Chapter 20: Reunions (of Sorts)

The next day Tommy texted Shelly asking her how things were going. When he found out they weren’t that much better than when they had left Ellen’s, he convinced his depressed girlfriend to come meet him at the library like they had before. Like the first time, he was standing by the bike rack when Shelly rode in and coasted her bike to a stop.

“Hi, so Ellen is still mad?” Tommy asked cautiously.

“Yeah, she’s still mad.” Shelly replied, getting off her bike and wheeling it to the bike rack. “But at least she’s texting back.” A subdued Shelly replied, now working her bike into the rack. “We’re going to see a movie tomorrow.”

“That’s good. Tell her I’m sorry.”

Shelly was clicking her bike lock closed when she heard Tommy’s comment, she jerked her head at her boyfriend and yelled. “SHE’S MAD AT ME! --- NOT YOU! --- I’m her best friend!”

Tommy stood there stunned.

Shelly saw the look on her boyfriend’s face and realized what she had just done. She stood back up and sighed. “I’m sorry ... And yeah, I’ll tell her ... I really regret it now ... What we did.”

The despondent teen looking desperate continued, “If it just hadn’t been so long ... And if my Mom wasn’t being such a jerk ... Or if Stacy and Emily hadn’t gone on vacation...”

Tommy didn’t say anything, instead, he walked up to her and took her in both his arms.

As the teen girl stood there, she felt Tommy’s comforting body pressed against hers and felt his arms around her. That’s when she came to the real reason it had all happened. She admitted to herself. And if I wasn’t so damn in love with you! She finished her thoughts to their conclusion, “ ... this wouldn’t have happened.”

Still in Tommy’s arms, Shelly rested her chin onto his shoulder, looking off into nowhere, her mind went back to how Ellen was that night. Remembering her friend’s glistening, reddened eyes, her upset nature. It was the first time she had ever seen Ellen that way. Shelly knew that her friend had been crying. Normally, Ellen was always so tough and the thought that Shelly had made her friend’s indomitable spirit shatter like that immediately made her feel worse than ever.

She screwed up her face in frustration, pressed her face further into Tommy’s shoulders, and asked her boyfriend absently. “What were we thinking?”

Tommy, feeling the pain in his girlfriend’s words, placed his palm at her left cheek, his fingers splayed on her brow, and he leaned his own head softly onto hers and he confessed to himself. Shelly, I don’t know what you were thinking, Shelly, but I was thinking how crazy I am about you.

With her brow still touching his, he took his hand off her cheek, lifted it up, and gently stroked her hair, while saying soothingly, “I don’t know, but we’ll get through it. I promise.”

When Shelly heard his words, the concern in his voice, and felt his loving embrace, she wanted to stop and kiss Tommy just for being who he was. But she was afraid to. She didn’t trust herself anymore. She was afraid of what that one kiss would lead to. So instead, Shelly wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in tighter. And that’s how they stood, silent, in a caring embrace, each one holding the other, with their heads touching and Tommy’s hand softly stroking Shelly’s hair.

After a while, Shelly sighed and said, “If only she had her own boyfriend. It would be so much better. --- We could go on double dates and everything.”

Shelly moved her head away from her boyfriend’s, so she could look at him, and asked. “You don’t know any guys who would want to go out with her, do you?”

“You know, you’ve already asked me that nearly a dozen times, and you know the same guys I do. You even know them better than I do since I just moved here. You’re the one who grew up here.”

“Yeah, I know.” Shelly sighed in frustration but then replied. “But guys talk. How about Chris?”

“He is stuck on Lisa Smothers.”

“Lisa?” Squinting her eyes in disbelief. “She’s completely out of his league. She’ll never go out with him in a million years.”

“Yeah.” Tommy shrugged his shoulders. “You know that and I know that, but he doesn’t know that.”

“How about Moon?”

“Na-uh.” Shaking his head. “He totally hates her now for giving that nickname to him.”

Feeling a need to defend her friend, Shelly shouted back, “THAT WAS HIS OWN FAULT! He shouldn’t have been rummaging around in her purse.”

