The next morning I woke up with an awful taste in my mouth and a pain in my stomach. I checked my phone, but no messages or texts. I didn’t want to look like a stalker, but I sent Vladi one more text telling him I hoped he could believe me and that I’d never go behind his back.
I got in the shower and it was like I couldn’t get the water hot enough. I was freezing and when I got out to towel off, I was shaking. What was I going to do when I saw Yasmin at school? And did she think I was trying to steal her boyfriend? She and Kyle were so on and off, and she always acted like I was invisible to her anyway, so why did she suddenly think I was some kind of threat? Or was it what I suspected? All this just to cause trouble between Vladi and me so she could get in with him?
I got to school and was walking up the path to school with India and Devon when I heard Yasmin’s crew talking loudly about me.
“She’s so two-faced. I cannot stand fake people,” Yasmin said.
Maggie nodded. “So fake.”
Arianna shifted uncomfortably. “Come on you guys, let’s make this less awkward. Let’s just… not talk about this.”
Yasmin glared at her. “Whose side are you on? Mine or that fake loser — oh, I almost said, ‘fake model,’ which would have been, like, two meanings, right? Because she’s phony and because she thinks she’s this big model when she’s not.”
“Exactly.” Maggie reminded me of a bobblehead doll the way she kept nodding in agreement.
Later, Ashanti sat with Maggie and Halle at lunch and tried to talk to them about what went on, but I had to wait until we got on the bus to talk to her. I couldn’t wait to hear what she found out, but when I went to sit with her she told me to, “Keep walking,” in a quiet voice.
Did they turn one of my best friends against me, too? I walked down the aisle feeling nauseated. How much worse could this get?
I got off the bus and unlocked my front door. I started crying and dropped my coat on the couch. My phone was ringing. Great, who was mad at me now? It was Ashanti.
“Hello?”
“Hey, sorry I couldn’t talk to you on the bus,” she said. “But I’m trying to figure something out with Mags and Halle, so I didn’t want it to look like I was running back to you with everything they told me.”
“So what then? You told them we’re not friends anymore?”
“No, I just said I thought this was kind of shady, and I wanted to hear from them what went down. You know, I made it look like I was getting their side of the story instead of just believing you. You know I’m totally on your side, right?”
“You are?”
“Of course, always, but I have to look like I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. However, I know Maggie can get caught up in that whole popularity thing. Maybe she even believes what Yasmin is saying. I dunno, but Halle thinks this whole thing stinks. She won’t say it in front of Mags, but she feels bad you got caught up in it.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“Yeah, she waited until Maggie and Yasmin went to get a napkin, but she isn’t down with this at all.”
“Then why doesn’t she say something to them? If she knows I didn’t do anything, then she should stand up for me.”
“I guess she doesn’t because it’s hard, and it might make her a target,” Ashanti said. “I’m working on her and trying to get them to see Yasmin could flip on them, too, but they’re not having it. They think they need Yasmin’s popular cred to get them somewhere for high school next year.”
“Maybe I should go to St. Faustina’s next year and get away from all this drama,” I said.
“No, you can’t. You promised we were going to Central together.”
I wanted to believe that Ashanti was planning on hanging out with me at Central next year. But I knew once we started ninth grade she’d be with her new crew, and I’d be on the outside looking in.
“So what now?” I asked.
“I’ll keep working on Halle. Just say a prayer and don’t worry.”
Peyton called me later saying we should do something fun on Friday night and forget about all this drama.
“How about we go to the movies?” she said. “We can get a bunch of people to go.”
Devon and India texted me later that they would go, too, and I asked Thalia, who was excited to be included. Ashanti told me Halle invited her to spend the night on Friday. While I was kind of hurt that, yet again, she made plans without me, I didn’t want to act possessive or anything. I didn’t need to give her another reason to leave me behind.