Chapter Five: ❝ he really did give her a grocery bag ❞

"His lying ass is cheating on me, I know he is!"

O'Dallas tapped the bottom of the small glass nail polish bottle in the palm of her hand, its cinnamon color sloshing around on the inside. She raised an eyebrow at her heated friend Shardae, the only girl out of the four of them standing, before she continued to vigorously shake the polish.

"And Maddison was the one who informed you about this?" O'Dallas asked, her gaze on her other friend's hand, but attention still focused on the conversation.

"Who else would've told her about it? Maddison already doesn't know how to mind her fucking business, so of course she knew first," Annisa said as she brushed through her wavy dark brown hair, her eyes fixated in the mirror.

Makayla, the last of the four girls in the bedroom, crossed one leg over the other on the fuzzy, lavender bean bag seat as O'Dallas prepared to paint her nails. "Listen, I already messaged Terrance today and he told me practice was cancelled early, so he left with Chase. It's probably nothing to worry about now. Maybe Maddison was just confused."

Shardae crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. "It's probably nothing my ass. He swore we would meet up today after his practice, but guess what? Almost two hours I waited for him before he called me up saying, 'oh, I can't make it today, uh, shit came up, uh, we can talk later.' Like what the fuck does that mean? First you're gonna ghost a third time and now you wanna just sit down and talk like nothing happened?!"

O'Dallas scoffed as she placed the mini brush on Makayla's thumb nail. "Typical. But what else did you expect? When you continuously let these children, not men, children, treat you the way you don't deserve to be treated, they're gonna act like fucking clowns. This is why you have to dump his ass, move on, and find someone who acts like they got some goddamn sense."

"Agreed," Makayla said with a nod. "But, you know, in the future if he does 'change' his ways and shows that he actually wants to commit to this relationship, then go for it. I just think you should take everything Maddison says with a grain of salt."

"Not even a grain of salt, a fucking grain of sand," Annisa spoke out. "I wouldn't be surprised if she told you she saw Terrance with another girl today and it turns out that the other girl is her. She knows we don't like her ass and she doesn't like us either, so don't be shocked if this is her little way of trying to get back at you."

Shardae pushed back her massive heap of coily, chocolate brown hair from her face, the multiple rings on her fingers rubbed against her light brown skin. She took another deep breath and shut her eyes again before saying, "You know what... y'all are probably right. I'm just gonna block his ass and find someone else to go to Homecoming with until he gets his story together... I am not ending up like Andrea and Alex because of this shit."

Annisa grinned as she turned in her chair to look at her friend with pride, her hair brush pointed in her direction. "See, that's what I'm talking about. Fuck whatever Maddison said, you need way better anyways. And don't even get me started on Andrea and Alex today, Jesus..."

"Oh my God, perfect example!" O'Dallas exclaimed as she paused from painting Makayla's middle finger. "You know I asked Andrea earlier why she got back with Alex after all the emotional and mental abuse he put her through, and she was like, 'oh well, every relationship has their ups and downs and shit happens. It's just a part of the process...' Like what the fuck?! Abuse should not be a part of the process of anything!"

"Exactly Ally. Just because that man has not laid hands on you, doesn't mean he still hasn't put you through traumatic shit that's clearly fucked you up," Makayla said, tossing her black braids over her shoulder. "You know what Alex even gave her for her birthday? A fucking grocery bag."

Shardae stopped her pacing and raised her neatly plucked eyebrows while Annisa began to burst out with laughter.

"No he didn't. No he did not," Shardae said in disbelief. "He didn't."

"Deadass. I cannot make this shit up, I saw it on her story," Makayla said as O'Dallas nodded her head. "She was like, 'I'm giving this man a baby for his birthday and all that bitch gave me was a motherfucking grocery bag...' and she had a picture of it and everything..."

"No he did not... wait, what?! She— hold on. So she's actually having that baby just because he wanted it for his birthday and he turned around and gave her a grocery bag for hers?! What the hell?! A whole grocery bag?! For her birthday?" Shardae said while Annisa was now in tears.

"It wasn't even the reusable grocery bags, it was a whole brown plastic grocery bag from Winn-Dixie. I am not and cannot make this shit up," Makayla said. "And she is still with his ass."

Annisa caught her breath from extensive laughter as Shardae still stood frozen in utter shock, even pulling out her phone to go to Instagram to see the story for herself, the words, "no he did not," still muttered off her tongue.