“Hey! --- I know that!” Tommy replied defensively. “Look, I’m not defending him. I’m just saying how he feels about her. That’s all!”

Shelly let out an exasperated sigh, “I know ... I’m sorry.”

“I could see if Jerry is interested.”

“Nuh-uh.” She replied as she shook her head. “Ellen doesn’t like him. She thinks he’s an asshole.”

“Yeah, he is sort of an asshole and I don’t think he’d go out with her anyway.”

Shelly let out another sigh. “Maybe she’ll meet somebody in High School.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Shelly looked over to Tommy’s backpack that he had placed on the nearby credenza, and, wanting to change the subject, she asked him, “So how was your book?”

“Eeh, it was only so-so.” Looking over at the bag containing his Harry Potter book. “I didn’t see what the big deal was about these Harry Potter books.”

“If you don’t like them then why did you get it?”

“I don’t know.” Shrugging his shoulders. “I guess I figured I might as well finish the series but they’re not nearly one-tenth as good as Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’, or Zelazny’s Amber series, or Asimov’s Foundation.”

As the boy rattled off all these authors and titles, Shelly found herself smiling. Of those, she had only read Tolkien’s Hobbit, and although she had heard of Asimov before she hadn’t yet ever read one of his books, and she didn’t have a clue who Zelazny was. This was one more reason she liked Tommy. He wasn’t one of those boys who was a dumb jock and was just into sports. He was actually really smart which seemed a perfect match for her. That’s when she noticed him staring back at her. He had a big smirk on his face. “What!” she cried out.

“Nothing.” Tommy replied then nodded his head at her backpack that was still on Shelly’s back and he said, “I was just wondering how your book was?”

She grinned back at him and blushed a bit. “Let’s just say, I’m glad Stacy left her vibrator here.”

“Oooh, that good, huh?” He smiled back at her. “Maybe I should check it out next.”

“Why?” Shelly teasingly replied. “Did Emily leave her vibrator with you too?”

Tommy snickered and shook his head, “She doesn’t even own one.” Then his eyebrows furrowed a bit and he admitted, “At least, I don’t think she does. And anyway, I don’t think those things work for guys.”

Shelly snickered as she imagined Tommy trying to use one. She leaned into him and whispered into his ear. “Maybe we should try it, experiment, and find out for sure.”

Too embarrassed to answer or even ask what she meant by that, he gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek, and said, “Come on. Let’s go find some new books to read.”

And that’s what they did, but this time, when they went about it, it was in a much more subdued fashion. There was no necking, no kissing, and no groping. They let their affection for one another be confined to just holding hands and short, soft embraces.

After about two hours or so, they checked out their new books and then rode back together until they had reached the Moor’s house, Shelly’s next-door neighbor. That’s where they got off their bikes and laid them on the ground. The house was just outside of the view of her parent’s front window and therefore Shelly’s mom’s eyesight. They again found themselves in a tight embrace, heads resting on each other’s shoulders and doing nothing more than holding on to each other tight.

Shelly finally broke the silence by asking, “So, are you going to the airport when your parents pick up Emily and Stac tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll be going.”

“What time are they coming back?”

“Not till late. They land in New York and then they have to catch another plane to Louisville. They won’t get in until eleven or so.”

“Good, I’ll be home then.” She broke her embrace so she could look into her boyfriend’s eyes and nodded her head at him. “I’ll come out and see you when you drop Stacy off, okay?”

“Yeah, that will be great.” Then with a more serious tone, “I hope things work out with you and Ellen tomorrow.”

“Yeah, me too.”

From there they gave each other a soft kiss on the lips and parted their ways. Shelly walked her bike up the slope that formed her driveway, and Tommy, after seeing that she got back safely inside the house, got back on his bike and continued down the street to his own home.

That following day, Shelly had her mom drive both Ellen and herself over to the multiplex theaters at the mall. Shelly had wished that it wasn’t her mom doing the driving. The reason being, she was afraid her mom would catch on that Ellen and herself had gotten into a big fight and that would mean Sheely would have to endure her mother’s questions on what it was about and why it had occurred. But Shelly didn’t have any choice in the matter. First off, it was Shelly’s mom’s turn to drive and secondly, and even more importantly, Shelly couldn’t invite Ellen to go to the movies but then ask if she could get her mom to take them. That wouldn’t be right at all.

