The One I Loathe

Chapter 16

“You bout ready Sam?” I asked him through the bathroom door as I straightened my tie in the mirror.

He emerged from the bathroom full suit on minus the tie. He held up two of the, trying to choose.

“Which one? Dark blue or light blue?” He asked me.

“Does it really matter?” I replied.

“DOES IT MATTER?! Everyone knows your tie is supposed to match your date’s dress!”

I looked at him like he was insane, because, well, he was.

“Now Sophie told me she would be getting a blue dress, but she didn’t say light blue or dark blue!
Now what am I going to do?!”

Ok, he was taking this fashion etiquette way to far.

“Sam. Chill. Breath!” I told him as I grabbed his shoulders. “Just bring both ties and put on whichever one matches her dress!”

“You’re right. Dang, Trent I’m a nervous wreck tonight!”

He was. He was sweating like a pig!

“Why, dude? It’s just a dance!”

“No, it’s not just a dance! I’m going home in three days and tonight would be the perfect opportunity for our first kiss,”

I cringed at that part. In order for my plan to work tonight I needed to distract Sam from Sophie for 20 minutes. That’s where Hilary came in. They obviously saw something in each other yesterday morning. A blind man could tell! I popped back in to reality from my planning to give Sam a response.

“You mean you two haven’t kissed yet?” I asked him, pretending to be interested.

“Naw man! Every time I try, she seems to find someway to avoid it,”

“Oh,” I said.

That was great! She didn’t love him! I’m not sure why the note was crumpled up, but it wasn’t because she loved Sam! Yes! Now I wouldn’t have to convince her not to like my best friend! That made me feel less guilty.

“Maybe the mood wasn’t right,” I said trying to offer up a good excuse.

“See that’s what I’m thinking. That’s why the dance would be the perfect atmosphere!”

I tried to get the topic off of kissing Sophie so I glanced at the clock: 7:55. Great!

“All right, Sam! We’d better go pick up the girls, don’t want to be late!”

We went downstairs and were bombarded by my parents before we could leave the house.

“Awww!” Cooed my mom, “Boys, you look so dashing! I just got off the phone with Elaine Jameson, and she said the girls look just beautiful!” She rambled on some more about how fast we’d grown up and all of that before she finally let us out the door!

We hopped into Mom’s new convertible, as she was letting us borrow it for the evening,

“Drive safely!” She yelled out the door as we drove down the street.

Shortly after, we arrived at Sophie’s. As soon as Sam and I came in the door, flashes of cameras went off in our faces.

“Oh! Don’t you two look so handsome?” Sophie’s mom gushed, and then yelled upstairs, “Girls! They’re here!”

After I regained sight from the flash experience, I saw Hilary come down the staircase. I’ll admit, she didn’t look half bad in a red-strapless-poufy thing. She looked striking, but was nothing compared to what I saw next.

Sophie looked like an angel. Her blonde hair was all curly atop her head. Her dress was a light turquoise color, and the sleeves hung gracefully around her shoulders. She was absolutely breathtaking. It took all my strength not to run up and kiss her right there, let me tell you.

She smiled at me as she descended the stairs. I glanced at Sam, but he was entranced with Hilary. I grinned. My plan would work perfectly.

After snapping a few hundred photos we were on our way. When we got to school, they had the cafeteria all decorated up with lights and balloons. The dance started at seven so it had already been going on for a while before we got there.

As I walked in, a song was playing that we all enjoyed, so we all went right to the center of the cafeteria and started dancing. When that song ended, we paired off with our respective couples.

I could easily see Sam and Sophie dancing, over Hilary’s shoulder. I tried to focus on Hilary, to be polite, but it was no use. I couldn’t fight it.

“You love her don’t you?” Hilary asked me, interrupting my thoughts.

I sighed. Why deny it anymore? “Is it that obvious?”

She rolled her eyes. “Hellooo? You’ve only been like starring at her the whole night!”

I guess I had. Great! Now I felt bad that I’d been such a lousy date for Hilary.

“I’m Sorry, Hilary. I really am,” I told her, trying to redeem myself.

To my surprise she actually laughed!

“Say no more! I’ve been waiting for you two to get together since you moved here! Besides, I see something I like better back there, and it’s dancing with my best friend!”

I laughed and gave her a hug. As the song ended, we drifted toward Sam and Sophie who had stopped dancing and were sitting at a table where they looked deep in conversation…




I couldn’t be a wimp anymore. I would have to tell Sam that I didn’t like him anymore, or never did rather. I would have to break his poor little heart, but I couldn’t live with that lie anymore.

While we were dancing, I looked over at Trent and Hilary dancing. I saw them both laughing and then Trent hugged her. He liked Hilary now, of course! Well, now I had another reason not to like him!

Not wanting to look at Trent and Hilary anymore, I asked Sam if we could sit down and he obliged.

“So,” he asked me, “What’s up?”

How was I going to put this?

“Sam, you’re a terrific guy, and you’ve been so sweet to me,”

Aww! He looked like a little hopeful puppy! This wasn’t going to be easy.

“But…I just don’t return these feelings you have for me! And, I think we’re both better off pursuing people who reciprocate those feelings!”

I was talking like a scientist! He looked so confused.

“So…we’re breaking up?” He asked slowly.
I nodded.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.

He seemed about to say something, when he glanced behind me. I turned around and saw Trent and Hilary standing there.

“Are you two about ready to change partners?” Trent asked.

I was pretty sure Sam was about to say no, but I had no desire to continue this conversation.

“Absolutely!” I said a little too anxiously.

“Great, let’s go!” Trent said with an outstretched hand. I took it and he led me to the dance floor.

