The tall, blonde I'd spotted talking to Philipé in the hallway had stirred up an unfamiliar emotion. My chest constricted as I thought about how she had looked at him, like she knew him. They had seemed a lot friendlier than colleagues. Her breasts had practically threatened to pop the buttons on her shirt. I snorted, which earned me a suspicious look from Elodie.
We were supposed to be studying at the school's library. Instead, I pretended to listen as my friend ran through a list of the latest 'tea', mainly which students were sleeping together, whose parents were filing for bankruptcy, and which students were dropping out due to illegal activities. I had my head bowed, hyperfocused on the doodle in front of me while she fired away.
"Hello!" Elodie waved a hand in my face. "Jade Berry, how is it possible to be so gone when I literally just told you about Maxwell blowing his college tuition on drugs and his parents sending him to rehab for the next few months. He'll be spending the last part of our semester in rehab instead of graduating. That's massive news!"
Not to me, it wasn't. Maxwell was a final-year student who had caught Elodie's interest when we'd started college. He had been notorious for his bad boy image and leaving a trail of broken hearts in his wake. Sure, he was good-looking, but that hadn't been enough to sway me into believing that he was worth attention from my friend, or any girl, for that matter.
"Oh," I said, still focused on my doodle. "That's bad."
"Oh?"Elodie repeated, dramatically. "You used to live for these small sessions of tea sharing." She reached a hand across the table and placed it on my forehead. "Are you okay?"
I swatted her hand away, playfully. "I'm fine," I assured her. "I just - I'm not surprised. He had it coming."
She flipped her hair and sat back in her chair, scrunching her face at me. "Ouch. That's cold, even for you, Jade."
"I mean," I began, sliding my notebook to one side so I could look at her. "What do you call his behaviour for the past two years? I'm not the cold one. In fact, I don't even think there's a heart in his chest." I put a hand to my lips, feigning shock at my words.
"Whatever. I get that you're still mad at me, but I'm kind of hurt that that's all you have to say about a guy we've both been crushing on since we got here."
"A guy you've been crushing on," I interjected. "And I'm not still mad at you." I was dying to tell her what had happened last night, but this was one time I knew Elodie would judge me, so I pursed my lips instead.
"Fine." My friend put both her hands up. "A guy I've been crushing on."
I nudged her foot with mine under the table. "Where do you even get all this info from?"
"I told you Jenny loves to use her bathroom breaks to share intel with her girls. I listen to their conversations from the cubicles." We both laughed.
I sharpened my ears at a conversation happening behind us. A group of guys were discussing the "bombshell" that had just started.
"Man, what I'd give for five minutes with her," one of them said.
"Yeah, I'm sure that's all the time you need, mate," came another voice. The others at the table laughed, and then they were on to their next subject. Typical boy behaviour.
When I returned my attention to Elodie, she was looking at me as if she'd just stepped in dog poo. "What's with you today?" she asked, crossing her arms. "You say you're not sick, but …"
"I'm not, just tired, I guess."
"Tired? What would make you tired? Your idea of the perfect school night is staying indoors and reading. Don't tell me you watched one of those reading marathons again." She raised an eyebrow.
"They're called 'reading sprints', and no, I didn't stay up watching those," I responded, a little offended. "I actually decided to stay when you texted that you wouldn't come to WireTap."
"What? You're serious?"
"Deadly."
"Okay, so what happened?" Elodie leaned in like an excited puppy. I could practically see her invisible tail wagging as she waited for me to fill her in on my adventure.
"Nothing much. I had a few drinks and met a few familiar faces, and when I'd had enough, I got a cab home."
Elodie looked at me in disbelief. "Jade Marie Berry," she said, sounding like my mom. My friend always used my full government name whenever she felt she could smell bullshit. "You're not going to tell me that you got the chance to stay at one of the coolest bars in town and nothing happened. No hooking up, no collected numbers, nothing?" I nodded, feeling terrible for lying to my closest friend since childhood.
"If you say so." She looked disappointed. "At least tell me you flirted with the bartender or something."
I shook my head.
"Ugh, you're useless," she complained, burying her head in her hands. I laughed.
"You still owe me an ice cream, remember?"
She groaned in response. "And you still owe me your presence at tonight's party. You're still coming right?" she asked, looking at me through the splits between her fingers.
"What party?"
"Come on, Jade, I've been talking about it for weeks. Thomas' going-away party. He got a job offer in Texas and is leaving next week. Me and a couple of his old schoolmates will be throwing him a party. I've no idea who they've invited, though, but I've offered to help with finger foods and drinks, so, yeah." Thomas, the guy I never thought I would get over. I hadn't told Elodie that I'd had a thing for him, but she'd guessed it from all the times she'd caught me staring at him with a twinkle in my eyes. He was five years older and had never looked at me as more than his sister's friend. At the time, she had expressed that she didn't understand what I saw in her "stupid brother". But I knew she adored him.
"Come on, J, don't give me that look. You actually promised a few weeks ago," Elodie exclaimed when I didn't reply. She'd been impatiently waiting for me to come back from my trip down memory lane.
"I did?"
"Yes, you did. I'm not asking you to help out or anything, just show up. That's all the support I need. Plus, don't you want to see off the guy who's had your heart for almost a decade?"
I rolled my eyes, shuddering at the thought that I'd liked a guy for so long while facing countless rejections over the years.
"Okay," I said, reluctantly. "I'll come."
Elodie shot out of her chair and jumped on me. The force of it all almost made us both tumble to the floor. "I love you," she said, wrapping her arms around me in the tightest hug. The guys whose conversation I'd eavesdropped on earlier stared at us, confusion written on their faces. Elodie eyed them with a raised eyebrow. "You get to talk loudly about a teacher you all desperately want to bang, but I don't get to hug my friend?" Flustered by my friend's accusation, they returned to their conversation, their voices considerably lower than earlier. It hadn't crossed my mind that Elodie had heard their discussion too, even though she'd been immersed in her rundown of the scandals at our college. She gazed at me with renewed admiration. "You won't regret it. I promise." I truly hoped she was right.