Shelly tried to be bubbly and very friendly from the get-go but, whenever she would try to engage Ellen, Ellen’s face would just cloud over and she’d become stone-faced. Shelly did notice that Ellen wasn’t that way with her mom though. It seemed Ellen was going out of her way to keep up a very lively conversation with her mom. A real chummy and gay one at that with lots of lively banter. It almost seemed like Ellen was doing it to give her an excuse to ignore Shelly completely. But what could Shelly do about it? And Shelly figured that it was much better than having her mom find out about their fight. But, for Shelly, it did make the whole trip to the mall an uncomfortable one, to say the least.

They had decided to eat first at the food court before the movie started. This was actually Shelly’s idea. She wanted a chance to talk to Ellen and make things right before they went on to see the movie.

The second they walked into the food court, Shelly offered. “What do you want to eat? I’ll buy.”

Ellen opted for a Fatburger. Shelly got one too even though they weren’t her favorite. They had gotten their burgers and sat down to eat and even before the first bite, Shelly said, “Ellen, I just want to say I’m, really, really sorry for what happened the other night.”

“Can you just shut up about it!” Ellen barked back. “I don’t want to hear about it anymore.”

“Umm ... okay.” Shelly replied somewhat meekly. She could tell Ellen was still fuming. Shelly asked cautiously, “Ehh, how’s your hamburger?”

“It’s okay.” But Ellen was only toying with a fry, repeatedly dipping it in a puddle of ketchup.

“Yeah, mine’s only okay too.”

Shelly again broke the uncomfortable silence that followed by asking. “Do you know anybody that’s seen the movie?”

Ellen jerked up her head and snarled back to her, “No! --- Why would you think I would know anyone who’s seen it?”

Shelly was taken aback by Ellen’s sharp rebuke, but all she said was, “Yeah, me neither, but it has some good reviews.”

After this, the two girls both went back to silently eating their meals and it was about a minute later when they heard a girl shout out, “Hey, Shelly! Ellen! I didn’t know you two would be here.”

They both looked up from their food and turned toward the voice. They saw it was their schoolmate Laura. She was with another girl they didn’t know. They were both walking toward them and carrying their respective food court trays. “Can we sit with you guys?”

Shelly felt relieved that they now had company to break up the tense atmosphere. Ellen and Shelly moved toward the end of the four person table making room for the new pair. Laura sat next to Shelly and the other girl sat down beside Ellen.

As the two new girls sat down with their trays, Laura introduced the new girl as Aurora and explained how they were both on the same soccer team. Laura was a natural, tall blond with Nordic-like features. This contrasted sharply with her friend Aurora, who was a petite, raven haired teen. They both had exquisite figures and were fit as most of the soccer girls tend to be.

The first question out of Laura’s mouth was, “So Shelly, how’s Tommy been?”

Since Shelly was one of the few of their clique that had a steady boyfriend, she was used to getting these types of questions from the other girls, although now, she was a bit uncomfortable talking about it after what had just happened, so she answered with a vague. “He’s been ok.”

“So, have you been going out with him over the summer?”

“Yeah, we’ve been seeing each other.”

“So how long has it been now?”

“About six months.”

“Wow, half a year. Sooo, how far have you gone with him?”

“Forget it, Laura! I’m not going to know how far we’ve gone.”

“Oh come Shelly, you could tell me.”

Out of the blue, Ellen suddenly announced, “Shelly told me that he loves going down on her.”

Laura’s eyes got really big. She first looked at Ellen and then she quickly turned her head back over to Shelly. “Really!?”

Shelly hadn’t been paying attention to Laura’s excited remark, she instead had swung her head to stare directly at Ellen. Shelly was stunned. She couldn’t believe her best friend had just betrayed her confidence like that.

Ellen looked over at Shelly, completely unfazed by her friend’s staredown. In fact, Ellen’s mouth contained a little smirk and while she looked directly back at Shelly’s face she then added. “Yeah, she even told me he’s really good at it too.” Then she added slowly with added emphasis. “He’s a real expert, she said.”

