Bridgette - Chapter Seven: It Was Only Then That I Won - Part One

A little warning; there is some strong language used in this chapter. Bridge has a lot to get off her chest. Lol!

I surprisingly found that not caring about much anymore was very freeing.  A week after Mom and Dad talked to me about college I went to school with a completely different attitude. I even noticed that as I walked up to our usually locker meeting area that people were looking at me differently; and honestly, I didn’t care if it was a good thing or a bad thing. I was done. Done with high school and caring what anyone thought. They could all kiss my butt.

As I approached my “friends” I noticed that they were looking at me strange.  The only ones who even had somewhat of a clue of what I had been dealing with that year were Charlie and Kate, and even their knowledge was limited. 

“What’s up with you Bridge? You look like you’re about to kill someone?” Julie asked.

I looked at Waverly and for a split second she looked really scared. She quickly recovered herself and started draping herself over Carson.

“What does it matter to any of you?” They looked completely shocked by my question.

“What do you mean Bridge? You know we care about you.” Carson said. That was it, that was my breaking point.

“Really? Really?! How has your senior year been Carson? How about you Waverly? Or any of you? Has it been great; everything you’d hoped and dreamed of? I’m guessing you’d all say that for the most part it’s been great. Well guess what, mine has sucked. No, forget that it’s been a walking nightmare and if you haven’t even begun to notice how depressed and upset I’ve been until now then I don’t need any of you as friends. Graduation can’t come fast enough for me and yesterday I was furious that my Mom and Dad basically told me that I had to go to college; but maybe that’s for the best since I’ll be getting away from Appaloosa plains and people like you.” I looked right at Waverly when I emphasized the word you.

Before any of them could respond I turned around and walked away. People were looking at me but I didn’t care. I may have just lost my best friends and given Waverly enough ammo to bury mine and Carson’s friendship but I could have cared less. I was over playing the game; she won and I didn’t care.

The first two classes went by in a blur. It wasn’t like we were learning anything so I wasn’t missing much by not paying attention. After my second class I walked to my third period classroom and was about to enter when I heard Waverly’s voice on the other side of the door.

“Oh come on baby, you know you’re the one I want.” I heard Waverly say

“But you’re still with him. If you really want to be with me, you’ll leave him and be with me.” I heard a guy say who  definitely wasn’t Carson.

“You know it’s not that easy. I’m trying to get back at that little bitch.” I wanted to run in to the room and beat the living crap out of her. It was one thing to treat me the way she did but to know that she had really been using Carson this whole time made me want to destroy her. I didn’t care that I was mad at Carson, her two timing on him made my blood boil. I was about to burst into the room and let her have it when I felt a hand on my shoulder and someone walk past me. 

I was knocked speechless as Carson walked past me. Had he heard everything she had said? I stood there nervously waiting to hear what was going to happen.

It didn’t take long to figure out that Carson had heard everything. “Oh, Carson! Hey baby! I was just talking to Steve here about. . .”

“Save it Waverly! I heard everything you said. We’re done. I can’t believe I’ve wasted almost a whole school year on you. She’s all yours, dude.” The next thing I knew he was charging threw the door and walked past me looking both pissed and hurt.

“Wait, Carson! Please, you’ve misunderstood what you heard!” Waverly tried to follow him out the doorway and froze when she saw me. “YOU! You caused this!”

“No, Waverly, I can honestly say that I had nothing to do with him finding out about who you really are. You actually did it all on your own. It’s funny since that was the game I’ve been playing all these months. I figured if I waited long enough, you’d show your true colors and then I’d let you have it. But I finally gave up playing the game today and let you win. It was only then that I won. Now everyone, including Carson can see your true colors.”

Waverly turned a shade of white, then red, and finally purple. Her anger made her tremble and before I knew it, she was trying to attack me. Thankfully there was a teacher nearby to stop her who had witnessed the whole thing and Waverly was sent to the principal’s office.

I couldn’t believe it. I had actually beat Waverly at her own game. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to celebrate at that point. I still felt alone and trapped into a future that I wasn’t thrilled about. As I went through the rest of the day I avoided anyone when I saw them. Several times Julie, Trent, Kate, or Charlie tried to talk to me but I would just walk hurriedly past them and pretend they weren’t there. I didn’t know where Carson went. He wasn’t in the one class we had together so I figured he probably went home. That was fine with me; just meant I didn’t have to see him.

The last bell rung and I was meeting Jeff at the car. I knew if I met him at the normal spot by the playground there was a chance that everyone would try to talk to me there so I had told Jeff to just meet me at the car.  I was standing with my back toward the exit and wasn’t able to see Waverly approaching. Before I knew it she pushed me down to the ground.

