* * *

“I just thought it was kind of weird you’re being gone so early. You know?” I stammered lamely. I dropped my eyes, feeling her accusing gaze pierce me like a needle.

Marti stood there like a diva with her hands on her hips and her pretty mouth twisted into a frown.

  “Meg, in the future would you mind not scaring my father half to death every time I leave the house?” She snatched up her phone and flounced out of the room.

Shocked to hear Marti say something so callous, I stood motionless for a moment, the sunlight from the window making me squint.

Then as her words hit me, my own temper was riled.

It had been a long week of late nights, busy days and junk food. Neither of us were ourselves, and my patience was down to the last drop. Something in me snapped.

 

I stormed after her, outside onto the deck.
Marti was already sitting on the shays lounge looking like a queen. She had a romance novel in one hand and a glass of lemonade in the other, and her dark hair clung to her neck, held there by the breeze.

I cleared my throat, waiting for her to look up at me. She took her time.
  “Look, I was just concerned about you! Don’t ask me why, but I was. Oh gee, that’s right! Maybe because you’re my best friend,” She didn’t flinch at my sarcasm. I bit my tongue, trying to keep the next words from flying out of my mouth, but I just couldn’t. “…and you were hanging out with a lot of creeps last night.”

Marti’s lips parted in a breath of indignation. She slammed her book onto the wooden floor and jumped up.

  “Creeps!? Weren’t you talking to one of those “creeps” all night yourself?”

I regretted my hasty words instantly, but I was too stubborn to back down now. “Yes, and he was the only one there who had an IQ over 30! As for his bleached-blonde, bubble-head sister, I don’t know how you stand being in the same room with her!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Years of silent thoughts of anger and jealousy suddenly came spilling out and I couldn’t stop them.

  Marti didn’t scream back. In fact, she didn’t say anything at all. She just stared at me for a long, strained minute, and her deep eyes filled with tears. Then she turned and ran down the porch steps, knocking over her lemonade. The glass shattered on the planks sending the sticky, sweet yellow liquid across my toes and down the steps where it could be heard trickling onto the hot stones of the walkway.