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My mind darted instantly to Curtis but I wasn’t willing to talk about him. My feelings were too raw, too baffling. Anyway, there was no point. We weren’t together and we never would be.
“No one in particular,” I said evasively. Debra looked at me with a slightly sad expression but didn’t say anything. My lack of dating action had been a sore point with me for a long time. People were always puzzled as to why I hadn’t managed to snag a boyfriend since high school.
“But you’re so pretty, Cassie. You could have any guy you want...”
Except that wasn’t true. Because when I finally let a guy touch me for the first time in years and invited him to do much more he ran for the hills. Even though I understood why Curtis had pushed me away the fact still stung.
“Oh my god,” Debra said. She was looking at something over my shoulder, her eyes wide, her lips parted.
“What?” I turned around.
Though the lighting was dim in the rustic Italian restaurant I immediately saw what had startled Debra.
I turned back and hissed, “Shit, is that who I think it is?”
She nodded, still staring over at the bar where a collection of our former high school classmates were making a racket. There were two women and three men, all of them slightly older and more polished versions of faces I had once seen in the hallways every day, sat next to in class, waved to at parties and laughed with at after school activities. They had once been part of my wide circle of high school friends. One by one their names popped unbidden into my head.
Tanya Rowley. Jeff McDonald. Kenzi Laroche. Alex Dorsey. Ryan Herberger.
If I tried hard I could summon an unpleasant memory about each of them, like the time Tanya wrote something obscene on my cheerleading locker or when Alex printed a still shot image from the ghastly video and left it on all the desks in the history class we shared. They were in the so-called popular crowd, the kings and queens of high school. And they had no compassion for the cruelly wounded. Worse, they circled like vultures at the smell of blood and called on the rest of the flock to do the same.
“Cassie?” Debra was concerned, looking at me with sympathy. She knew the story. She’d been there in high school, although she was never one of my tormentors. “Do you want to go?”
“No.” I dipped a wedge of bread in some seasoned olive oil. “We came here for dinner and we’re going to have dinner.”
The server appeared at that moment to take our order. I ordered the fettuccine with shrimp and Debra ordered the chicken parmesan. The server had no sooner taken our menus and departed when our table had another visitor.
Tanya Rowley stood there beaming at us in all her spray-tanned glory. “You guys,” she squealed, putting her hands together and bouncing on her toes. “It’s so great to see you! Cassie, you look gorgeous. Debra, I love that dress.”
Debra glanced at me. I chewed on my bread.
“Hi Tanya,” Debra said slowly and Tanya took that as an invitation to slide her well-toned ass into the booth.
“So how have you guys been?” Tanya said, still smiling and now helping herself to our bread basket. “God, I’m sure I haven’t seen either of you since high school.”
I looked over at the bar. The other four flashbacks from high school hell were looking our way with curiosity but they remained where they were for the time being.
Tanya merrily ignored the awkward vibes at the table and was prattling on about her sorority, her new car and her recent graduation from the University of Arizona.
“And I had no idea. I just came home the weekend after graduation and there was a brand new Prius in my mother’s driveway with like, one of those giant ribbons around it like you see in the commercials.” She giggled. “I guess I’m a little spoiled.”
“You think?” Debra muttered, rolling her eyes and sipping her soda.
Tanya ignored her. “So what have you been up to, Cassie?”
Trying to forget the past and trust people again.
“Working,” I said. “Right now I’m working at my dad’s tattoo parlor and going to school at Sonora Community College.”
Tanya pointed to the bar. “Oh yeah, Alex’s sister works at that place in the registrar’s office. Amanda. You remember her. Amazing natural eyebrows. She graduated two years before we did. Have you seen her there?”
“I haven’t,” I said, feeling a little distracted because I had looked toward the bar when Tanya pointed and noticed that someone else had joined the party.
Naturally Parker Neely had shown up. This was his crowd. He and Alex had been best friends since grade school. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see my old boyfriend Kent Lopez stroll through the damn door next.
Parker was busy back slapping and laughing with his buddies. He hadn’t noticed me yet. Seeing Parker no longer felt unpleasant though. I’d made my peace with him. He greeted me with a smile every time he saw me in class but hadn’t issued any further pleas to get together since the night my car broke down.
Tanya suddenly leaned across the table and clutched my arm. “Cassie, can I just tell you that I’m like so happy to see you. I’ve missed you. How’s your sister? Is she like a world famous reporter yet? Oh my god, do you remember that one time when we were supposed to be putting up the homecoming decorations in the gym and we kept sneaking back to the locker room to drink from the bottle of red wine I’d snatched from my mom’s liquor cabinet?” She cackled. “We were so plastered we misspelled the word homecoming on this giant banner and it was a huge thing and the principal made us take it down. Do you remember?”