“You bitch! You think you’re so smart don’t you!”

“What the hell Waverly! I put up with your shit for months, not once trying to physically harm you and you can’t handle one bad day? Why don’t you grow up!” I yelled at her.

“Oh boohoo! The poor baby Bridgette had one bad year. How horrible for the princess!”

“Shut up Waverly! You’re the one who acts like a stuck up princess. Maybe that’s why people don’t want to be friends with you.”

She lunged toward me and I prepared to get into a fist fight with her. Before she could reach me, someone stepped in to break us up. Jeff had thankfully gotten to the car just in time.

“Back off Waverly. You’re already in enough trouble.” She looked at Jeff confused for a minute and then looked at me angrily and pointed at me.

“Don’t think this is over, princess.” She spun around and stormed off. I watched her walk off and then noticed Julie, Trent, Charlie, and Kate approaching from the playground area.

“Let’s get out of here Jeff.” The last people I wanted to talk to was them. All I wanted to do was get as far away from this school as possible.

We both hurried into the car and I hurriedly put the car in reverse and sped off looking at them in the rearview mirror.

“That was insane Bridge! That girl is certifiably crazy!”

“You don’t have to tell me that Jeff.”

“I can’t believe Carson dated her for this long!”

“Me either. Mind if we don’t talk about it Jeff.”

“Sure.” We rode the rest of the way home in silence. I just kept wishing that somehow I could skip forward in time from now to after graduation. I just wanted to be done and out of this town. We arrived home and I ran from the car to my bedroom. I didn’t want to talk to anyone; I just wanted to lay on my bed and be alone.

I ran up the stairs and into my room. I locked the door and fell face first onto my bed.

I cried for what felt like an eternity. I let out all of the frustration I had felt the whole school year, the frustration I felt being left out, and the frustration I felt towards Carson. I was startled by the sound of someone knocking on my door. “Go away!”

“Bridge, it’s us; Kate, Charlie, Julie and Trent. Please let us in.”

“No! I don’t want to talk to any of you!”

“Please Bridge! We’re so sorry! We should have noticed what all you were going through. We’re so, so sorry.”

I felt torn, these had been my friends and I still felt a connection to them but they had also hurt me by being so wrapped up in their own happiness to not even notice that I was drowning for most of the year in agony.

“Please Bridge. . .”

I sighed and got up off the bed. I unlocked the door but didn’t open it. As far as I was concerned they needed to do all of the effort.

I stood by my bed and soon the door opened. The four of them came in and stood in front of me.

“So you’re sorry. Forgive me if I’m not jumping up and down for joy.” I said sarcastically to them. “I just thought my friends would have realized before now, before I blew up that there was something bothering me.”

“We did notice Bridge but every time we tried to approach you about it, you acted like it wasn’t a big deal or you would try to change the subject.” Charlie tried to reason.

“I think we now understand why; it had to do with Waverly, didn’t it?” Trent asked.

“If I told you all the things that girl has said and done to me this year, you all would be speechless.”

“Tell us Bridge.” Charlie pleaded.

I stood there telling them everything; catching her snooping in my room, her threats of breaking up our friendships, her outbursts at Carson and I walking and talking, how she seemed to have people spying on me the whole year. With each admission they became more and more angry at what she had done to me, and I surprisingly became less and less angry. Finally being able to tell someone about it was liberating.

“Oh my gosh Bridge! We should have pushed you more to tell us what was wrong! What horrible friends we’ve been. You were right. We’ve been so wrapped up in our relationships and how happy we are that we didn’t think about you and notice what you were going through.” Kate said with tears in her eyes.

“I swear, I don’t care if she is a girl, I’m going to beat the living crap out of her.” Charlie said.

“Oh for pete’s sake Charlie! You know you would never do such a thing, but it is nice to know that you’re upset with her.” I said.

“Damn right I’m upset with her! And to think she’s been playing Carson this whole time too.”

At the sound of Carson’s name I cringed. Kate noticed my expression “What’s that expression for Bridge.”

I looked around at all of them and sighed.

“I can forgive you all for what you did. You did at least try to find out what was wrong with me. I don’t know if I can ever forgive Carson. He so blindly fell for her that he didn’t see what was right in front of him. There were times that she would give me the nastiest look and he was standing literally inches from her. How do you not notice that?! It was like he didn’t want to see it. I think what was the worst though was that he had to have felt that our friendship was pretty much non-existent recently and even after all the years we’ve been friends, he decided to ignore all the signs that our friendship was in trouble and instead just blindly keep going on with his life.” There was a knock on the door frame at that moment and we all turned to see Carson standing in the doorway.