What I really would have preferred was that everyone forgot it ever happened.
I mean, even if they didn't actually forget, it would've been nice if they just didn't talk about it. If they just pretended they forgot it ever happened.
But instead, the moment I walked into the school, Jill and Emmaline were hanging on me like a pair of antique earrings.
"Oh my gosh. I heard what happened last night." Jill's eyes were huge; giant, blinking crystal balls with absolutely no prediction of the future inside.
"I saw it," Emmaline said, and it was like she was talking about a celebrity sighting. I glared at her, and she added quickly, "And it was even more terrible in person than it is in all the retellings." I cringed at the words all the. This was the latest piece of gossip, and I could practically feel it being passed around me. I wanted to get back in my car and drive straight out of town. "I'm so sorry, Vera. Penny can be such a drag when she's drunk." I rolled my eyes. Drag wasn't exactly the word I would use. "Whatever," I said, waving a hand in front of me and smiling like I'd forgotten it had even happened. "Like you said, she was drunk. It's past now, I don't care." Emmaline put one hand over her heart, "That is so noble of you, Ver. You are such a good person." I fought not to raise an eyebrow. You'd think I was Rosa Parks.
As we dispersed, Jill and Emma waving to me with expressions practically flooding with sympathy, I turned from them and walked into my classroom; and suddenly something hit me.
They had apologized to me. They had said Penny became a drag when she was drunk.
But they never disagreed with what she had said.
And maybe they just hadn't thought it was necessary, that it was obvious they didn't agree with the snide comment made by a very drunk mean-girl.
But Jill and Emma weren't the type to leave things to implication. They told you everything they were thinking and exactly what they meant.
And they hadn't said a word about my nose.
© 2012