Shelly’s expression changed from surprise to now anger, What the fuck are you doing, Ellen! Shelly wanted to scream out at her.

That was when the other girl at the table spoke up. In an almost taunting, knows-it-all manner, the Aurora girl asked. “How do you know he’s such an expert at it?”

Still trying to recover from her best friend’s betrayal, it took a while for Shelly to detect that the question was directed at her. So she looked over to the girl and asked dumbly, “What?”

“I said, how do you know he’s an expert at it?” The girl then shrugged her shoulders and added, “I can’t see how you can say one boy is an expert at it.” Her expression changed to smirk before she added, “Unless you let all the boys do it to you.”

“No!” Shelly quickly retorted furiously, “Tommy’s the only one.” Shocked that the girl had just implied that she was some sort of slut.

The raven haired beauty didn’t let up though, with a quick shake of the head directed at Shelly, she even doubled down. “Then how do you know he’s so good at it? Other boys may be as good as he is, or even better.”

That was when Shelly decided she didn’t like this new girl and she just stared straight back and thought of all the answers she could give her. Like, because she had it on good authority from two experienced eighteen year old girls on how good Tommy was. Or because Tommy’s stepsister trained him personally on how to best please a girl. But she knew these two facts had to stay secret, so she just ended up shrugging her shoulders and answered back with, “All I know is he’s always been able to please me.”

Shelly then sharply nodded her head at the girl. “So, I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it because... “ Shelly was still staring back defiantly at this new Aurora girl. “ ... unfortunately for you, you’ll never find out, will you?”

At first, the Aurora girl just replied with a sneer, but then the sneer was replaced by a slight grin when she replied with a, “Yeah? ... Well, we’ll see.”

“Sooo...” Laura, trying to break up the very tense atmosphere. She changed the subject to a lighter matter. “ ... what classes are you guys signing up for?”

So, from there, the four girls talked about High School. About what classes they were going to take, which were the easy classes, and what teachers they hoped to get. It was Laura and Shelly who were able to contribute the most since they both had older siblings whom they had gleaned a lot of their information from. So they knew a lot about the teachers, what classes were the hard ones and which classes were the easy ones. That’s also when Shelly found out Aurora was going to be going to their High School too.

Oh great! Shelly thought sarcastically to herself when she heard the news.

“We’re both going to try out for the girl’s Soccer team.” Laura added.

That was when the Aurora girl piped in, looking back at Shelly, “Yeah, I guess I’ll be seeing you and your boyfriend around. What was his name again?” She asked while she gave Shelly a crooked smile.

When Shelly didn’t answer right away, the girl’s smile got bigger and she said, “It was Tommy, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, it’s Tommy.” Shelly caustically replied as she thought to herself that she’d rip this girl’s head off this girl even looked sideways at Tommy. Shelly then turned to her best friend and said brusquely, “Come on Ellen, we’d better go now or we’ll miss our movie.”

The two had only walked halfway to the theaters when suddenly Shelly grabbed Ellen’s arm and pulled her friend forcefully to a complete stop. “Ellen!” She jerked at her friend’s arm. “How could you? You know I told you that stuff in confidence.”

Ellen disdainfully pried her hand out of Shelly’s grip and then looked back at her friend with indifference and shrugged her shoulders, “Well, it could’ve been worse. I could have told them about how you fucked Tommy in my bed.”

Ellen then mockingly asked with a grin. “Would that have been better?”

“Ellen! I said I was sorry for that!” Shelly yelled back.

“Oh ... Okay.” Ellen said nonchalantly back, totally unfazed by her friend’s apology. Then, with a slight grin and with no feeling at all, Ellen reciprocated. “Then, I’m sorry too.”

Shelly’s eyes went wide in both shock and anger as she stared disbelievingly at her friend. “I meant it, Ellen!”

A steely-eyed Ellen answered Shelly back with the accusation. “You used me!”