After eight tiring hours at school, the girls always met at Annisa's house two, maybe three, times a week to discuss some of the most ridiculous drama and rumors that would have started that day. As some of the most popular girls in school, it was really a sacred tradition and terrible habit to gossip about others in and out of the friend group. But bad customs were hard to get rid of, and they certainly weren't the only ones that did it.

At Whitney Hills High School, popularity was not exclusive to one sole group of certain people who were unfathomably rich, dressed like Barbies and Kens, and were terribly snotty all the time. There were multiple layers to it with various popular cliques because the size of the school population was massive.

O'Dallas and Annisa, for example, "led" the first popular clique, unintentionally dubbed "The White Vests," which included some of their closest friends like Shardae Jones, Makayla Myers, Chase Roderick, and Manny Lockwood. They were by far the largest popular clique at school, second to that being "The Belles," the highly elite clique "led" by their rival Maddison Liberty and her clueless "army" of loyal followers.

Every other popular clique like "The Crew", which mainly consisted of senior partygoers, or "The Hozas", who you couldn't hangout with unless you drove a BMW, made up the vast majority of the school's most well-known cliques. Everybody else sat comfortably in the middle unless you were associated with "The Pit", where only the bottom-of-the-barrel social outcasts and "freaks" sat during lunch. Once you were in, it was difficult to pull yourself out.

As soon as Annisa finished brushing her waist-length hair, she tied it all up in a bun for the evening and dabbed her cheeks from the tears of laughter. She then grabbed her mini remote control which wirelessly turned on her purple stereo speaker to play music from "The Bay's #1 Hit Music Station!" on 94.9.

"See this is why I refuse to get a date for Homecoming this year. Boys in our school are just idiots," Annisa said as she put some white cream under her eyes. "You know after school today, Tyler McCoy tried to ask me out with those awkward dance proposal things? Like I was going to say yes to poorly made posters and cheap chocolate. Who the hell does he think I am, Maddison?"

"Ugh, don't remind me," O'Dallas said. "I would rather take half an empty bottle of hand sanitizer than go with him or any of the other guys who tried to ask me to the dance. I don't even know if it's worth going this year."

"But y'all have to go, we've been planning this for weeks," Makayla said with a slight frown. "We can at least all go as a group and then hang out at the clubhouse afterwards, it's going to be fun."

"Yeah, a 'group.' At least you have a decent date," Shardae mumbled as she continued to scroll through her phone while pacing the room.

"I know not having a date or boyfriend isn't the end of the world, but it would be nice to at least have a partner that's not your friend dance with you or buy you those little flowers you wear on your hand," Annisa said, her rosy lips pouted.

Makayla sighed and glanced at her nearly finished fingers O'Dallas was painting before she said, "Well what about... Chase? I heard he still hasn't picked a date yet."

"Aht, wrong. Maddison had already jumped on that ship and apparently he said yes too," Shardae spoke up, her eyes still glued on her phone. "That idiot is fraternizing with the enemy. Traitor."

"Oh, well what about Manny? I know for a fact that he hasn't asked anyone yet," O'Dallas said and moved to Makayla's next hand.

Annisa frowned and turned to her friend. "Manny?! Lockwood?! I mean don't get me wrong, he's extremely cute, but still, Manny?! He's like... a friend. And the goal was to not take friends to the dance."

"Pfft, Manny is not 'cute', that man is hella fine. Why didn't I think of asking him first?" Shardae said as she paused and looked up from her phone.

"Okay irregardless, I am not asking him. It'd be... weird," Annisa said and started putting on her night cream. "Plus didn't he get in trouble today or something?"

"Yeah actually. I think it was with that graffiti on the side of the school," Shardae said as she finally decided to plop down on the other hot pink bean bag across from Makayla and O'Dallas. "Oh look, he's just now posted something about it."

Shardae held out her phone screen to face O'Dallas and Makayla who scooted forward to get a better look while Annisa just listened from her seat at her vanity table. O'Dallas was the one who read his story out loud, saying:

"I knew he didn't do it!" Annisa exclaimed after O'Dallas finished reading the message and Shardae pulled her phone back. "I knew he was an idiot, but not that stupid. He didn't say anything else about who actually did it, did he?"

"Nope, that was it... and I'll be damned, he really did give her a grocery bag..." Shardae said as the next story she swiped to featured her friend Andrea from earlier.

