked an eyebrow at me before excusing himself and getting out of the group to be in front of me. "Hey, Beautiful." He smiled.

I tucked my bag back inside his jacket pocket. "Hey you." I looked up at him. "Miss me?"

Zack smiled and framed my face with his hands before lowering his head to meet mine, tilting his head slightly so he could slant his lips over mine and kiss me deeply.

I did hear at least one sigh from the girls that were standing behind him now. I lightly fisted my hand in his shirt and kissed him back.

"I did miss you." He said, pulling away and resting his forehead against mine. "Ready to dance again?"

"Yes, please. I want to talk about something later but dancing will keep my mind off of it for now."

"Then by all means, we are going to dance." He shifted, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and tucking me close to his side as we navigated our way back into the main ballroom.