Holding On by Rachael Brownell Page A

refusing all of them. She also kept me posted on Claire. The girl was not giving up on Brad or on me. She took any chance she could to bad-mouth me to her friends, some of which were also my friends. That was a big mistake on her part since they were defending me and she was creating enemies in the process.
    I was also avoiding Ethan for the most part. I avoided him in the halls when I could. Since the night we went out, he seemed to be everywhere all the time. I had never noticed him outside of class before. The one place that I couldn’t avoid him was in class, but I tried to surround myself with other people so that he didn’t have any opportunity to corner me and try to talk about us . Wow! I was in two really messed up “relationships” if you could call either of them that.
    I found that Natalie, Jill, and I made a great team. We worked together on the sports spreads, and by the time those were finished, it felt like we were inseparable. We had bonded over a common interest and found friendship along the way. I was proud of myself for making friends and trying to move forward in this strange new place. It was beginning to feel like home, or at least a place that could one day resemble home for me.
    The Friday before Valentine’s Day, at lunch, the girls were giggling as I walked up to the table. As I sat down, the giggling stops and everyone was looking at me. What a way to make a girl feel welcomed. Were they talking about me? Had I done something wrong that I was unaware of?
    “What?” I asked. Everyone was still staring at me.
    “Well,” Natalie started, “I know we haven’t been able to hang out much, and we were just wondering if you wanted to come to a party with us tonight.”
    I could hear the hesitance in her voice. Did she think I was a prude, or was she just not sure if she wanted to hang out with me? I didn’t really know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. I wanted to go, but I didn’t really feel like she wanted me to, and the last thing I wanted was for things to get awkward between us.
    After a few minutes, Jill added, “It’s at Natalie’s ex-boyfriend’s house, so we are all going in support of her.”
    So that was why she was hesitant. I could support that. I knew that the next time I see Brad, ex-boyfriend or not, I was going to need a little support myself. Plus, I had been using Natalie and Jill as a support system, without them knowing, for weeks now. They have been my “buffer” with Ethan.
    “Sure. My mom should be okay with it. What time?” I asked. A party really did sound great. It would be just what I needed to take my mind off all the boy drama that I had been avoiding. I needed a little girl time. I didn’t even realize it, but I hadn’t had girl time for so long.
    “I’ll pick you up at eight,” Natalie said with a big smile on her face. “Make sure you wear something dressy. It’s a senior party.”
    “Okay.” I drew the word out longer than I had intended. She hadn’t mentioned a boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend, the entire time I had known her. “So you were dating a senior? When did you break up?” I was trying to sound interested, but I really couldn’t care less about her ex-boyfriend. I was just happy that I had friends and that I was not going to be spending yet another Friday night doing homework.
    “He broke up with me a few months ago. He’s a real jerk. I should have known better. A couple of girls warned me that he would string me along and then break my heart.” It sounded like they were pretty serious I guess, if she was talking about him breaking her heart. You could see that there was some serious anger growing inside of her. She was not over this guy yet, and I felt bad for him if he crossed her path tonight.
    “So why are we going to his party tonight if you dislike him so much?”
    “I don’t know. It’s a party,  a senior party,  and I kind of want to go and see what he’s up to. I have a feeling that he’s started to see