“Yeah, I know my middle name. But—”
“Just don’t add St. John because he might make the connection.”
“But—”
“Then when the evening’s over and you’ve dazzled him, totally made him enamored with you, he’ll bring you home, probably make a move for a goodnight kiss then BOOM! You tell him who you really are. Tell him what an asshole jerk he was and probably still is, then come inside and slam the door in his face.”
I sat and stared at her because that was a very evil plan. And I hate to say it, but a part of me, a kind of very big part of me, liked it.
“Or, you can do it in front of people like he did to you. That would even be better.” She raised her eyebrows as she added this last part letting me know public humiliation was her preference.
“Um, you do realize you’re twenty-one and I’ll be twenty-one in a month?”
“So?” She looked genuinely confused.
I snorted. “Well, this is something a middle school kid would do, isn’t it? It’s also pretty mean, don’t you think?”
“No.”
We sat staring at each other as I flipped her little scheme over and over in my mind and wondered why she was so gung-ho on getting him back.
“Look, he was a dick—” she began.
“We were sixth graders!” I answered, still not getting her. I mean, I had a reason to hate him. And I appreciated that she was looking out for me but I didn’t get her enthusiasm over it.
“When you were in sixth grade didn’t you know that what he did was wrong? C’mon, Simone. He should’ve known better but he went ahead and hurt you really bad anyway. He deserves to finally be put in his place.”
“I’ve got three classes with him! If I do this, I’ll have to see him every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!”
“Even better!” Marcy exclaimed practically jumping up and down in her chair as she did baby claps.
“I don’t know…” And I didn’t. First of all, I didn’t like being deceptive. Second, if I went through with it, I’d have to spend an entire evening with him and that didn’t sound like a good plan at all. Third, did I really want revenge so much that I’d knowingly hurt him? And fourth… “What’s in it for you?”
“I have my reasons,” she shared cryptically with a frown then took a drink. “Plus, if you do this, it’ll probably stop the nightmares. You know you hate the nightmares,” she goaded.
“Yeah.” I nodded then let out a sigh. “So how am I supposed to pull this off?”
“Call him. Text him. Doesn’t matter. I know! Invite him to the Kappa Sigs’ back-to-school party this Friday night. It’s a pool party so we need to dig our bikinis out for a last hurrah! Adam’s supposed to pick me up at eight, so you need to have Loch get you after so he doesn’t see me. The couple times I’ve seen him around, he knew who I was because, well, we graduated high school together. So what do you think?”
I shrugged grudgingly.
“Look, I know you’re a nice girl, Sim. I get it. But this dillweed needs to pay for what he did to… to you. I mean, I remember talking to you the first couple years after you moved and you didn’t even sound like yourself. That wasn’t right. And it’s all on him.” She took a bite of bread. “I don’t think it’s right that he got away with what he did. I’m your best friend and I just wanna see your nightmares stop, okay?”
“And humiliating him will do that?”
“Well, yeah.”
I still wasn’t buying it wholly and she knew this.
“Okay, does it help if I tell you about what he did to Samantha Hays our freshman year? You remember her. She was such a sweetheart. Not really popular but always so nice to everyone. Well, I’m pretty sure Loch’s friends teased him about her having a crush on him. And I guess he couldn’t stand to have someone who wasn’t a cheerleader or whatever liking him. You wanna know what he did?”
Did I want to know? Yeesh. I gave her a cautious nod.
“We were in line in the cafeteria. Samantha’s dad had just been laid off so she was embarrassed that she’d had to get on the free lunch plan. So Loch walks up to her and snatches her lunch card out of her hand, looks at it then holds it up while announcing to the entire school that she’s getting her lunch for free.”
I scoffed. “He did not!” At her, “Oh, yes he did” look, I sputtered, “W-what? That’s horrible!” I remembered Samantha and how adorable she’d been and knew that must’ve really hurt her.