Harlee

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Farrah's party was definitely going to be as epic as she wanted it to be.

The rented water slide had everyone hyped. It was set up to have you land right in the pool after you slid down. Mini lanterns adorned the patio connected by a string of lights, and there was a huge snack bar with all kinds of frozen summer treats next to the grill area.

Whoa, I thought to myself. Mrs. Harrington let her go all out.

I'd never been to a party at the Harrington's before, so I was quite awestruck by the lengths Farrah had taken (especially in such a short amount of time) to put together an unforgettable start of summer blowout. No wonder the girl was so popular around school.

As I entered the backyard that Saturday evening, I noticed that nearly everyone in the seventh grade had come to the party. I saw Jasper and Mike goofing around by some picnic tables and rolled my eyes at their immaturity. Just the sight of those two was enough to annoy me, even though James and I were no longer friends.

My eyes scanned the area for a different familiar face, specifically Rachel's. I had asked her if she was coming to the party on the last day of school, and she'd told me she wasn't invited. That didn't surprise me, given the fact Farrah seemed to have no idea who she was when I mentioned her.

But I'd given her Farrah's address and told Rachel to have someone drop her off so that she could be my plus one to the bash. I had a feeling she might make some friends at this party, plus I really didn't want to tag alongside a bickering Farrah and Amy all night long.

But it looked like she hadn't taken me up on the offer, because I didn't see her anywhere.

"She was probably too shy to meet me here," I muttered to myself, feeling disappointed.

Either that or James scared her away from us both, I thought bitterly remembering our argument in front of Rachel on the last day of school. During dismissal, after I introduced Rachel to Evan, he and James were both rude to me for absolutely no reason causing me to lash out at them in front of Rachel. It was then I realized my wave at Evan during lunch that day hadn't gone unnoticed. It had just been ignored.

I was infuriated with James.

He seemed to be acting more and more like a jerk each day. Not only did he hate me with absolutely no explanation, but now he'd run away Rachel, and he'd turned Evan against me too.

How he had run Evan away, I didn't know yet. But after the way Evan had treated me, I figured James must have conjured up quite a lie to tell him.

After Evan became friends with James and me, he always gravitated more towards James than he did me. I didn't mind, though, because I felt it was good for James to have a close guy friend.

But I'd never expected both of them to toss me aside so cruelly while remaining good friends with one another.

The fact that James had been my friend first made it hurt even worse.

I tried not to mull it over right then.

I sure had been wrong about male best friends, though.

They brought just as much drama as female friends did.

"I ought to look into becoming a recluse," I muttered to myself.

"Harlee Darling!" Farrah's voice called out to me from across the lawn.

I looked over my shoulder to see her parading out of the back door of her house in a sparkling blue party dress. Her blonde curls had been straightened, and she had on what looked like a pound of eyeshadow, tons of mascara, and her lips were coated in shimmery lip gloss. There were two black barrettes shaped like bows in her hair, and she was carrying a fluffy fur handbag.

How on earth she'd be able to enjoy any of the fun dressed that way?

I didn't know.

I looked down at my simple white blouse and shorts and felt relieved I wasn't a girly girl.

Amy and a tall, curly-haired girl I hadn't seen before were standing on either side of Farrah. Amy looked indifferent as usual, and she was also dressed up. And the mystery girl was dressed up as well.

"Hey," I greeted Farrah as she hugged me.

Amy scowled at me.

I know, Amy.

How dare I hug your best friend, I thought.

Outwardly, I just ignored her scowl.

Farrah faced me excitedly and said,

"Hi, hi! This is Hyland Pennington, my friend from ballet, I told you about." Farrah gestured to the mystery girl. "Oh my gosh, you two are going to love each other, Harlee. She is like the female version of James."

My eyebrows shot up at the mention of him.

"I thought we weren't going to mention the J-word, Farrah," I said and lazily rested a hand on my hip.

"What's the J-word? You mean James or Jasplee?" Amy teased with a sinister smirk on her face.

I made a face at her.

She made one back.

Farrah either didn't notice or was ignoring us, because she just continued talking. "Okay, okay, sorry about that," she said. "I forgot. But just so you know, I think he is coming to the party tonight. So, maybe just steer clear of one another?"

"If I get lucky, it'll go that way, yeah," I mumbled bitterly, then remembered I was supposed to be introducing myself. "Oh, hey, it's nice to meet you, Hyland. Sorry, I'm kind of in a bad mood," I stated.

"Understandable," Hyland smiled sweetly at me. "Farrah told me you and James had a fight."

