Cheer-Streaked: A Westbridge Over-Drama

6: Tears Of A Freak

Faster than I could have thought possible, I felt her hand on my shoulder. "Libby, what's wrong?"

"Get off, you freak!" I growled, pulling away from her, making sure she couldn't see my face. "We'll have to finish the project in the morning, now's a bad time."

"Lib-"

"I'll come by your house in the morning."

"B-"

"GO, you idiot!!!"

Oops - I'd accidentally turned my head a little to yell at her more directly. I tried to turn back fast enough so she wouldn't see, but...

"Libby, are you... crying?"

"No, my face is leaking battery acid," I said, knowing I wasn't making any sense. "And if you don't want me to burn you with it, you'd better go."

Of course, she sat down on the bed next to me. "Hey, c'mon..."

"I'm not kidding, Freakbreath!"

She sighed in frustration. "Would you cut that out? I'm trying to help you."

I cleared my throat so as to speak as clearly as possible. "I do not want, nor have I ever needed the help of the likes of you. Now, would you be so kind as to leave me in peace?"

"No."

Running out of other ideas, I dropped all pretense and turned to face her. "Why?! Why won't you just leave me alone? Why have you been trying to be all nice to me every chance you get?! You're like a really friendly case of chicken pox - you just won't back off until you've run your course, will you?!"

"Nope." And she was smiling... but not that plastic smile she's normally wearing. Her eyes were a little wider, as if she really were concerned this time - or maybe even scared.

And before I knew what I was doing, before I could take a step back into the realm of rational thought and stop myself, I was crying into Sabrina's shoulder. Both of us tensed up when it first happened, but then I was sobbing uncontrollably, and she was rubbing my back with one hand, holding the back of my head with the other.

It was so humiliating - she was acting like the mother my mother should be. When did everything stop making sense? Up was down, black was white, Gucci was Prada... I was so bewildered, I didn't know what I was doing, or why any of this was happening, especially to me. And all the while, she just held me... like this was perfectly natural, instead of something from the bizarro world. And I wanted to hurt her for putting me in this position, I wanted to beat her senseless and throw her out the window... and yet, all I did was cry harder, cling to her tighter and tighter. It felt like if I let go I'd have to go back to the real world, and as awful and wrong as this bizarro world was, it wasn't as harsh as reality.

Hours must have passed like that; every time I tried to pull away violently, I'd just fall right back down. When I finally sat up and stared into her face through my veil of tears, I could tell she had cried a little, too... which made me hug her, an honest-to-God hug. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but it was like even though she didn't know what was going on, she had shared some of my pain and made it easier - lighter - for me in the process. I mean, hey, in this parallel universe, of course it made sense.

Finally, I sat back and started with, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

"For... that," I said, gesturing to the huge wet spot on the shoulder of her blouse. "I- I don't know what's wrong with me."

She coughed. "Libby, if it's anything I did..."

"No," I said quickly. "Well, you have been totally weirding me out lately, and... I guess it'd be easy for me to explain it away like that, but..." I cleared my throat; this was harder to do rationally. "...as much as I hate to say it, I couldn't do that to you, and after seeing me like this, you should probably know what really happened."

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And so I told her. It only took maybe five minutes, but it felt like I'd been telling the story since I was born. I could tell it was freaking her out; I know from reading between the lines of rumour and hearsay that her parents split up, moved far away and dropped her off at her aunts' house, which probably sucked, but she'd also never had a parent quite like my mother. By the end of the story, she was curled up with one of my pillows, looking kind of bleak and depressed.

"Geez..." It seemed to be about all she could say.

"So don't worry too much about it," I concluded. "I mean, I know I was blubbering all over the place, but with you being twelve kinds of nice and my mom being especially..."

"Bitchy?"

"Yeah." I couldn't resist the small smile; the girl scout swore again. "Anyway, all that and our regular schoolwork load combined just built up and exploded, I guess. It's nothing."

"No it's not," she insisted. "I mean, I get that you're used to it, like I'm used to my Aunts being unbelievably weird, but... it doesn't mean it's nothing."

I glared at her. "You can't make a big deal out of this, because it's not. That's all there is to it."

"I'm not saying it's a big deal," she reiterated, gesturing emphatically. "Just... listen. I don't want you to think you're weak or whatever just because you broke down on m-"

"Oh my God, you can't tell anybody about this!" Yeah, that hit me in the gut. "I swear, if you tell anybody, I'll-"

"Libby!" She looked like she wanted to hit me again... like she did in her room. "Dammit, you need better friends!" Then she did something she'd been doing a lot lately and laid her hand on my arm - and just this once, I didn't jerk away immediately. "This isn't ammo to me, seriously. It's just one of those things... and I wouldn't even want to tell anybody like it's some big joke, because those kind of jokes just aren't funny."

And still it kept coming; her well of kindness really does spring eternal, I guess. "Really?"

"Definitely." She stretched out on the bed. "Now, if I'd come in here and found you playing with My Little Pony or something, that would totally be all over the school, 'cause that's hilarious."

It was a lame joke, but after all that emotional venting I couldn't help it - I laughed. And I mean I really laughed, like I was a little kid, staying up all night with my friends and making up stories. Then, when I didn't stop, Sabrina laughed with me, and though I felt like the world outside was going to change forever when my brain started thinking again, and though I knew my life would try to go back to being the same maddening, oppressive mess as always, it was like... being inside a good memory. All the stress and details just melted away for those few precious hours, and for the first time in a long time, I felt... happy.

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A bright yellow Spring sun was streaming through the window when my eyes fluttered open. I can't remember when I slept that well! I knew I should be getting up soon, but my bed just felt sooooo good... sighing, I rolled over and hugged one of my pillows, nuzzling back in for a few more minutes.

But I couldn't remember having a pillow this warm. I opened my eyes for a second to see which pillow it was, and froze.

Why was Sabrina in my bed?

END Chapter Six