“No one calls me that anymore,” I said curtly, trying not to grimace at all the dark memories it brought up. “In fact, no one has really called me that ever except for you.”
“Oh, I know, it’s always been our special little pet name, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, except I’ve never been your pet, and that’s probably why you were such a bitch to me when we were younger.” Some people liked to play nice, take the higher road, but I wasn’t one of them. Shelly had spent much of her spare time trying to hurt me and my friends all throughout high school and it had taken a whole lot of control back then not to bash her stupid little face in.
It seemed that, while I had certainly gotten older, I hadn’t gotten any more patient.
“Aw, come on now. Isn’t that a bit harsh?” She was giving me a shocked expression, as if she didn’t remember spreading pregnancy rumors about Michelle or paying someone to try to fake ask me out to prom or dumping paint all over Annika’s art project in freshman year. There were hundreds upon hundreds of stupid little slights that I remembered all of my friends going through, and they burned in my belly at the injustice of it all.
I hated bullies, with a passion. Ergo, I hated Shelly. Maybe that was petty, but I could smell it on her that she hadn’t changed one percent. She was like a trapped spider, lurking there and waiting to strike.
“No, harsh would be if someone lifted you up and finally put you in the garbage can where you belong. Unless you’ve turned over a new leaf and aren’t trying to break up people’s relationships by stealing a phone and sending mean texts.”
I figured there were two ways that it could go. That she would either apologize for her past terrible actions, or she would just dismiss it like she always did.
Just as I thought, she rolled her eyes. “Aw, come on. We both know that Morgan was way out of Max’s league. I didn’t do anything but facilitate the obvious.”
“Uh-huh, sure. That’s what it was. Not that you were greedy and upset that someone besides you could possibly be getting positive male attention.”
“Really? You’re going to call me greedy? I’m not the one with a mountain on my plate and a size sixteen jean size.” She smirked down at me as if she was oh-so-clever. “Then again, you’ve always had it out for me, didn’t you? I know it’s easy to be jealous of me, but really, it’s unnecessary.”
I took an especially large bite of food and chewed it with an open mouth without breaking eye contact with her. I held it, and held it, feeling her superior smirk fading more and more with each second. I took my time swallowing, and when I did, I gave her the blandest smile I could. “The only thing that’s unnecessary here is you.”
“Clever. You always were so witty, weren’t you? Brawns and brains, right? But, between the two of us, guys never were really into that, were they? That’s why you were the self-appointed guardian of all your friends, right? Living vicariously through them since no one was ever interested in you.”
I snorted. “Please, it’s almost twenty-twenty, thick is in.”
“Oh honey, people say that, but really it’s just something to comfort all you fat girls from feeling too bad about yourselves.”
Now I could throw down verbally when it came to myself for hours, one witty bit after another, but Shelly wasn’t just insulting me, she was insulting every plus sized woman everywhere and I couldn’t let that slide. “Is that so?”
“Isn’t it?”
She looked so self-assured, so snide, that I couldn’t help but wonder why the hell Annika had the foul woman in her wedding party anyways.
“I know you like to think that you’re really getting to me here,” I said calmly, “but I can bag any man in this room without even breaking a sweat, and those men would be jazzed to hit this.”
She scoffed outright. “I highly doubt that.”
“Oh yeah?” I drained my glass then stood. “Alright, watch this.” Before she could say anything, I marched straight towards the wedding party table, eyes locked on Mickey.
Sure, maybe I was cheating considering that he had already asked me to dance, but when it came to Shelly, I felt no need to play fair.
Like I said, I hated bullies.
Once I was close enough, I placed my hand on Mickey’s shoulder. He turned from whatever conversation that he was having with Karen beside him and I swore, he almost lit up when he saw me.
“Amber, did you need something?”
“Yeah,” I said with a curt nod. “I changed my mind about that dance if you’re still offering.”
“Of course.”
He was on his feet in an instant, all muscles and firm body, then he slipped an arm through mine. I shot one last look at Shelly who looked properly shocked, before Mickey and I drifted to the dance floor.