"Did she?" I glared at Farrah. "Well, she must be really misinformed then, because James and I didn't have a fight. Not really. I mean, we argued a little bit Thursday, but that doesn't count as a fight at all. James just dropped me as a friend with no explanation."

I felt my face heat up at the way I was pouring out all of this drama to a complete stranger.

"Someone's bitter," Amy coughed into her arm loudly.

My patience ran out at that.

I'd had enough of Amy already, and the night had only just begun.

I needed to get away from all this for a second.

"We know you are, Amy, but hopefully professional help will do you some good concerning recovery from it," I fired back.

Amy gasped, and I heard Hyland giggle.

As she was giggling, I did a double-take on her height and realized just how tall she was compared to the rest of us. At four-foot-ten, most people my age were taller than me, but Hyland was noticeably taller than Farrah, and Amy as well. Her height, fluffy curls, and glowing skin tone had me wondering what she was doing at a backyard party instead of posing on a runway somewhere.

I pulled the gift I'd gotten for Farrah out of my pocket and handed it to her. Farrah gasped like Amy had, but her gasp was out of shock and happiness.

"Harlee!" she exclaimed happily as she tore the wrapping paper open. "You didn't have to get me a gift! You shouldn't have!"

"Yeah, this isn't a birthday party, genius," Amy retorted, clearly still burned by what I'd just said to her.

"It was fifty percent off, and I know how much you like hair barrettes, so I got it for you when I was at the mall with my mom last night," I explained to Farrah as she pulled the sequined dolphin barrette from the box. A grin of delight spread across her face, and I could tell she really liked the present. She enveloped me in another hug, and a sense of gratitude washed over me.

At least someone still appreciated me as their friend.

"And for the record, Amy, it's called being nice," I said as Farrah and I ended our hug so that she could add the silver barrette to her hair. "You should give it a go sometime. Maybe, it'd make you more likable." I shrugged.

This time Hyland didn't just giggle; she burst out laughing along with Farrah. Amy turned beet red with either embarrassment or anger.

I figured it was probably a little bit of both.

I strutted off before she could fire a comeback at me.

If I wanted to keep my sanity for the night, I'd need to stay as far away from Amy Tristan as possible.

And that could be said for James Whitmire too.

I sat by myself for a while on Farrah's deck swing near the end of the pool, scrolling through my phone. Not because anything interesting was on it; there never really was. I just couldn't handle being around anyone at the moment.

Much to my dismay, my seclusion didn't go unnoticed.

After I grew exhausted from scrolling through and refreshing my social media feeds over and over again, I set my phone down, and someone swam up to me.

I tried not to scoff at the sight of him.

Jasper, I sighed internally.

Ugh.

He glanced up at me whilst keeping himself afloat in the water.

"What gives, Harlee? You're usually the life of the party," he said to me.

I shrugged and stared out at the sun setting in the sky.

"Just not really in a partying mood is all," I replied.

"Because you lost your best friend, right?" he asked with a gleeful look on his face.

I glared at him with questioning eyes, wondering how he knew that. Before I could ask, he said, "Word travels fast around here, you know. Especially when it comes to you and Jamie."

"His name is..." I started but then just didn't bother. "Nevermind. What is it with you, Jasper? Why are you trying to talk to me all of a sudden?"

Jasper was nonchalant at my interrogation and said,

"Just trying to be nice is all."

"Yeah, right; you've never been nice to anyone but yourself," I shot back.

"Harlee..." he started.

"Leave me alone, Jasper," I stood up from my seat. "I guess I'll just have to find another place to sit."

"Come on. Don't go. I'm only trying to help you, I mean, why should you suffer while James over there is having the time of his life?" he said, pointing towards the backdoor.

I looked over at where he was gesturing.

Sure enough, James had arrived with Evan, and neither one of them looked even half as miserable as I was feeling. They were being greeted by Farrah and her friends, and I could not help but notice James seemed especially enchanted by Hyland.

I bit down on my lip, trying to hold back tears.

How can he just move on so easily without me? I wondered somberly.

But there was no way I was going to start crying in front of Jasper.

Imagine how he'd hold that over my head.

To my surprise, though, when I looked at Jasper again, he almost looked sympathetic.

Almost.

"Want to see my breaststroke?" he asked. "It's pretty advanced, and I bet even you'd be impressed by it."

Now that we were holding eye contact again, the menacing glint in his irises was returning. And although he was being nice, I was too distracted by James to pay Jasper any more attention.

"The only place I'd like to see your breaststroke is off a waterfall, Jasper,"

I concluded before grabbing my phone and heading on my way.

My mission to avoid James was now one to run into him.

If I could just get him alone, for one moment, maybe we could talk.