Food, Cats, and Being Lazy

Chapter Five

Since my mom’s party was pretty much over I was allowed to stay in my room for the rest of the night. I changed out of the ruffly lilac dress and put my pajamas on. Then I crawled into my bed with Reggie and turned on the TV to watch the Food Network. My mom hated that I watched it so much. She said it did nothing but make me hungry, and that’s why I ate so much. But really it was the only thing that held my interest. Plus, I figured it was like educational programming. It would make me smarter in the long run.

I could hear my mom downstairs when she said goodbye to the Denver family. I sunk low into my pile of fluffy pillows. I hated that she invited them over for Easter dinner. I hated that Paige called me out when I was staring at Collin. I hated that Collin probably knew I existed now and only as “the girl who stared at me when I was at Paige’s house.”

A few minutes later there were two sets of footsteps on the stairs. I heard Paige’s snarky voice and Vincent’s quick retorts. One thing I liked about him was that he never took my sister’s s**t. I did, but he always defended himself. I had no idea why they were even still together because she was only nice to him in front of other people.

Their argument carried up into her bedroom, which was next to mine. I heard their voices get louder and louder until I yelled, “SHUT UP!” at the top of my lungs. I heard Paige yell back, but Vincent gave her one last retort before leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.

“Ugh, thank God,” I said to myself. It was a good thing too because my show was back on, and Reggie was getting comfortable on my legs.

But then I heard Paige again. She was quieter, but I could hear the definite sound of her sniffling from the other side of the wall. I sighed deeply and closed my eyes. Please stop crying? Please don’t make me feel obligated to check on you? She kept crying and I hit the back of my head against my headboard a few times. Then I shoved Reggie off of my legs and slumped to the door groaning and dragging my feet.

I headed down the hall to Paige’s room and quietly knocked on the door.

“Paige?” I asked.

“Go away,” she said from inside.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m crying for no reason.”

“Did you and Vincent break up?”

“No, we did not break up! Will you just go away?”

“I’m trying to help.”

“You’re getting on my nerves. Go away!”

“Jerk.” Then I went back to my room. Well, at least I tried.

The next day was Monday, and we finally had to go back to school. There were pros and cons to this. The pros being that I didn’t have to sit at home with my mother and her candle sales any longer. The cons being that I couldn’t sleep in late, and I’d take my mom’s candles over high school any day.

I only had one friend in the entire world besides my cat. Her name was Lara. We didn’t have each other’s phone numbers, and we never hung out outside of school. But she was a loner like I was, and we somehow found each other.

It started on the first day of school in freshman year. At lunch, I didn’t have anyone to sit with. I’d been completely alone all of middle school. I did have friends in elementary school before then, but the only one that mattered moved away and the other one got boobs. So when freshman year came along, I didn’t know anyone but Paige, and she was definitely too busy with her new boyfriend to hang out with me. Oh yeah, and also pretty and popular.

So I wandered outside to the bleachers and sat down to eat my lunch. Then Lara came out and did the same. She took a bench in front of me and we didn’t talk much, but we acknowledged each other. The next day it happened again, and so eventually we grew into a routine where we always kind of saved a spot for each other.

When the weather got cold, we headed inside and began sitting in an empty stairwell every day. Then we never went outside ever again, even when it was warm. One day we started talking. I could tell her my problems, and she would tell me hers, and everyone was happy. I admit I wanted to hang out with her outside of school too, but I didn’t want to seem too needy. So I waited for her to ask first. She never did, but that was alright.

So at lunch on the first day back to school after spring break I headed over to the empty stairwell to wait for her. She showed up a few minutes later, and we sat down to eat.

“How was your spring break?” I asked her as I dug through my lunchbox. She shrugged her shoulders. She was always kind of quiet. She wasn’t exactly an obnoxious nerd like I was, but she didn’t seem the type of person who went out and made friends. She was really shy, and her mom still controlled her wardrobe.

“It was cool,” she said quietly. “Didn’t really do anything.” I nodded.

“Same here. My mom threw a stupid Easter dinner party and invited Collin’s family.” She gave a short laugh. She knew all about my crush.

“How did that go?” I sighed dramatically.

“My sister caught me staring at him and then informed the whole table,” I told her.

“Ouch,” she replied.

“Yep.”

“Well, at least now he knows who you are.”

“Yeah right. I doubt it. Anyway, I was thinking about getting my hair cut,” I said to change the subject.

“Why would you do that?” she asked.

“I want to dye it pink, but my mom won’t let me. So I decided just to chop it off. Like a pixie cut. It’s really irritating like this. I look like a twelve-year-old.”

“My mom works at that salon on Rose Avenue. You could probably get it done there.” I nodded.

“Cool. I’ll ask my mom.”

And we were quiet for the rest of the lunch period. That was one of the things I liked about Lara. There wasn’t a need for a lot of words. Of course, this also annoyed me to no end because when the only other person you communicate with is a cat you get kinda lonely. But I wasn’t going to push her because I didn’t want to lose the only friend I had who wasn’t feline.