Summer and Fall of Weird Part 3

Here I am with the continuation of Summer and Fall of Weird. Click here for Part 1 if you missed it. And Part 2 can be found here.

And I must begin with the obligatory thanks to marvelous Brillig and Kate, the mothers of SOS. Thalia's Child is hosting Soap Opera Sunday this week, so if you're not too busy, head over to her site for more soapiness.

And so we continue...

As I said, the summer was mostly fun. Jeremy and I got to be good friends. We both played soccer, so we did that quite a bit together. We attended each other's games. He'd bring me cocoa at my early morning practices. He let me drive his car a lot, which ended up being rather comical since it was a standard and, um, I wasn't even very good at driving an automatic yet.

He really was a good guy. We really did have lots of fun together.

But things started to get really strange when he started talking about our "future" together and speaking about "us" as if we were a certainty for many years to come. I had not and never would think of us in that light. We were just having fun together, in my mind. I had no intentions of us becoming more.

I told him so.

He kept coming around, so I assumed that he understood what I meant and it was okay with him.

Then, one day something happened that ended it all for me.

One day, after a soccer game, a few girls from my team invited Jeremy and I to go to lunch with them. Jeremy was excited. I was trepidatious, to say the least. You see, these girls were not my friends. They were not Jeremy's friends. Well, let's back up. There was K.A., someone I had known and been friends with on and off since Kindergarten. Then there was S.E. She and I had been in a play together, had taken drama classes together and basically got on quite well. I liked her.

So, where was the trap? The trio was led by E, who we will call the Queen of the Cats. You know this girl. Popular, but not in the "I'm nice and everybody likes me" way, but in the "I wear the right clothes and go to the right parties and everyone is afraid that if they say anything I don't like, I'll crucify them socially" way. Even people I normally liked and trusted were scary to me in this girl's presence. Friendship for her seemed only to be thinly veiled, candy-coated contempt. Which is exactly why she and I were not friends. I hadn't any patience for cattiness.

So, back to the story...

After the game, Jeremy and I are getting into his old gray Honda when The Queen of Cats and her kittens roll up next to us in her jeep.

She leaned her head out the window, "Hey do you guys want to come to lunch with us?"

"Sure," Jeremy blurted out in surprise.

"Meet us at Taco Bell," she said as she drove off, her long blond hair trailing out the window.

I punched Jeremy in the arm. "Why did you say yes?"

"Why not? They want to have lunch with us. Isn't that cool?"

"No, Jeremy. It is not cool. I do NOT want to spend an hour talking to her."

"Why?"

I stammered. I couldn't find words for the fear in the pit of my stomach. It's the kind of knowing girls seem to have and boys just don't. I could tell by the hungry look in her eyes that there would be more than tacos eaten for lunch that day.

I still don't know why I didn't just walk home and let him go by himself. Maybe I knew that it could possibly have been worse if I weren't there to defend myself. Who knows why I went, but I went.

When we showed up they were already seated. They smirked at us as we came in and ordered our food.

We sat down across from them and before I could even take a bite, the Queen of Cats looked at Jeremy conspiratorially.

"So, Jeremy, we've been wondering. It seems like Heather always has a boyfriend at our games. Since you're the latest and you're one of us I thought maybe you'd clue me in. Are you dating Heather because she puts out?"

I almost fell down. I was torn between wanting to punch her and wanting to throw my Mountain Dew in her face.

I didn't do either. Nor, to my dismay, did Jeremy. He just stared at her. He said NOTHING. I'm sitting there thinking, why aren't you defending my honor here, scumbag.

Still, nothing. He just started eating. Cat woman's friends kept eating. They stared out the window, squirmed, looked guilty. I felt so betrayed that they were in on this. One of them I'd known for forever. I was there for her when her dad died. We had been friends much longer than she had been friends with this girl, even if we hadn't been close for years. I felt betrayed, betrayed and doubly betrayed. I wanted to scream or cry or run or hit somebody.

Now, to clarify, yes. There had been kissing between Jeremy and I. KISSING! And the kind of kissing that I would be only mildly embarrassed by if one of our parents had walked in on us. To me, "putting out" meant sex. I could tell that this trio of catty girls thought the same thing, that they were hoping for ammunition in order to tell everyone what a slut I was. But Jeremy and I hadn't gone anywhere NEAR that line.

Still, Jeremy said nothing. I was seething.

And I will continue this next week with the end of this gruesome, awkward conversation. And what I did next. And the end of this relationship, or WAIT, what should have been the end of our relationship.