Page 44 of All Yours

“Was too. I swear on a stack of cupcakes.” Lauren was a baker by trade, and it was her passion. She took it seriously.

“You think I should?” I asked, then braved a small bite of the chicken and rice mixture. It wasn’t bad. “What if things go south and I lose a friend?”

“Yes, you should. And Jonah’s not going anywhere. What on earth did that Sebastian guy do to you?”

“What? You didn’t read the memoir about what I did to him?”

“God no. I’m not reading that piece of crap. Wait, did you actually read it?”

I took another bite, shaking my head. “I read a few of the sections but couldn’t make myself read about me.”

Jonah put a plate down beside me and pulled the chair out.

“Yeah, don’t read that thing. Who cares?” Lauren said.

“What thing?” Jonah asked.

“Sebastian’s book. Did you read it?” Lauren asked.

Jonah wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Hell no. I have better things to do with my time.”

“I should know what he’s saying about me and our time together.” And my breakdown.

“Does it matter?” Lauren asked. “You’re not that girl anymore.”

My friends liked to tell me that. Sometimes I worried I was still like that out-of-control girl swinging a baseball bat into her boyfriend’s Mustang on a crowded New York City Street while he was kissing another woman in a swanky night club. A flash of my last memory of Sebastian standing in my hospital room.

“You’re too unpredictable now,” Sebastian said. “You’ve lost your mind and are bad for my image. I have to do what’s right for my career.”

“Don’t you ever want more in life than tennis?” I asked.

“No,” he replied, voice rising. “Those of us who didn’t win everything as teenagers don’t have the luxury of acting like idiots. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t watch you destroy your career.”

“You publicly humiliated me. And now you’re breaking up with me.”

“You did that to yourself. Damaging my car and screaming at photographers. You looked like a lunatic. This is the kind of energy that I can’t have surrounding me right now,” he shouted, gesturing to me in the hospital bed.

“You should try to eat a bit more,” Jonah said, his voice dissolving the memory, and I was back in the dining room of Lou’s Lakeside with a plate of Chicken a la Scream in front of me.

“Are you okay?” Lauren asked. “You zoned out.”

I shook myself free from the cobwebs of memory. Would I ever be free from it?

“I’m fine,” I said, taking another bite of the chicken.

“Attention,” Adrian’s voice came over the bar speakers. “We have tabulated the results from the costume contest.” A hush fell over the crowd. “Come to the bar to claim your prize.”

Lauren made a show of crossing her fingers.

“Third place is our 1920s bombshells, Lauren, Sloane, and Eden.”

The audience cheered. Lauren clapped and leaned over to hug me. I plastered a smile across my face and accepted the congratulations of those around me.

“Let’s go get our prize,” Lauren said.

“Can you get mine? I’m going to eat some more.”

After Adrian announced the winner’s, some music started up through the bar speakers.

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