Thirty-Two

Wait, We're Laughing Now?

Quinn's POV

I avoided Vanessa for the rest of the evening and all the next morning as I got ready. I had brought my Homecoming dress to the front of my closet a few weeks ago, and I stared at it on its hanger as I pulled on a distressed pair of jeans and a light pink hoodie. I'd bought it over the summer, because I'd fallen in love with it and hadn't wanted the store to run out of my size. Looking at it, I wondered if I should tell Cody to wear a deep purple tie so that we'd match. He'd definitely look good in purple.

As I ran a brush through my hair, I decided that Cody Marlett would look good in any color, because quite frankly he was a beautiful-looking human being and his appearances possibly rivaled those of Andrew Summers. Seriously, what had I been thinking, friendzoning him all year after he'd been so sweet to me?

My phone buzzed just as I was sliding on my always-present infinity ring, and I saw I had a text from Julia. Biting my bottom lip, I opened up the message.

We should try again w/ a double date! she'd texted. Now that the couples are swapped now ;)

I didn't reply, just shoved my phone in my pocket and headed downstairs, gently pushing away Macy, who was jumping obnoxiously on my legs. Vanessa left her room at the same time as me, running her hands through her copper-colored hair, and she didn't look at me as we progressed down the hallway side by side.

"So, Mom," I said as I sat down at the barstool with a banana, "about that party after Homecoming."

Vanessa's head shot up and she looked at me with an expression that bordered on hope in her eyes.

When my mother looked up from her textbook long enough to acknowledge that she'd heard me, I pressed on. "I'm sure it'll be fine," I said, taking a tiny bite of banana and swallowing quickly. "After all, it's just Homecoming. And Kenzie's parents will probably be there."

I honestly had no idea whether or not Kenzie's parents would be present (I doubted it), but I also wasn't going to forget my end of the deal with Vanessa.

Mom wrote something down in her notebook, saying absentmindedly, "I'll think about it. Don't either of you get your hopes up."

I guessed she thought I wanted to go, too. Warily returning Vanessa's half-smile, I dumped my banana peel in the trash can and opened the garage door, stepping inside before removing the kickstand. It felt like the first day of school all over again as I pedaled down the driveway in the bright morning sun, except now I felt a lot more confident about myself and I knew that I definitely didn't need a skirt and curled hair just to impress a guy.

My good mood faded entirely when I received another text from Julia upon parking my bike. Hey! it read. Meet at the caf before class? Hungry but don't want to eat alone :(

I figured the cafeteria was as good a place as any to yell myself hoarse at her for her inconsiderate decisions, so I looped my helmet around one of my bike's handlebars and then jogged around the school to reach the cafeteria, glancing down at my phone to check the time. I had twenty minutes before first period--ample time to finish scolding Julia.

When I scanned my student ID and pulled open the cafeteria door, I saw Andrew and Julia sitting at one of the many empty tables, laughing as they shared a plate of breakfast. I'd completely forgotten that Providence Prep served all-you-can-eat hot breakfast for five dollars on Tuesdays.

Without hesitating, I slipped into the buffet line and began piling frozen French toast slices onto my plate. It definitely wouldn't do to argue on an empty stomach.

By the time I'd paid for my food and started eating the grits, Andrew had stood and kissed Julia on the top of her head before walking towards the door. He tipped his head up at me as he walked by--his "let's stay away from each other" suggestion was probably irrelevant to him now that I was dating Cody--and then disappeared out into the quad, bumping fists with a senior as he walked.

"Hey, Julia," I said softly, sitting down at the seat Andrew had just vacated and plopping my plate down in front of me. The grist and the syrup were both running so that they mingled--that would definitely affect the taste.

I was so busy trying to save my breakfast from getting ruined that I barely heard her as she said brightly, "Did you get my text about the double date? We should totally do that. We could go bowling again! I know Andrew wants a rematch."

"Listen, Julia," I said abruptly, giving my food up as a hopeless case and taking a bite of French toast instead. "I don't think a double date is a good idea."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because." I swallowed and then took a bite of the grits that weren't currently drowning in maple syrup. "Your relationship with Andrew is actually sort of messed up. Or it will be, anyway, if he finds out about the Andrew Summers plan."

