I gazed into the mirror with a sly smirk. Of course, I always looked good, but tonight was a whole other level. Eva’s little meltdown on her birthday still played back in my mind. I couldn’t imagine being that obsessed with wanting a “mate”, essentially. I was better off alone, even if in a society where love was expected of us.
I sighed and shook my head, getting my keys. Tonight was Ryan’s night. But damn, Eva’s worries made me embarrassed for her. It could never be me. Even while driving to the restaurant, my mind kept going back to Eva. I had read about people like her on online forums I frequented. At least according to people online, it always ended badly for desperate folks. I was happier alone, and forever staying young.
I was the last to arrive at the party, although I thought I had left early. I smiled at my friends and sat down with them. Ryan was beaming, clearly proud of himself and ready to celebrate. I was a little jealous that he got into such a prestigious school, but I, of course, kept those thoughts to myself.
Eva looked strangely at me, as if she was waiting for me to say something, but I just gave her a smile and turned to Ryan.
“So, new school, eh?” I nudged him playfully. “When are you going to check the place out?”
Ryan laughed. “Certainly, after graduation. You know my parents don’t really like to travel much, so I assume I’ll be making one trip; for them to drop me off there.”
I grinned. “Maybe we could take a trip there, the four of us.”
Ryan’s eyes shimmered with excitement. “Really?”
I nodded, pridefully. “Yes, of course. I have my own car, and my parents won’t care.”
Everyone exchanged excited glances, and I knew I had pleased them all. A final hurrah before Ryan left us.
We ate, chatted and talked about our dreams for the future. When Eva started talking about her dreams of finding the perfect soulmate, her eyes barely left me, and I couldn’t help but feel like she was sending a message. And especially here, at Ryan’s celebration dinner? I simply smiled back, nodding in acknowledgement of what she was saying, but not giving her my opinions, which she clearly wanted me to do. It almost became an unspoken battle of wits between us, and yet, Tusk and Ryan didn’t seem to notice this at all. Why was I the only one noticing her passive-aggressiveness?
Things grew more tense at dessert, when Eva made a joke about Ryan hooking her up with someone from college, just to see. Once again, her eyes seemed to blaze through me, egging me on to say something.
So, I finally did. Standing up and slamming my hand on the table, I glared angrily at her, berating her through gritted teeth. “Would you just stop?” I cried. Eva jumped at my sudden outburst, but I wasn’t done yet. “Seriously, you don’t think I see what you’re doing here? Drawing all the attention on poor Eva and her need for a mate! All the while, just staring at me as you speak, waiting for me to say something? Well, how’s this? Is this good enough for you?”
The table fell silent, and I saw tears form in Eva’s eyes. “Trish, I…” she started, fighting her tears. I sat down and waited for her to continue. “I wasn’t doing that. I was looking at everyone. Not just you. I wasn’t trying to make it about me.”
Tusk raised his hand a bit. “I, uh, I didn’t see it as her trying to draw attention to herself either, Trish.”
Ryan nodded and pointed to Tusk, as if to say, “me too,” without words. I didn’t say anything, just flickered my eyes between the three of them before returning to my dessert. “Whatever you say.”
Of course, the rest of our time there was awkward. Tusk, Ryan and Eva occasionally chatted with themselves, but I stayed out of it. The rest of it was silence, only the sound of our silverware clattering on our plates as we finished off our desserts. I knew I ruined this. No. I didn’t. Eva did. They were all just too blind to see what was happening. Before I knew it, the checks were coming out, and we paid our individual bills in silence then, too. With a sigh, I stood up, glaring at Eva as I spoke. She wasn’t the only one who could be passive-aggressive. “Well, since I’ve ruined the night, I’ll leave. Sorry.”
Without waiting for a reply, I left. I cranked the car stereo to drown out the noise in my head from that altercation. Admittedly, I did feel bad, but I was so frustrated with Eva that I couldn’t take all the blame. How did they not see how she was acting? How she was staring at me every time she talked about her precious soulmate? It was pathetic and so incredibly annoying.
Of course, school the next day was tense, to say the least. Especially our collective lunch date. Eva say further away from me, as if she was afraid of me, and the others were much quieter than usual. I knew I needed to say something, but pride got in the way for the majority of our meal. Finally, about five minutes before the bell rang, I sighed, looking between all of my friends.
“I’m sorry about last night,” I started, hesitantly. “I don’t know what came over me, but I felt like I was being undermined and watched. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I felt like I needed to say something.”
Tusk nodded, being the only one who seemed to even want to acknowledge what I said. “I get it. The final weeks of school are tough. Stressful. I don’t know about these two, but I can say I accept your apology.”
Ryan agreed. “Yeah, me too. It’s cool.” Eva simply nodded as she grabbed her backpack. Her response definitely didn’t seem genuine. What the hell did she have against me? I almost went off again, but I stopped myself, joining her in grabbing my bag and throwing out my tray. Whatever. If she wanted to be bitchy, I’d show her later the definition of bitchy. I was far better at revenge than her.
The day wore on, and as we headed out to our cars, I made sure to keep an eye out for Eva. When I saw her, I fell in step with her, putting my arm around her shoulder as we walked.
“Bestie.” I grinned. “How was your day?”
Eva tried to shrug me off, but I held firm. “Fine. What’s your deal lately?” She tried again to push me away.
I smiled, taking a cheery tone. “My deal? Maybe it’s that the one person I was trying to apologize to didn’t even attempt to accept it.” I stopped us from walking. “Maybe she can tell me more about that?”
Eva finally pushed me away, and I let her. “Listen, I don’t know what your problem is, Trish, but you’ve been super weird since my birthday.”
I rolled my eyes. “This again?”
Eva clenched her teeth. “Yes, this again. You’re aggressive and downright mean. Lunch was so awkward, and when you apologized, it seemed like an afterthought, because we weren’t talking to you. I wanna know what’s going on with you and why you’re being like this.”
“And I want to know why you’re so obsessed with finding a mate, but it looks like none of us are getting answers, eh?” I shot back, irritated by her attitude. “And all I did was point out how silly it was, how so many people are obsessed with finding love, when you could bask in immortality. But then, you kept just glaring at me during Ryan’s dinner. Of course I had to say something. But now I’m the bad guy in our friend group, because you’re so pristine and perfect that those guys would rather drool over you than see what you’re doing!”
Eva stepped back. “You need help. I wasn’t doing that, and our friends are exactly that; friends. They don’t ‘drool over me’ any more than they do over you. But if that’s what this boils down to, then it sounds like you’re jealous.”
“Jealous? Of what? I certainly don’t want the attention, and the fact that you do is pathetic.” I was done with this conversation. I started to walk away. “You’re just a weak, pathetic, little girl. I know what I want. You’ll never have it as long as you chase everyone, looking for your precious soulmate.” I hopped into my car before she could respond, squealing the tires as I sped past her. Little witch. Why the fuck would I be jealous?
As I walked into my bedroom, my phone started blowing up. Texts from Tusk and Ryan lit up the screen, their angry ramblings about how I treated Eva further proving my point. They adored her. I wasn’t wrong here, and they were too awestruck to see it. I ignored the messages, “leaving them on read” just to further annoy them. Whatever. Not my problem. I cranked up my speakers, drowning out the noise of my phone with music that rattled my windows. That’s all I needed, honestly. Me, myself, I and a damn good soundtrack. Fuck all of them.
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