Kayla wants to make Senior year, the year she goes to prom with her longtime crush. But making it to prom at all won't be possible if she can't figure out who's leaving her threatening notes. As if that weren't enough someone close to her goes miss...
The vibration of my phone wakes me up and my body feels heavy. I just want it to sink into the mattress as I go back to sleep.
Buzz. Buzz.
Sleeping in on a Saturday morning is for girls who don't escape psychos for sport I guess, because the text messages from Iyana keep coming in.
Wake up.
Kayla. Quit being a bum bitch.
I'm going to keep texting your lazy ass until you answer me.
Are you mad about last night?
Kayla!
Big sale at the mall today.
My step-dad gave me his credit card so I'll leave while he and his secretary 'work'.
You in?
I'm heading to your house in the hour either way. So just say yes.
Shouldn't you tell your mom about these long work hours?
I knew you were awake.
See you soon.
"Iyana, you are such a ho." I immediately pause and laugh at the awkwardness of how loud I just said that. The entire mall is lightly buzzing with bargain shoppers this Saturday morning, so my comment carries outside of the dressing rooms at Torrid.
"Really Kayla, immature much?"Iyana says to me with her head and hip both cocked to the right side as always. I just giggle harder at how embarrassed she obviously is.
"When you get all red in the face it totally screws with your spray tan." That makes it even worse and now I'm doubled over laughing at her.
"Those shorts are showing half your butt."I tell her. "My underwear covers more than that."
"I have to look as slut-tastic as possible, not for young high school boys though. If you knew any better you would listen to me. You can be so much more than a newspaper nerd. You actually should be trying to hook up with someone, but we gotta start you off easy."
Why does she always want to turn me into something I'm not? I guess I'm no better for trying to make her like me. Ugh, I hate being fair.
"I'm sorry I don't want to be another boob-job Barbie, but I want to be respected. Chaz will notice me and respect me." Don't even get me started on how hot Chaz is. He has never noticed me, but I'm hoping for a senior year miracle.
"If Chaz, the Corbin Blue reject, is the hottest then you have a serious problem. He's slept with practically everyone I know anyway. But if you want I would drug 'em for you." She always makes that same lousy joke with too serious of a face.
"No thanks. Are you gonna drag him into your creepy white van too?
"You never know with me. At least I won't be the victim." Iyana shrugs and walks out to grabs more outfits.
I really am afraid that she's considering this as an option. Yet, it's craziness like this that makes us such great friends for some reason.
"You know Kay, just because you don't sleep around doesn't mean guys will automatically respect you more."
"Sure it does. It's a double standard we all have to live by. It's not fair but nothing is." I know I've hit a nerve by the serious turn this conversation took, but I know as well as she does that good girls are better. It's just a fact.
"You've spent way too much time around uppity hypocrites, Kayla."
"No, I haven't. It's just that I'm stating a well-known fact."
"Unfortunately you'll end up learning the hard way, but I'm going to explain this to you for the hundredth time because you're my best friend. There are men...boys...members of the male species that will not respect a female simply because she is a female. You can judge girls like me all you want, but doing so because some dude will respect you more makes you a joke. I don't deserve less respect because I explore my sexuality and dress for my body."
Iyana leaves her dressing room and puts back a few items. I want to jump out and scare her when she comes out just to lighten the mood, but now I'm not even in the mood for that. When we're both done we head to the register.
Iyana -or rather her step-dad- pays for everything we are getting.
"Alright, your total comes to $272.13 mam." The cashier nonchalantly says the total.
Iyana doesn't ever seem to mind that she is spending so much so I try to play it cool too, but that is way too much in my opinion. Although, it's not so absurd that I would dare put my stuff back.
"Oh, and is either one of you Kayla?"
We both look up a bit shocked. We shop here a lot, but the question catches us both off guard. Iyana looks at me with a furrowed brow and wide eyes.
"I am?" I must sound like an idiot but this is strange.
"Great. A young gentleman left this here for you." The cashier smiles and hands me a bracelet with a note attached.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