Her face paled and her eyes widened for a split second, but she recovered so quickly that had I not known the truth I would not have suspected anything at all. Then she took an enormous bite of eggs, forcing a laugh as she said, "What's the Andrew Summers plan, Quinn? Come on, I thought you were over him."

"I am. But I'm not over you lying to me all year."

This time, Julia must have known she was trapped, because the redness that rose to the top of her high cheekbones stayed. Then she took another bite of egg from her spoon and said, a little shakily, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Quinn. Did you have a weird dream or something?"

I slammed my palms on the table. "Julia, I know you're the one who's been leaving me those Post-It notes in my locker all year. I know you wanted me to date Andrew Summers so you could have Cody. I know you lied to me and manipulated with my feelings and others'."

"Wow." Julia whistled slowly, shoving aside her deep red tray. "Someone's been spending too much time around Cody. His temper must have rubbed off on you, Miss Happy Go Lucky."

Suddenly, I felt very sick to my stomach. "Cody doesn't have a temper," I said.

"'Course he does." Julia said this as if it were completely obvious. "We argued all the time, and he blew up at me a few times. It's not pretty. Although, you must be okay with it, since he walks around muttering all sorts of profanity all the time."

"He curses once in a blue moon," I shot back.

She rolled her eyes, taking her time so that her pupils seemed affixed to the ceiling of her eyes for a few seconds before she brought them back down. "Suit yourself."

"Don't act like the only reason you're not with Cody is because you don't like him anymore," I told her, my voice shaking as I struggled not to yell. "He's the one who broke up with you, and you came to me crying. So stop pretending you were in control of the situation all along."

"Maybe I was. After all, I had you running around the whole school at my beck and call until Cody dumped me and Andrew and I started going out instead."

I stared at her as if maybe she hadn't just said what she just had. I'd expected her to instantly plead for forgiveness once I told her what I'd found out, but instead, she seemed almost proud of what she'd done. Seeing as her plan had created practically all of my problems, I didn't know why she would be satisfied, especially since her scheme hadn't even worked. Of course, the girl was stubborn to a fault, and her admitting she was wrong would be like Vanessa giving up makeup for a week: a hair-pulling, tear-inducing endeavor.

"I'm glad you've finally gotten what you want," I told her sourly, tossing my hair back over my shoulder. "I couldn't care less what happened with the guys. That was all a mess. But I thought you were my friend. I would never have expected you to betray me like this."

Her cheeks were still flaming as she said proudly, "Did you expect me to walk around all day watching Cody chase you like a little puppy dog while you ran after Andrew Summers? It broke my heart to see his heart broken."

"So you decided to break mine instead?"

That must have hit her hard, because she raked her hand through her blonde bob like she always did when she was mad and spat out, eyes glinting, "You couldn't have both of them. Think about it, Quinn. If Andrew had never liked you, you would've had a broken heart, anyway. And if you'd gone out with Cody, you would have always wondered about Andrew. I was doing you a favor."

"Really? Because you making the decision for me doesn't seem like doing me a favor. I was perfectly capable of choosing between them all along. Were you, Julia? Because you were obsessed with Cody until you realized he was too 'whatever' for you, and then you ran to perfect straight-A athletic Andrew Summers with the flawless morals."

"Don't you dare bring Andrew into this!" she shrieked, offended. "Excuse me if I wasn't happy with Cody. It worked out for you, because now you two are together."

Angrily, I buried my head in my hands, forcing several deep breaths before I looked up again and glared at Julia. "The issue is not the boys, I told you that already. It's what you did to me. You picked a guy--two guys, actually--over me. That's not okay."

"So did you!" Julia's voice was higher pitched than I'd ever heard it before. "All year you flirted and hung out with Cody right under my nose when you knew I liked him. You never tried to get us together and you never had any consideration for my feelings or his! And he broke up with me for you. Do you know how that makes me feel?"

"Well Andrew broke up with me for you," I replied staunchly. "So we're on the same page."

She rolled her eyes. "You and Andrew would have never worked, anyway," she said. "You two are too different."