We slow danced for a little while. Then he leaned down and whispered in my ear, “Come with me,”
Who could resist an offer like that? I followed him off the dance floor and out the doors of the school. I didn’t realize where we were going until I saw the elementary school playground next to the school.

Whenever the Bennet’s would visit when we were little, our parents would take us to this playground. We had some fun times here until we were about eight! Then I guess, we were old enough to learn that we didn’t have to like each other.

We walked towards the swings and I sat down. I felt a chill down my spine. It was then I realized that it was freezing weather and my shoulders and arms were almost completely bare! Clearly Trent noticed this because he immediately took off his jacket and came behind me and slid it over my shoulders. It smelled like Trent, warm and musky. I sat and inhaled for a little bit. He stayed behind me and pushed me slightly on the swing.

“Do you remember this place?” He asked finally.

“Of course!” I said, smiling, “This is where you proposed to me!” I said now giggling.

“Oh, your going to bring that up are you?” He said, play offensively.

“Naturally! You and I were 5 years old. We were building a sand castle in that sandbox.” I indicated at the sandbox next to the swings, “And, I said that I wanted to live in a castle someday,”

“And I asked you why…”Trent filled in.

“And I said so my prince charming would come and kiss me,”

He laughed and continued the story.

“Then I said that if he never came, I would give you your first kiss…”

“And I said you had to be married to kiss someone…”

He finished, “So I said that I would marry you,”

We both laughed. Maybe we were closer than I remembered as children…

“Or that time Will drug my across the ground my by hair and you told him to stop or else you’d hit him with your Nerf gun!”

He came up from behind me to lean against the swing set pole in front of me.

“Well, I couldn’t have anyone destroying that gorgeous hair of yours!” he said, grinning.

I laughed. He spoke again, “Or when you told Abby I was your boyfriend and I wouldn’t speak with you for the rest of our visit,”

“Yeah! What was up with that?” I asked him.

“Well, actually, Will told me that only sissies have girlfriends…”

Leave it to Will to ruin a perfectly good childhood relationship.

“You remember what we used to play on that?” I asked him, indicating the playscape that resembled a castle.

“How could I forget? Will was the evil lord, you were the beautiful princess he took hostage, I was the gallant knight who came to your rescue, and Abby was the horse!”

We both laughed.

“You rescued me every time!”

We paused and waited for a little while.

“We were such good friends, what happened?” He asked me after we both were quiet.

I thought about it. Was there one event that did it?

“Those awkward years happened! I guess it was in 4th grade. I developed the biggest crush on you, and suddenly I felt really shy when you were around,” I admitted, blushing madly.

He looked stupefied.

“You’re serious? You stopped talking to me because you liked me? That’s the reason I stopped talking to you!”

After all these years, the truth finally came out. The reason we stopped liking each other, is because we started liking each other!

“So, I guess, after being too shy to talk to each other we just slowly drifted apart until we hated each other, ” I reasoned quietly.

On that note, he stood from leaning on the pole, walked over to me in my swing, grabbed, my hands, and pulled me up until I was just inches away from his face.

“Do you hate me?” He said quietly. The closeness was different, but not uncomfortable. It was actually very nice. I felt safe. Like my knight-in-shining-armor was protecting me.

“No,” I said simply.

He leaned down, and just as we were about to close the gap between us, a voice shouted down at us, “Hey guys! It’s the last dance! Don’t want to miss it!”

I didn’t know who said it, a teacher or a chaperone,

I guess. But that did jolt us back into reality.

Hilary. She and Trent liked each other. I could never do that to her! No matter how cute he was or how musky his jacket was.

“They’re right,” I said and he nodded. It was then I backed away from him, took off his jacket and handed it to him, and walked back towards the cafeteria. It hurt, but the thought of loosing my best friend hurt even more.

When we got back to the cafeteria, the last slow song was playing. I glanced around for Hilary and Sam. Then I saw then, in the middle of the dance floor, dancing closely. Very closely.

I got closer to them and saw that they were doing more than dancing. They were kissing!

“Wow!” I said to Trent, “He got over that fast,”

He looked down at me, very confused.

“Got over what fast?”

That’s right! He didn’t know we’d broken up. I guessed that’s why he agreed to leave the playground so easily before he kissed me, because I was dating his best friend. He left the same reason I did!

“We broke up right when you and Hilary came over to us,”

I saw a glimmer of happiness in his face for a minute then it went to sympathy.

“Aww, Sophie I’m so sorry!”

He was so sweet.

“Don’t be. It was never meant to be,”

The song ended and Sam and Hilary finally broke apart. They spotted us and walked over. Both looked quite embarrassed.

“So…”Hilary started, “I guess you figured out that we’re dating now?” Sam stood next to her looking quite sheepish, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of Hilary. They were meant to be. Anyone could tell.

“I gathered that,” I told her.

We all agreed it was time to go home. Trent dropped off Hilary first. We both waited in the car for at least 10 minutes while Hilary and Sam “said” goodnight.

“You know, I never would have guessed it, but they really are perfect for each other.” I told Trent from the backseat.

“Yep. It seems like we all ended up with the wrong date,”

I was about to ask him to expand on that thought, when Sam happed in the front seat with a silly grin on his face.

Trent dropped me off next; I was hoping he would walk me to my door and give me that old-Hollywood-ending-kiss goodbye. But instead, all he said was, “Later,”

This boy was so annoying! First, he’s indirectly saying he wants me, and now he treats me like gum on the sidewalk!

I walked up to my door, and turned around hoping for at least a wave. But when I turned around, all I saw was an empty street.