4: Granny Panties

Fern winked at me when she was by my side. S-word was what they teased me about me still being virgin. 

“You’re breaking up with us?” asked Sherynn. Despite her lighthearted tone, she had a curiosity in her eyes. Though they didn’t like me much, I guessed they felt slighted when I walked on my own.

“I was there in the class, with you both.” I smiled at them. “Just thought I would go ahead. Not leaving you.”

“I know! I know! You were there, but you didn’t once look at us.”

We were at the canteen. Took the meal trays and sat down at an empty table. They glanced at another table where two guys and three girls sat. 

That was this thing about them. Fern and Sherynn seemed to have a secret language I didn’t understand. 

As much as I was not like them deep down, they would occasionally throw secretive glances at that group that mainly consisted of nerds. I had always excused that they might just be nosy about different students, but now I saw their eyes, there was something beyond nosiness.

I wondered if there was some sort of assignment I was reliving this day for. 

Strange. 

I wondered if I should be freaking out, but I had no idea what was going on to freak out about. For all I knew, this canteen could disappear any second and I could find myself back in that darkness.

“Chase thought you were pretty today,” said Sherynn diving to her tray.

“When did you meet Chase? I didn’t find him on the corridor.” That was a casual remark, but the two of them went stiff. 

“We-uh met him near the bathroom,” Fern stammered. “We sort of bumped into him. Oh he’s here!”

A light flashed in my head. This had been the start. The start of one of biggest problems in my real lifetime spiraling down.

Chase entered the canteen, in a khaki button up shirt and dark wash jeans. He was handsome, wavy ginger hair suited him. Except that I wasn’t attracted to Chase. I had never been to and I didn’t know why. He had simply been not my type until the day I got into trouble with Felicia and ended up with a detention.

Apart from that, I had been left with no choice but to go to summer school because I had failed two subjects in today’s exam in my real life.

I put a piece of broccoli into my mouth and chewed. How could I forget? It had been such a big deal to me at the time. 

Well, life… life had happened and you forgot everything.

The problem had occurred during the break before the second test. 

At the time, I had gone searching for Sherynn and Fern who had left the room earlier and tripped over Felicia’s feet near the lockers. She had done that on purpose. She had hated mee because… well, not because she also liked Chase…it was often an obvious reason in chick flicks. 

It was because she had overheard me saying, “Cheerleading squad’s nothing impressive to me if I were to be completely honest”. 

Sherynn had found one of cheerleaders kissing with her crush and was crying that day. So I decided the best way to cheer her up was badmouthing about that girl and her friends. 

I admit I had said a few nasty things about them since my logic was: they weren’t around they couldn’t be hurt by something they weren’t aware of. Unfortunately, Felicia was standing right behind me. 

I stopped my musing.

So…since this was lunch break, I had avoided it without realizing. 

In my real life, I had been quite embarrassed when I fell on my stomach, my skirt flipping up on my back, exposing me naked butt—I hadn’t put on panties. 

I had slapped her, and that had initiated the detention and the Chase problem.

Currently…

I tasted the canteen salad I never liked. Today had been easy and refreshing so far except for a mishap with Louie.

“I said he’s watching you!!!” shouted Fern into my ears.

I jumped, mouthing a slew of curses I had learned during my marriage with Issac. “You scared me!”

“I’ve repeated the same thing for three damn times, Tyler. You looked like you were sleeping with your eyes open.”

“I have a lot to think about.” I looked at Chase who gave me a grin. 

His teeth were so pretty, but he had a thousand issues which I had learned after I slept with him a couple of times. 

First issue: he was a secret manwhore. 

He had been sleeping around and lying to every girl that she was special, the one. He was a pathological liar. He would lie for small things he didn’t need to lie. He would claim he had gone to the hospital last night because he was checking for appendage cancer while the real reason of his absence had been him sleeping with Felicia. 

It was a complicated story. The girl was currently dating someone else but she would f*ck him as a rebound when the guy dumped her. What she didn’t knew was…

she hadn’t been the only one. 

Nor she and I had been the only two. 

Chase hadn’t been the most popular boy out there but he created so much trouble. 

He was handsome, but not irresistible. He was good at sports but not one of the top. He was a little above average in teenage girls’ eyes. But he was a smooth talker. 

If this went on, I had no intention to date him or anybody for that matter. I might be done with male population in general.

But, I grinned back at him. I was trying to be polite because I had decided I would be kind to every—

Uh-oh, I found Felicia on the corridor when we exited the canteen. Since I had let my guard down, believing everything was going to be smooth-sailing, I didn’t see her foot when she suddenly stuck it out. 

With a yelp, I tripped, falling onto my stomach. It hurt!

Laughters rang out, her voice and her friends’ had been the loudest. 

“Look at her panties! Pathetic!”

So, my skirt had rose up just like in my real life. 

Wait a sec! 

I didn’t get why this needed to happen. 

I needed to fall and expose my ass? That ‘should’ happen by some design greater than me? For what reason? 

So I could learn to wear panties as an important lesson? ‘Bad idea, girl, you should always wear panties. They are vital!’

Or… ‘Hello, watch where you’re going. You can trip. Lesson number one’?

 Somebody!

The good thing was I already had panties on, but even if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be making so much fuss over that. Be gone thots!

I flapped my skirt down, still on the floor. They continued to laugh for fuck’s sake. 

Wait another second!

So… I had already unknowingly avoided this drama but it still happened. I thought choices mattered? I swear those philosophers and scientists made such a big deal about choices. 

Like, ‘If you make another choice at this junction, you will reap different result and your life will go in a different direction,’ and a thousand blah blah blahs.

I got to my feet. “Haha, so funny. My butt wasn’t even naked,” I said out loud making a sweeping glare.

That’s right. Sherynn and Fern did nothing to help me except for exclaiming “Oops” and “OMG”. They weren’t evil or malicious but they were useless as friends.

“So embarrassing. I will kill myself in your place,” giggled Felicia, leaning against the wall. “Are you hurt by the way?”

I gawked at her. Chase was behind the gathering crowd. This was great. We were getting an audience, even better. 

I thought about my choice in my real life. Slapping her. I dropped my decision to be kind to everyone for the time being. I would get it back up later.

But I looked at my palm. They weren’t practiced in slapping. Only palms that had a good practice of slapping could inflict pain. It wasn’t as easy as in films. She hadn’t been hurt in my real life. 

 Oh, I know. I know! I thought about the phrase ‘in my real life’ a lot but I had no other choice. It wasn’t like I could give ‘my real life’ a random name like ‘Gazebo’ or ‘Icecream’ and refer to it in three different ways with multiple pronouns.

Since my palm would be pointless, I continued my gawking. “You would kill yourself if you tripped and exposed your butt in granny panties? Really?”