"So you worked all this time to set me up with a boy you knew would be bad for me just so you could have Cody?"

When I glanced at Julia I again, I saw that there was no shame or regret in her eyes--and that made things even worse. If she didn't even see the fault in her actions, then maybe she wasn't my best friend after all.

"You changed, anyway," she said finally. "You started hanging out with Vanessa and her friends. I thought we agreed we'd never turn into them."

"I only hung out with them because you'd ditched me!" I shot back. Angrily, I began running my fingers through my hair and then braiding it intricately, my fingers flying as I struggled not to explode. "And it was only for a few days, anyway."

"Well Andrew made his choice: me over you. Don't be sour about it just because you lost."

My temper finally reached breaking point and I shoved back my chair so that it squealed against the cafeteria's tile as I stood. "I lost?" I demanded. "I didn't lose. I'm perfectly fine with you dating Andrew. You're the one who got dumped."

"So did you," she said, standing up too and leaning forward on the table to that we were practically nose to nose.

I wanted to throw something at her, but I kept braiding my hair so I wouldn't be tempted to reach out for my tray of French toast, syrup, and grits beside me. "The issue is not with Andrew or Cody," I said finally, packing as much anger as possible into my syllables. "My issue is that you lied to me and betrayed me all year and you had absolutely no problem about it. Friends don't do that."

"Friends don't do what you did, either, Quinn."

"Well you were definitely more wrong!" I exclaimed. "You lied to me on top of everything."

She held her head high, eyes glinting as she spat back, "You had no consideration for my feelings."

"Well you--"

Suddenly, all the fire in her eyes faded and her lips twitched, and I suddenly realized exactly what we were arguing about and I began to smirk too, and before long we'd both broken out into hysterical laughter as we collapsed back onto our chairs.

"I'm sorry," she said finally, burying her face in her arms as her shoulders continued to shake from laughter.

I wiped tears out of my eyes and caught my breath long enough to say, "I'm sorry, too, Jules."

The absurdity of the whole situation had finally hit. Since the beginning of the school year, Julia and I had both run around like lunatics trying to get the guy we wanted--Cody in her case and Andrew in mine--jumping through hoops while the poor oblivious boys just went along with everything. Then, once we'd started dating our so-thought dream guy, we'd both realized that it wasn't all it had cut out to be, and as we'd started developing feelings for the others' boyfriend we started getting angry and jealous with each other. So we'd both gotten dumped and then we'd switched boys, which had led to this enormous fight which I now realized was sort of inconsequential after all. Julia had chosen to be cunning about getting Cody, but she hadn't done any more wrong than I had when I'd started to pick Cody over Andrew.

This whole thing was stupid.

"Can this just all be over now?" she asked, looking up long enough for me to see that her cheeks were pink not from anger anymore but from her hysterics.

"Of course."

She extended her hand and I grabbed it, and we squeezed each others' fingers for a few seconds before letting go.

"Here's to never, ever arguing about boys again," I said once I'd picked up my plate of breakfast again and had taken an enormous bite of French toast.

She extended her fork as if in a toast. "Here, here."

We finished our breakfast at the cafeteria table, catching each others' eye and breaking out in giggles every once and a while as we remembered what fools we'd made of ourselves. When it was finally time to go to class, I headed to Chemistry feeling a lot better than I had in a really long time. The fact that Homecoming was only a few days away made things that much better.

"Hey, Quinn," said Cody, nudging me as I walked into Chemistry class right on time and made my way over to my normal desk.

I smiled at him as he stood next to me while I pulled out my pencil and homework. "Julia and I made up," I said.

"Didn't know you were fighting, but that's good."

Of course he wouldn't have known. Guys were so clueless.

Eventually, he made his way to his normal seat, whipping off his snapback before Mrs. Smith could scold him, and pulled out his notebook. I smirked at him from across the room as class began, trying to remember when I'd been happier.

My life would be absolutely perfect now if only I could make up with Andrew.

A/N: Sorry if this chapter's a little rushed towards the end! I wrote it last night and it was storming terribly so I was trying to finish up, and then the house lost power before I could post it :O 

One more chapter, guys!