"Just be grateful his fight didn't get cancelled," Makayla said as she let O'Dallas continue to paint her pinky. "Everybody and their daddies would have lost their shit if he couldn't do it on Friday like 'promised.'"

"Do you know why he is fighting Jared again? Wasn't it something to do with what he said to him at lunch last week and then he got all pissy about it?" O'Dallas asked.

"I think so. 'Cause I know this started with the drama on Snapchat with Jared's girlfriend and her trying to send nudes to Manny and then they started going at it from there," Annisa replied. "All I know is that it's a huge mess right now and boys seem to talk with their fists more than their mouths so..."

Makayla snorted. "The only reason I'm going is because Cole is dragging me with him and he wants to see the clubhouse."

"Cole's never been to the clubhouse?" Shardae asked upside down on the bean bag.

"It's invite only remember? Chase had to make sure he was 'cool' before he could let him come, even if he is my boyfriend," Makayla said.

Originally a warehouse turned makeshift hang out place, "The Clubhouse" was like the after party to the Grammys or Oscars for most of the popular cliques at school, but only on a strict invitation-based status. It didn't matter if you were the captain of the football team, president of the National Honor Society, or had a million subscribers on your Youtube channel. You couldn't get in unless invited by either Manny, the original owner and starter of "The Clubhouse" or Chase, who helped monitor all guests that came in and out.

It was essentially a place where the deemed, "coolest of the coolest '' or "most popular of the popular'', hung out after parties, dances, birthdays, or just special events like Manny's fight. Being invited was like winning the lottery, especially if you were personally invited by Manny himself. Almost every semi-illegal thing teens could do that were depicted in movies or books was precisely what happened at "The Clubhouse."

And if anyone told a soul, let's just say they weren't invited back in.

Annisa finished the final touches of her nightly skin care with some Vaseline on her lips and set everything back the way it was on her grand ivory vanity table. "As long as Maddison and her goons try not to show up this time, I am totally going—"

O'Dallas suddenly gasped, some of the liquid brown polish dripping on her thumb. "Oh crap, I almost forgot to tell you! Did any of you get the message from Chasity at all?"

All three of her friends stared back at her with perplexed looks and shook their heads.

"No, what do you mean? Did something happen?" Annisa asked, her eyebrows knitted into a frown.

"Uh, yeah. Today in the student parking lot after school, Chasity saw Lily kick the shit out of Manny. She was screaming at him and everything," O'Dallas said. "You don't think..."

"Oh no, not again," Makayla said as she wiped the area around her cuticle where the nail polish spilled. "Did she see anything else that happened? Because if that bitch is trying to start something now, we need to know."

"No, that was all she told me for now. She said she tried to go over to talk to him but he sped off before she could. And Lily had run off to God knows where," O'Dallas explained and wiped off the nail polish from her finger in the process.

Shardae rolled her eyes and huffed while Annisa swiveled her chair around to face the group, clearing her throat and saying, "It's been less than a month into the school year and she's already trying to start more drama with Manny? Who's she gonna fight next, him? This is fucking ridiculous."

"I say that if she keeps messing with our friends, then we should just mess right back. There's already enough shit going on in the group and I'm tired of her fucking name being brought up," Shardae said.

"Honestly, this shit is irritating," Makayla added. "It's been non stop since middle school. What's it going to take for her to get the message already?"

The room became silent for a brief moment, the only voice being the trio girl group TLC singing, "Waterfalls," on the stereo. All the girls glanced at each other, dark brown to chestnut colored eyes that gave quizzical looks with glimmers of a malicious idea behind it.

"Hey Shardae, let me see your phone real quick," Annisa said, holding out her hand.

All eyes transferred back to Annisa and Shardae held her phone closer to her chest.

"Uh, why? Where's your phone?" Shardae asked.

"It's charging by my nightstand and I don't want to use it until it's at a hundred. So give it here."

Shardae sighed and reluctantly handed over her phone, typing a few things before doing so. Annisa gently took it from her hand with a raised eyebrow before logging into her own Instagram account.

"Uh, Annisa, what are you doing?" Makayla asked.

"It's simple. Just like you guys just said," Annisa started with a smirk. "She messes with our friends, so we mess right back."

If you could describe this chapter in a color, what would it be? Mine is definitely pink and purple.

Let me know how you guys feel about "The White Vests" clique and O'Dallas & Annisa. Hate em' or Love em'? I would also tell you mine, but I feel like that's spoiling in a way.

Please don't forget to share and vote and I'll see you in chapter six!

~ Robin ~