Mutual Hatred - Love Game (6 page)

His eyes widened just like she'd imagined they would. Brownie points for his mouth dropping open too.

"You fucking switched plates!" he accused, "You bitch! I hate you!"

"I didn't know it was shaving cream."

"Then why did you switch the fucking plates?"

"Watch your language, honey bun."

"The hell with that!"

"Well when the waitress came over here I noticed she specifically gave me the plate closest to her. And then I smelled it. It even smells like shaving cream, you asshole. Raspberry! It's almost as if it was meant for me to eat it. But I decided to let you taste test it for me," she said innocently.

He groaned.
Damn plans always backfired on him!

"So I guess you were trying to poison me with shaving cream? Not very smart, Miller. Maybe you are as dumb as I thought you were."

"I'm not!" he said angrily, "I just…oh forget it."

"So much for the truce," she said brightly, "I guess it really is 'on' now."

"Oh you have NO IDEA," he snapped.

Shelley lightly patted him on the head, messing up his perfectly spiked hair.

"I'll be ready."

Chapter 5 – Nothing to Do with the Game

"He told me I was beautiful inside and out!" Shelley wailed.

It was Friday night and instead of going out like she normally would have, Shelley had opted to stay home. She was in her bathtub, which was filled with bubbles, and talking to Taryn on the phone.

"And there's something wrong with that because…?" Taryn asked in amazement.

"I don't know! Coming from Brandon it's almost an insult!" whined Shelley.

"Don't complain! I'd be lucky if a guy even noticed me!"

"Plenty of guys notice you! They tell you you're hot all the time!" said Shelley as she slowly got out of the tub, dripping water all over the floor.

"But none of them tell me I'm
beautiful
. Haven't you heard the saying 'Find someone who calls you beautiful, not hot'? You found that guy!" Taryn gushed.

Shelley carefully dried herself with a towel. It was hard when one hand was holding a phone. "It should be 'Find someone who calls you beautiful and
means it
'."

"Maybe he did," said Taryn reasonably.

"Maybe he didn't."

Shelley struggled to pull a shirt over her head.

"When did you get so cynical?"

"Since assholes started saying nice things to me."

Getting pants on was another feat.

"Shells I would NOT be complaining if someone told me I was beautiful, even if that someone was a jerk. That was SO sweet of Brandon!"

There! Finally dressed. Shelley threw herself on her bed and stared at the ceiling.

"You're such a sucker for sweet talkers," chided Shelley, "I bet if someone wanted to kidnap you all he'd have to do is tell you you're beautiful and you'd go with him!"

"I'm not
that
stupid!" cried Taryn, "I'm just saying, maybe Brandon really meant it. How often do you think he tells girls that?"

Shelley snorted. "Like every day!"

"Bad question. How often do you think he means it?"

"Zero percent of the time."

"Why are we obsessing over this? You told me you didn't care about him."

"And I don't!" Shelley said defensively, "I'm just telling you what happened! You're the one who is making this a bigger deal than it should be."

"Right. Well what else is new?"

"And you know what else he did?" Shelley surged on, "The team went out for breakfast at IHOP and he like..bribed the waitress to put shaving cream on my crepes instead of whipped cream!"

"Did you eat it?" Taryn asked eagerly.

"Hell no. I switched plates with Brandon," she said smugly.

"And Brandon ate it? What did he do?"

"He ran around in circles like his ass was on fire," Shelley said sarcastically.

"Really?"

"No!"

"Then what did he do?"

"He got mad," Shelley rolled over so that she was on her stomach, "And he called me a bitch for switching plates. That's the second time this week! What a fucking bastard."

"Sounds a lot like love!"

"Hardly."

"Let's talk about something else. Talking about Brandon always gets you hot and bothered."

Silence. Just what Taryn had expected.

"I'm just kidding Shell. So Kyle invited me to his party tomorrow night. Are we going?"

"Normally I'd be all for it. But the thing is…Brandon will probably be there and Saturday and Sunday are my only Brandon-free days. I'd be risking pure bliss for a party," she explained.

"Kyle always invites tons of people. You probably won't even run into him there," assured Taryn.

"With my luck I probably will."

"Well let's go," urged Taryn, "Don't let Brandon ruin your fun! If we see him we'll ignore him. Although I might say hi and get friendly with him…"

"You dork! Fine, we'll go," said Shelley, not totally convinced.

"Great! I'll pick you up at 8, 'kay?"

"Whatever. See you tomorrow!"

A click and their conversation was over.

Some days Shelley liked to lay on her bed and stare at the ceiling, just thinking about things. Tonight she thought about Taryn. Taryn Manuel was her best friend. She visibly remembered how she and Taryn had met. It was at ballet when they were toddlers. One of the girls in the class, Chelsey, had stolen Shelley's prized tiara for recital and refused to give it back. Taryn had bullied the girl into giving it back and even made Chelsey cry. And that was when Shelley knew they'd be friends forever. Taryn had always been there for her; they'd gone through a lot. They'd had their share of fights and problems, but the one thing they never fought over was boys.

Sappy moment.
Enough of that
.

Pulling herself up from her bed, she turned on her computer and logged on to her screen name. The moment she signed on, hundreds of windows popped up.

Okay, so maybe it was only 2 windows. One was Taryn, the other an unfamiliar name.

