Page 9 of Someone Just Like You

“Besides hating each other since birth, nothing.” I backtracked. “Well, not since birth. He was my first friend, but things changed sometime around the first grade.”

She leaned forward in interest. “Changed how?”

“He stopped liking me out of nowhere.” I took a sip of beer as a vague memory sprang to mind of coming over to the Starks’ house after school to play with Jude and him telling me to get lost before slamming his bedroom door in my face. I’d run back across the street in tears. Things got worse from there. “He made a career out of embarrassing me in front of our classmates. He once told them my lemonade was actually pee because I drank from a clear thermos instead of a juice box like everyone else. And he called me names like Bucktooth Blum and Mollyanna. Mole is the most utilized these days.”

Esther slapped her hand against her mouth. “Mollyanna! That’s brilliant.”

I glared at her.

Her eyes softened. “Sorry. Poor Molly. He sounds like your classic bully. It’s hard to picture sweet Molly having an actual nemesis.”

“Ha! I doubt he’d ever describe me as sweet unless it was an insult.” Before the dinner in Hoboken, the last time I’d seen Jude had been at the hospital to visit his dad. When I showed up in the waiting room with a box of See’s Chocolate for his mom, he’d muttered, “kiss-ass” under his breath.

“I give myself major props for maintaining any social standing under the circumstances.” I ran a finger along the rim of my beer glass. “Eventually, I stopped missing him as my friend and accepted him as my enemy. For every prank he initiated, I retaliated.”

Esther rested her head on one hand and grinned tiredly. “For instance?”

“Once, I snuck down to the Starks’ basement during a co-family movie night and placed flower stickers on all his toys for his friends to see the next time they came over.”

“I like this Molly,” Esther said, her mouth quirking on one side. “What else?”

I tapped my chin in thought. “Another time, I replaced his regular loose-leaf notebook binder with anAmerican Idolbranded one.” I chuckled. “We had homeroom together, and the look on Jude’s face when he pulled it out of his backpack and saw the faces of that year’s Top Ten smiling up at him…priceless. I constructed my pranks as if they required FDA approval.”

“I’d expect nothing else,” Esther said affectionately.

“Jude, of course, gave almost no forethought to his whatsoever, still somehow managing to knock them out of the park every time. Spontaneity never worked for me.” I frowned, remembering my one and only impulsive play.

Esther mirrored my expression. “Where’d you go?”

I sat up straight as the not-yet-digested drinks swished uncomfortably in my stomach. “Nowhere. Anyway, it was all relatively harmless through middle school. Almost like a performance for our classmates.”

A wrinkle appeared between Esther’s eyebrows. “What happened after middle school?”

I sighed. “The older we got, the higher the stakes became. He ran for class president for the sole purpose of beating me. But he missed out on a ski trip because of…well, because ofhim, but also because of me. It’s complicated. Anyway, the list goes on. Just lots of blame thrown around. I even blamemyselffor things, but…”

Thing. I blamed myself for one thing. I swallowed hard. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Esther the full story. “In any event, we’re adults now. I want to move on, but based on Jude’s recent behavior, it’s safe to say he doesn’t.”

“So what do you have planned for your retaliation this time?” She rubbed her hands together.

“Nothing.”

It wasn’t as if the idea hadn’t occurred to me. Like muscle memory, enacting revenge was my first impulse. While stewing in anger, I’d even quietly brainstormed ideas in the Lyft home from Bistrot Leo. But no good would come of it. Judewantedme to play his game. “Retaliating would be eating out of his hands. If I ignore him, he’ll lose interest. Then we can find a venue and go our separate ways as God intended.”

“Pfft. Are you really that naïve, Mollyanna?”

I wrinkled my nose. “I’m going to regret sharing that nickname until you’re too senile to remember it, aren’t I?”

“Probably.” She chuckled. “Either you’re right, or he’ll consider it a big fat win in his column. My money is on the second option. Could you live with yourself?”

I scooched my chair back as if ready to stand. “Believe it or not, I think I can.”

Esther clucked her tongue. “It’s your funeral. But I bet he’s planning his next heist right now.”

“That would require him toplan. He justdoes.” I sighed dramatically. I hated to admit it, but she was right. Somewhere, possibly just a few blocks away, Jude was probably engaging in a similar conversation with one of his friends.Bragging. I chewed my lip in thought.

What kind of sucker just sat there and took it? Jude wouldn’t let me off the hook even if I played the role of mature working woman with no time for hijinks like a movie star. No, he would keep poking the bear. Only that phrase suggested I was more powerful than him. I sat up straighter. Iwas. And I wouldn’t let him get away with thinking otherwise.

I downed the rest of my beer and slammed the empty glass on the table. “I changed my mind. Let’s do it.”

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