Chapter 6: WE'RE JUST FRIENDS
I avoided Fred, Marco, and Mona all of the next day. At least I tried to, and then Mona came over suddenly at 4pm.
"Serene!" She shrieked.
OMG. I nearly fell off the ladder I was on. I had been busy trying to help Dad clean the top shelves.
"What!" I shouted back and climbed down quickly in case she decided to push me off the ladder by accident.
"What are you doing? Hurry up and get dressed!" Mona said.
"Are you girls going out?" Dad asked.
"Yes!" "No!" Mona and I answered at the same time.
"Class reunion tonight, remember?" Mona put her hands on her hips, "I told Shelly we'll all be going."
Right... "I don't really feel like it." I said.
"Look, I know what happened last night. I saw the whole thing." Mona said.
"Eh? Last night?" Cold sweat.
"You confessed to Fred and he said no." Mona said.
"Eh? What?"
"Marco told me." Mona said smugly, "But don't worry, there are more fishes under the sea. Let's go to the reunion."
Marco was such a liar.
"Ah, no. That wasn't it." I said, "I never liked Fred that way!"
"It's not?" Mona asked, "Then what? Don't tell me he confessed to you!"
Oh man.
"Sorry, Mona... It's ah... The truth is..."
The bell at Dad's shop rang violently and Marco and Fred rushed in.
"The truth is Serene already has a boyfriend." Marco finished for me.
"What?" Fred whipped his head from me to Marco.
"A boyfriend who isn't me." Marco felt he had to clarify for his best friend's sake.
"Then who?" Mona asked.
"Yes, who?" Dad asked.
That's what I wanted to know too. I glared at Marco.
"It's a secret." Marco said, "But it's not me." He added quickly again just so that Fred and my dad's was crystal clear about it, "I swear, it isn't me."
"Let's talk upstairs." I said.
We went up to my room. Mona immediately got to work checking my wardrobe, "I can't believe it! Your wardrobe looks like a time machine back to high school! Didn't you buy anything nice since you went to college?"
Yes. But they were in Gate City, remember?
She pulled out my little black dress, "So spill. Who is it?"
I realised there was unread texts in my phone... Marco's desperate secret communication:
"Just play along. If you had a boyfriend, Mona won't hate you, Fred would have to give you up, and dad would stop hounding me about dating you."
Are you serious?
The other text were actually from Harvey:
"Hi Serene. Sorry for asking at such short notice. I need a plus 1 to an event this weekend. It's a little far from Gate City, somewhere in the Red Packlands. Will you be free to accompany me?"
"That better not be Marco texting you to lie!" Mona snatched my phone and looked, "Who's Harvey? You don't mean your college crush Harvey, do you?"
Marco looked super relieved.
I froze... I had kept Harvey a secret in general. At first, it was because I wasn't sure I could talk about him without crying, but later on... I just didn't talk about him.
"Harvey is her boyfriend." Marco decided.
Mona started typing in my phone, "I'm in the Red Packlands. I NEED A PLUS 1 TONGIHT!!! Come dressed smart casual. My friends want to meet you."
And then she sent.
At this point I felt the space where my heart had died explode, "What are you doing?"
"Why isn't he replying?" Mona complained.
And then Harvey did reply, "If you really are Serene, sure. If not, pls return the phone to her."
Wow. I felt my heart start to beat rapidly. I think I might just have had an heart attack. I was sure Harvey would have cut me off for that, the same way he would have cut off any one of his mistresses.
Mona didn't return the phone even though I tried to snatch it back. Instead she typed, "Of course it's me, silly! Meet me at the restaurant at 7pm."
Then she attached the coordinates google.
Harvey replied almost immediately, "Please let Serene know to call me when she can."
OMG.
I grabbed my phone out of Mona's hand, "Get out!"
"What? What's the big deal?" Mona asked.
"Out! Get out!" I threw my pillow at her, "ALL OF YOU GET OUT!"
They got out. Of course they did. This must have been the first time in my life that I had exploded on my own friends.
"Hey, Serene. Sorry about that. We'll go now." Marco said from behind my closed door. And then he dragged the other two away.
I felt the tears hot in my eyes. Harvey wasn't my boyfriend so even if he broke up with me after this, it wouldn't mean anything.
We were just friends. Just friends. Just friends. X20.
Then I texted because I couldn't talk right now, "Sorry. Forget about the above."
And then I turned off my phone and threw it into my handbag. I don't have time to deal with that. I needed to get dressed and put on a smile. I'll look at my phone after I got back from the class reunion.
I put on the black dress that Mona pulled out for me. And added on some of the accessories I had in my luggage. Most of the stuff in my room were from high school and most of my accessories bought by Shilem when we were still dating.
Then I slapped on my usual carefree smile and joined my friends outside on the pavement. Marco had driven out Uncle Max's old beat up car. It was like high school all over again.
And it wasn't half bad.
My friends looked surprised to see me.
"Told you she won't stay mad." Marco smiled.
"Sorry I exploded like that." I said.
"Sorry about Harvey." Fred said.
Was he testing it? From the look Marco gave me, the answer was yes.
"I got mad because Harvey isn't my boyfriend." I said, "He's just a friend. So don't jump into stupid conclusions and make things weird for us. My boyfriend is another wolf."
(I just hadn't met him yet.)
If Marco could tell girls he'd just met that he was already in a long term relationship (with Tsumiki-chan) then I should certainly be allowed to say I had a wolf boyfriend (an imaginary one.)
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