“I talked to Lacey the other day,” Amy reported while they browsed clothing racks at a popular store. Kayla stopped dead in her tracks, letting a shirt on a hanger fall to the ground. Even though they had been friends for years, Kayla had stopped talking to Lacey when they were 16.
“You still talk to her?” Kayla squeaked. Lacey wasn’t just a horrible friend to Kayla, she had also treated Amy like crap quite a few times. Amy grinned sheepishly.
“She called me out of the blue,” she explained. “She told me about her ex-boyfriend and her new boyfriend and that she’s going to come back to our school.” Kayla swallowed.
“Are you joking?” she asked. Amy slowly shook her head.
There was more than one occasion where Lacey had been a sucky friend to Kayla the last year they spoke. She would tell Kayla that she didn’t dress cute enough and that she need to flirt with guys more. She would make them switch clothes if she was wearing something uncomfortable. Lacey was like Celeste in that they both thought they were the hottest things on earth. If Kayla and Lacey were at the mall together and got whistled at Lacey would say, “That guys just whistled at me!” Any time anything like that would happen it was the same response. “That guy was staring at me! That guy was flirting with me. That guy just honked at me!” As if Kayla were invisible.
Then the two had their first of many disagreements. Both of them liked the same guy, so Kayla being a good friend was going to take it easy and not make any moves; if the guy asked her out she was going to make sure Lacey would be alright with it. Well, the guy ended up asking Lacey out and Lacey said yes without even consulting Kayla and then couldn’t understand why Kayla was so angry. Of course, the three of them would have to hang out together, even though Kayla still had feelings for the guy; she’d have to watch them cuddle and make out in front of her.
While Lacey was still going out with that guy, Kayla began to like an older guy, Josh, that went to their youth group. Since he was 20 and she was 16, he told Kayla that he would date her when she turned 18. They remained friendly and flirty…until he started calling her Lacey sometimes. Kayla didn’t think much of it at first; people often got her and Lacey confused. But then Lacey (after making Kayla break up with her previously mentioned boyfriend over the phone for her) asked Kayla to hook her up with Josh. That’s when Kayla had it. She told Lacey that she couldn’t fix her up with someone that she liked herself and also let her know that she didn’t appreciate her going out with the other guy without making sure Kayla would be alright with it. Lacey’s response was:
“He asked me out, not you.” That was when Kayla stopped talking to her, the summer before 11th grade. She learned through mutual friends that Lacey had been calling Josh behind her back for months and had also been telling him lies about her. Kayla stopped talking to Josh at that point as well and a few months later he had a new girlfriend (neither Kayla nor Lacey) who he had gotten pregnant. That’s when Kayla realized that it was pointless to chase after guys. If Josh had really liked her he would have not chatted with Lacey every night on the phone and wouldn’t have just forgotten her and knocked up some other chick. The school year after that Lacey went to public school and Kayla was glad.
Guys weren’t Kayla’s only problem with Lacey, either. Lacey was down right selfish and everyone had to do what she wanted. If Kayla ever needed something to eat and didn’t have money while they were out and about doing Lacey’s errands, she’d practically have to beg Lacey for something to eat. And Lacey never let her forget that she loaned her money or bought her a meal. The second she needed some cash she’d be calling Kayla up wanting it paid back, even if they hadn’t seen each other in months.
Kayla believed that friends shouldn’t be like that. Amy needed money sometimes to go bowling or out to eat and Kayla wouldn’t think twice about paying for her. She would never keep a mental tally like Lacey did of how much Amy owed her. Lacey was a bitch…and now Amy was claiming she’s coming back to the school…which did not happen five years ago.
***
Amy’s dad pulled into the alley alongside the youth center. Suddenly, Kayla’s stomach filled with butterflies. She cursed at herself for it and hopped out of the car. The girls thanked Amy’s dad and then walked inside.