LusciousLloyd:
hey cutie

sea x SHELLS:
do i know u?

LusciousLloyd:
yea

sea x SHELLS:
who is this?

LusciousLloyd:
i'd tell u but then i'd have 2 kill u

sea x SHELLS
: right

sea x SHELLS
: i don't talk 2 ppl i don't know

LusciousLloyd
: but u do know me

sea x SHELLS:
well i refuse 2 talk to someone whose name i don't know!!

LusciousLloyd
: take a chill pill. u'll find out all in due time

sea x SHELLS
: well how did u get my sn?

LusciousLloyd:
i have my ways

sea x SHELLS:
stalker

sea x SHELLS
: …this isn't taryn playing a trick is it?

LusciousLloyd
: no

sea x SHELLS
: is it kyle?

LusciousLloyd
: wrong again

LusciousLloyd
: i'm many things

LusciousLloyd
: but i am no stalker!!

LusciousLloyd
: i'm offended

sea x SHELLS
: fuuuuuucking stalker!!

LusciousLloyd
has signed off at 9:59 pm.

Shelley closed the window and opened up the one she had with Taryn.

TareBear:
Hey where are u?

sea x SHELLS:
here..sry

sea x SHELLS
: do u know who Luscious Lloyd is?

TareBear
: yeah

sea x SHELLS
: WHO IS IT????

TareBear
: he's luscious Lloyd, silly!

sea x SHELLS
: be serious tare

TareBear
: no idea who it could possibly be

TareBear
: perhaps a secret admirer?

sea x SHELLS
: hah no!

TareBear
: k well im going to sleep now i'm exhausted

sea x SHELLS
: ok see ya tomorrow!!

TareBear has signed off at 10:07 pm.

With no one interesting to talk to, Shelley signed off also. It had been a long day and Shelley just wanted to sleep. Who knew what tomorrow would bring?

- - - - -

"Rise and shine sleepyhead!"

Someone gently shook Shelley's shoulders. She groggily opened her eyes.

"Taryn, what the heck are you doing here? It's," Shelley paused to look at her bedside clock, "12:45 in the afternoon already?!?"

Taryn loomed over Shelley like a giant. She was dressed in a short white cotton flounce skirt and hot pink embellished tank top.
Going somewhere?

"Yes, Sleeping Beauty. 12:45! And I was going through my closet and I decided I didn't have a party outfit, so we're going shopping!" exclaimed Taryn, flipping her brown hair behind her shoulder.

"Uh huh..give me like twenty minutes to get ready and we'll go."

Shelley bounded to the bathroom connected to her room and splashed cold water on her face. She stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Who is this girl? That's not the Shelley Sinclair
I
know.

And indeed it wasn't. The girl staring back at her had messy, long, dirty blonde hair and bags under her eyes. Shelley knew for a fact she hadn't been losing any sleep. She'd had over 10 hours of sleep last night! But tonight would be a different story. Kyle's parties were always the best; everyone who mattered came and alcohol flowed freely. Not that Shelley drank. She made it a point to never touch alcohol, ever. She didn't understand why people would want to ruin their lives with drugs and alcohol. It just didn't make sense; you had so much to live for, so much you could still do with your life. Why risk all of that? You weren't getting anything out of it.

"Shelley! Are you ready? You've been in there for like half an hour!" yelled Taryn impatiently.

"I'll be out in a sec!" she called back.

Shelley ran back into her room and chose her favorite pair of jeans and a sparkly tank top.

"You're wearing JEANS? In July? It's so hot outside!" said Taryn.

"Well I like my jeans. I promise I'll wear something else tonight. Happy?"

"Good enough."

She quickly changed, grabbed her purse and shoes, and allowed Taryn to drag her out to her car. Once seated in the passenger seat, Shelley fastened her seatbelt and leaned back into the seat. She closed her eyes and breathed in the flowery scent of Taryn's car freshener.

"Hey, you okay?" Taryn asked, taking her eyes off the road to briefly glance at Shelley.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"I don't know. You slept in until almost 1. And you never do that. You're unusually quiet today. I can't quite pinpoint it. You're different somehow," Taryn said carefully.

"I'm not sure what could be different…I feel the same."

Taryn shrugged it off. "I guess it's just me then. So where do you want to go first?"

"How about Reference? They had this really cute gold halter top last week that I liked but I didn't have time to try it on."

"Sure."

They pulled up in front of the outdoor shopping center and got out.

"Ready, set, spend!" joked Taryn.

"Keep your plastic where I can see it, Tare," retorted Shelley.

They sauntered into Reference, a chic boutique, as if they owned the place. And judging from the amount of clothes both girls owned, they may as well have started their own clothing store. Shelley immediately saw her gold top and snatched it off the rack, while Taryn inspected a short denim skirt with rhinestones on the back pockets. The two immediately made a beeline for the dressing rooms without a second glance at anything else in the store.

Now that's love at first sight!

Shelley pulled her tank top over her head and put the halter on. She stepped out of the dressing room at the same time as Taryn and they modeled for each other.

"Great fit," commented Taryn.

"You too. That skirt is so cute!" gushed Shelley.

"You look so hot! I'll bet the football team won't know what hit them when they see you!"

Shelley snorted. "They've seen me in my jeans and sweats. Otherwise known as seeing me at my worst."

"Is that what you're going to wear tonight?"