Page 24 of The Handoff

Chapter 13

Lisa

“Gotoclass,I’ll be fine.” I smiled at Tanya as she hesitated once again about leaving me alone. Ever since I came back to the dorm yesterday, she’d been looking after me like Florence Nightingale, making sure she took care of my every need. I had only sprained my ankle, and I could do things by myself. Well, maybe not everything because I didn’t want to put weight on my foot, but I wasn’t completely useless, either.

“I’ve sprained my ankle, it’s not a broken bone. Seriously, go to class!”

“Why, because your boyfriend will be looking after you today?” she teased as there was a knock at the door, and I wondered if she was right. Was Dane really going to be looking after me for the next two weeks?

“No, he’s got practice and class. He has an exam this week, so he’s pretty occupied; besides, I told you, he’s not my boyfriend.”

I’d told her what the doctor said, and she’s been teasing me ever since. I realized as I recited Dane’s schedule that I sounded like I was his girlfriend. He had detailed his movements today and said if he didn’t show up, then that was the reason. I couldn’t deal with another rejection from him, and what Penny had done was playing heavily on my mind. I had to stay focused. I couldn’t think of anything else but making sure I did well in UCLA, cheerleading, and my work at the library.

Shoot! I forgot to tell them that I couldn’t make it in today, and to let them know what happened with my ankle.

Tanya opened the door, and it wasn’t Dane on the other side, but Bianca, one of the cheerleaders.

She smiled as she walked in. “Hey, just seeing if you’re alright and if Tanya’s ready to go to class.” Bianca’s dark eyes lit up as she played around with her blond locks. She always played with her hair, even during practice, and Tanya said it was a sign of nerves, as if she was anxious all the time.

“Thanks for checking on me, Bianca. I’m fine. Just want to rest.”

Tanya slammed the door shut, which surprised me, because I thought they were heading to class. Then again, I don't get why Bianca was asking, because they can't have classes together; after all, Bianca is a senior and Tanya only a freshman.

“Good. It’s just after what Penny did, because of Fiona… Well, I just wanted you to know that we don’t want her on the squad anymore,” Bianca said, and I realized Dane was right. Penny had done it on purpose, and it didn’t make me feel any better knowing it wasn’t an accident.

“Us women need to be kinder to each other, not crueler,” Bianca chimed as she clapped her hands together. She was the chirpy one, the voice of encouragement on the team.

Penny said that it used to irritate Fiona. “How can someone be happy all the time?” Fiona used to whine. I didn’t care; seeing her smiley face put a smile on mine for sure.

I nodded and smiled at her in agreement. Tanya passed her, came up to me and gently kissed me on the head, like a mother would do to her child. I’d only known Tanya a short length of time, but she’d shown me more compassion than some people I knew at high school for years.

It dawned on me like a fucking curse, about what Dane had said was the difference between rich people and poor people. I wouldn’t exactly say we were poor, but when I sat in class and looked at some students with the latest Gucci pants, and some had the Virtue Signature Cobra phone, I saw the difference. Those were things I used to have, and didn’t blink twice at, and now it felt like such a luxury even having an iPhone. It was nothing compared to the Signature, it had way fewer features. Everything about my past and taking things for granted started to haunt me, making me realize I’d taken things for granted so many times and never batted a damn eyelash, because back then, I was one of the bitches. Memories I’d created about being rich and nice disappeared, because the reality was that I wasn’t nice. I wasn’t as innocent as I’d made myself out to be. I’d told some girls that they didn’t belong at parties and made fun of them as they squirmed out. I’d classed them as being low lives for trying to sneak in. It didn’t matter who they were to me; they didn’t have designer clothes or their houses were the same size as our garage. I remember when I was with my best friend at the time, Sarah, and I pointed out a girl, mocking that she had cheap crap on. We laughed and humiliated the poor girl.

We didn’t have one house, we had several, and I used to gloat that we could stay at one of our pads during the summer. We had a house in the Bahamas, one in Thailand—which we rarely visited—and an apartment in Paris, and I just had to ask Daddy for the keys. Dad. The man who I used to look up to, but then discovered who he really was.

I was popular, rich, and skinny… well, in everyone’s eyes I was because I was rich. It was amazing how things turned once I became poor; all of a sudden, I’d turned fat—something no one had commented on before. I wasn’t exactly a size zero back then, but no one cared because I had money.

“Earth to Lisa, you okay?” Tanya was waving her hands in front of my eyes to take me from the trance in which I’d gone into as I thought about my past and the ugliness it really was about, not the fake reality I’d created in my mind.

Bianca sighed. “Oh no, maybe she hurt her head. She doesn’t look too good; all the color has gone out of her face.”

I shook my head. “Sorry, I was miles away. Look, you guys go. You don’t have to worry about me, I’ve got everything I need here.”

Tanya smiled as she hesitated walking across the room to grab her bag.

“You sure?”

I threw my pillow at her. “Stop fussing. Seriously, it is just a twisted ankle. I’ll stay in today, maybe tomorrow, and then I’ll go to class with my crutches. I can move around, just not as fast as I’m used to.”

Bianca laughed. “One thing’s for sure, your arms are okay.”

Tanya grabbed the pillow off the floor and said, “You need anything, we’re a phone call away. Okay?”

As she handed me the pillow, I said to her, “Go to class, please!”

Then they shut the door, and I thought I could go to sleep since the painkillers seemed to be doing their work, and like the nurse warned, they were making me feel a little drowsy. I thought about going online to get some of my classwork done, but my eyes were growing heavy. My professor told me that when they were in quarantine a few years ago, they set-up cameras in the classes for students who had to go into isolation, and I could log on if need be. I had a whole twenty minutes until I needed to log on, and all I could think about was when Dane was going to finish class and come see me before popping in for practice.

I had to make some kind of effort. Usually, I would shower and be out in a few minutes, but now with the bandage and everything else, it was difficult—near enough impossible—and there was nothing to help me in the shower.

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