Instantly, Kayla’s mind was flooded with memories triggered by the smell of sweaty boys and pizza. She had to blink her eyes a few times to adjust to the fluorescent lighting. A small game of basketball was already going on and as Kayla and Amy stepped through the door they almost got beamed in the head with the ball. The boys laughed and continued playing.
“Jerks,” Kayla mumbled. Along the right wall of the gym were seats that had been taken out of a church van for the teens to sit on. Kayla and Amy threw their purses on an empty seat and looked around. Kayla was in a state of shock. Some of the people that were there had been friends with her years ago. Of course, it wasn’t years ago to them, more like a couple of weeks probably. What would she say to them if they talked to her? A girl’s voice beckoned them towards the kitchen.
“Hey guys!” a girl who Kayla recognized as Laurie greeted. She leaned into the counter below the kitchen’s window. Laurie must be on kitchen duty, Kayla thought. “What’s up?”
“Oh, you know,” Amy replied. “School sucks.”
“I know, I didn’t think junior high would be so different!” Laurie frowned.
“You’re in junior high?” Kayla asked, her voice strangely high. Laurie giggled.
“Duh, yeah Kayla!” she answered. “I just started seventh grade.” Kayla tried to keep her eyes from falling out of her head. They had a seventh grader…in the kitchen…making food for people to consume!
“Wow,” Kayla tried to chuckle. “I feel old.” The girls laughed and Amy jabbed Kayla in the ribs.
“I have to pee,” she stated.
“You want an award?” Kayla retorted. Amy scowled and took Kayla’s arm, dragging her to the bathroom.
“You need to get it together,” Amy cried after the door shut behind them. “Everyone’s going to think you’re insane!”
“Well, I feel insane!” Kayla cried back. “Amy, I had crushes on half those guys out there. That’s illegal! I’m a freaking pedophile!” Amy cracked a smile.
“But you’re seventeen now, not twenty two,” she corrected. “Plus, I thought they only called men pedophiles?”
“Regardless, I still feel like a creep. It would be like you having a crush on a ten year old.” Amy scrunched up her nose.
“Ew,” she agreed. “But you’re stuck being seventeen, as far as you know. Just try to act like a dumb high school girl.” Kayla sighed and looked in the mirror next to the sink. She’d had many a “dumb high school girl” conversation in that bathroom…
“Josh was sitting so close to me!” Kayla gushed, checking her eye makeup in the mirror.
“I know,” Lacey replied, redoing her poor excuse for a pony tail. “Why don’t you just ask him out already?”
“Because I’m way younger than he is,” Kayla answered. “Plus, he said he’d date me when I turn eighteen.”
“He flirts with you constantly. You need to flirt back.”
“What do you think I’m doing?” Lacey scoffed.
“You just talk to him, you don’t flirt.” The girls left the bathroom. In the middle of the basketball court was Amber, a regular ho at the youth center, hanging all over Josh.
“See, that’s flirting,” Lacey stated. Kayla’s stomach dropped.
“I hate her,” she mumbled. “She’s even younger than I am.” Amber squealed and laughed as Josh flipped her over his arm swing dance style.
As Kayla remembered that night, she couldn’t believe how stupid she had been. Josh’s hitting on an even younger girl should’ve set an alarm off in her head.
“Let’s go,” Amy said, opening the door. “Why are you so worried about Lacey, anyway? I mean, if you don’t like these guys anymore.”
“It’s not just the fact that she took a guy that I liked,” Kayla explained. “What made me mad was that she went behind my back, lied to me, lied to the guy about me, and then acted as if she did nothing wrong at all.” The girls each grabbed a soda out of the vending machine and took a seat. “You know, she never even apologized.”
“Look, I doubt she’s even coming,” Amy said after a few more teens arrived and there was no sign of Lacey. Kayla sighed.
“You wait, Amy. There’ll come a day that she screws you up the butt good and hard and I’ll be saying ‘told ya so’.”
“Kayla, don’t be gross.” Kayla laughed. 
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