Lie Until You Laugh

17- Competitions

“Red!”

I ignore Anthony as he calls my name from behind me and I continue walking.

“Red, stop!” He calls again.

I’m on my way to the dorms where Stella and Mason are meeting me so that we can change into our dance outfits for the dance competition which is tonight. Penn and Jamie let everybody out early today so that we can prepare for the competition, so it’s only five and the competition will start at six.

“Are you fucking deaf?” He demands when he catches up to me and grabs my elbow in his hand. It doesn’t hurt, but I stop walking and turn around anyway.

“I’m not going to talk to you,” I tell him.

“Yes you are,” He says. “None of Stella’s other friends will.”

“That’s probably because we all hate you,” I supply.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Anthony insists. “Stella said that she thinks that Gianna cheated on me but I don’t see how that’s my fault even if it’s true.”

“So, you’ve been treating your sister like shit for three years but when she starts treating you the same way, you freak out?” I wonder with raised eyebrows. “You’re a fucking idiot.”

“Don’t pretend like you know what happened,” He snaps at me. “You’ve only heard her side to it.”

“I’m going to leave now,” I say to him. “Let go of my arm.”

He just squeezes tighter and I start to get annoyed. “Stella said that I should talk to you about Gianna,” Anthony finally says.

I realize that if he did talk to Stella, she’d tell him that because I am the only one with proof that Gianna cheated on him. With a long sigh, I pull my phone out of my pocket and poke at the screen until I get to the picture of Gianna kissing Taylor and I hold it up for him to see.

“How do I know that you didn’t Photoshop that or something?” He demands, glaring at my screen.

“Messing up your lives isn’t a priority for me like fucking up my life is for you and your friends. You can believe whatever you want, I don’t really care, but if you don’t let go of my arm in the next second and a half, I’m going to make your nose bleed,” I inform him, putting my phone back in my pocket.

He releases my arm and before he can say anything else, I rip my arm away and walk in the opposite direction, towards the dorms. When I get there, Stella and Mason are in the midst of getting dressed in our performance outfit.

“You’re late!” Stella informs me when she sees me come in.

“Yeah, Anthony found me and wanted to have a conversation or something,” I mutter, grabbing my outfit from my top bunk and starting to get dressed in the room with them. We are working on the idea that we’re all girls and we all have the same parts, so we can get dressed in front of each other without it being a big deal.

“Anthony?” Stella repeats, looking at me with raised eyebrows. “My brother?”

I nod. “That’s the one. He wanted proof about the thing with Gianna or something.”

“I knew he wouldn’t believe me,” She mutters. “What do I care though? I don’t care at all. He’s an asshole. I hope she broke his tiny little shriveled heart.”

“Stell,” Mason sighs. “That’s really mean.”

“I don’t care!” She shrieks, obviously still aggravated about the whole Anthony situation. “I could at least understand it a little bit when he turned against me for a girl that he thought was a good person but when in reality, he was so desperate to get away from me that he turned against me for a girl that is just as terrible as I thought she was and that’s so terrible of him.”