I laughed despite myself, the sound echoing in the quiet kitchen.
Charlotte
My cheeks aren't that impressive.
Beth
They could cut glass, and you know it. Stop deflecting. Saturday. You, me, a badly decorated gymnasium, and all the wine the PTA moms can provide.
I set down the phone, my eyes drifting to the rectangle of cardstock propped against the fruit bowl. The edges had curled inward over the past week, a silent testimony to how long I'd been avoiding it.
RIVERSIDE HIGH SCHOOL
15 YEAR REUNION!
Come catch up with old friends and memories!Saturday, October 14th. Riverside High Gymnasium. 7 PM.
My phone buzzed again.
Beth
Also, I heard a rumor, and I need you there to help me investigate.
Charlotte
What rumor?
Beth
Not telling you unless you commit to coming.
Charlotte
That's blackmail.
Beth
That's friendship. Same thing. So?
I picked up the invitation, turning it over in my hands. The paper felt flimsy, impersonal. A mass-printed summons to nostalgia that had probably been sent to every name on a database.
But to me, it felt like a dare.
A cold dread pooled in my stomach at the thought of walking into that gymnasium. Of being surrounded by people who remembered seventeen-year-old Charlotte, the girl with the nursing scholarship and the golden future and the boyfriend everyone envied.
That girl was gone. She'd been dismantled piece by piece over fifteen years, and what remained was a thirty-five-year-old divorcee who lived in a beige apartment, forgot to eat lunch, and had exactly one friend persistent enough to text-harass her into social obligations, all hail Beth.
I could already hear the questions, delivered with polite interest that barely masked the curiosity beneath.So, Charlotte, what have you been up to? Married? Kids?
And I'd have to say it. The words I practiced until they sounded almost casual: "Actually, I'm divorced. No kids."
I'd watch the flicker in their eyes. The swift recalculation. The pity disguised as sympathy.
Oh, you poor thing.
Or worse, the unspoken question hovering beneath their concern:What did you do wrong?
My phone buzzed.