“I know I did and what I did was wrong. I admit it. And I’m really sorry for what I did. --- Tommy’s sorry too! But if this is the way it’s going to be between us. If this is the way you’re going to treat me from now on, all because you can’t forgive me for doing that one stupid thing then...”

With a certain amount of satisfaction, Ellen thought. I knew you’d do this Shelly. I knew you were going to dump me for your boyfriend/lover, but if you think I’m not going to get on my knees and grovel just so we can stay friends, you got another thing coming.

So Ellen sharply yelled back, “THEN WHAT?” Ellen shook her head and said, “What are you going to do Shelly? You’re going to dump my ass!” Ellen was on a roll now, she stared accusingly at her former best friend. “That’s what you want. --- Don’t you? That’s the only reason why you invited me out here today, just so you could find out if I’ll be your stupid bitch, and if not, you’ll just drop me so you could spend more time with your precious boyfriend.”

“NO!” Shelly shouted back in shock, as she stared back incredulously at her best friend. “That’s not why I invited you. I invited you out because I was sorry for what I did. I was sorry for how I used you.”

Shelly then dropped her head and took a sharp, ragged breath. “Yeah, Tommy’s my boyfriend but you’re still my best friend, Ellen.” Shelly shook her head in disbelief and lifted her head to look straight back at her friend. “Why would you think I’d ever want to get rid of you like that?”

When Shelly raised her head back up, that’s when Ellen noticed it. Tears were showing in the corner of Shelly’s eyes. Ellen also noticed the slight tremor appearing on her friend’s lips.

“Ellen, we’ve been best friends since second grade.” Shelly continued with her rebuttal in a soft, tortured way. She then sniffled and quickly wiped at her nose with her sleeve before adding in an almost desperate cry. “I know what I did was wrong.” The tears had started to swell in each corner. “And I’m so, so sorry for what I did to you, but can’t you please forgive me? --- Please!”

Ellen stood there speechless, thinking, It’s not supposed to happen this way!

Then Ellen’s cynical side bullied in. I wonder if she is putting on some sort of an act.

But as she watched the tears continue to pool around Shelly’s reddening eyes, Ellen already knew the answer to that question. Shelly was never good at putting on acts or hiding her feelings from breaking through. That’s why she was such a terrible liar and it was a big reason she had been Ellen’s best friend for the last seven years. No, with Shelly, she never had to worry about being jerked around, or stabbed in the back. What you saw is what you got with Shelly.

That’s when Ellen realized that she had been completely wrong and how her quick temper, along with her big fat mouth, was about to quash the one good thing (outside of family) that she had in her life. Ellen found herself lowering her head in shame and disgust. She then mumbled back to her friend, “I’m sorry, Shelly. I was being an ass.”

The next thing Ellen knew was her body being swallowed up by two arms and a warm body. Right there in the middle of the public square, she was being enveloped in a tight embrace by Shelly.

“You weren’t being an ass.” Ellen heard her friend say in her ear. But then Shelly corrected herself, “Well ... ok, maybe you were being a little bit of an ass.”

The statement caused Ellen to snicker and her mouth formed into a grin. Ellen realized this was another reason she loved Shelly so much. She was the only person Ellen could ever take any criticism from and not feel it was being done out of spite, or to hurt her. And she didn’t want to give that up.

“But Ellen...” Her friend’s voice broke in on her thoughts and she felt Shelly loosened her embrace. Shelly was now looking directly into her eyes. “ ... you had a good reason to be mad. What I did was terrible. Can you forgive me for what I did?”

Ellen stared back into Shelly’s eyes and said back to her one true friend, “Ok, I forgive you...”

“Oh, thank you!”

And again Ellen found herself being captured by a big hug.

“Thank you!” She heard Shelly say again while still being held in that tight embrace. That’s when Ellen found herself softly wrapping her arms around Shelly and giving her best friend a hug back.

But after a little while Ellen felt a bit awkward. She felt a little weird doing this. She wasn’t used to outward displays of affection, or any displays of affection for that matter. Especially out in public. Both she and her family were pretty reserved in that respect. But here she was, in the middle of a public mall, in a tight embrace with another girl, and she wondered. How long am I supposed to be doing this?