I brushed past Marcus, Theo, Chloe, and Zoey, and then ran out the door and down the hall.
“Nikki! WAIT!” my BFFs called after me.
But I just ignored them.
I rushed straight to the bathroom farthest from the dance and locked myself in the last stall. No one would find me in there. I just wanted to be alone.
Brandon had LIED to me!
He wasn’t sick at all. I guess I wasn’t pretty or popular enough for him.
Why didn’t he just tell me he wanted to go to the dance with MacKenzie? I leaned against the cold stall door as my thoughts raced.
I could feel hot tears trickling down my cheeks.
Just great ! The last thing I needed right then was my face covered with black tear stains.
I angrily tugged at the roll of toilet paper and just stared blankly as twenty feet of paper rolled off.
I was buried knee-deep in paper, but I didn’t care.
I grabbed one end and dabbed my eyes and cheeks.
Then I blew my nose.
HONK!!
Suddenly the restroom door creaked open. at myself in the mirror.izt rs
“Do you think she came all the way over here?” Chloe asked.
“It’s possible. All of the bathrooms near the dance are pretty crowded,” Zoey answered.
“Hey, I think you’re right,” Chloe said. “Look under that stall. Only Nikki would use that much toilet paper!”
They whispered to each other, then knocked on my stall door. I opened it a few inches and peeked out.
“GO AWAY!” I said glumly.
“Nikki, we are SO sorry about all of this! We had no idea Brandon was here,” Chloe said.
“Hey! It’s not your fault that Brandon is a lying rat!” I fumed.
“You need to forget him! The sooner the better!” Zoey said.
Of course I choked up again when I heard that.
“We’re only telling you this because we care about you,” Chloe said. “Just breathe, okay? Can I get you anything? A bottled water? Are you hungry?”
How could I possibly think about food when my whole world was crashing in on my head? “Actually, I want to go home now. I’m going to call my mom.”
“We totally understand,” Zoey said sadly. “This whole evening has been a nightmare!”
“Well, the least we can do is go grab you some wing-dings to take home with you. We’ll be right back,” Chloe said.
Actually, a huge plate of wing-dings sounded pretty good.
“Thanks, guys. I could eat a horse,” I muttered.
I was alone in the bathroom again with nothing but my jumbled thoughts.
What had turned Brandon into such a JERK that he would text-dump me less than an hour before the Sweetheart Dance?
MacKenzie!
Her plan had totally worked. Brandon had ripped out my heart, threw it in the dirt, and trampled all over it. Just like she wanted! And now they were probably flirting with each other during a slow dance!
UGHHH!!!!
I picked up my phone to call my mom but was interrupted by a loud commotion. Chloe and Zoey came storming back into the bathroom.
“Nikki!” Zoey shrieked. “You are NOT going to believe this! Brandon just walked up to us and asked us where you were. He says he’s been waiting for you!”
“What?!” I poked my head out of my stall. “Are you kidding me?!”
“OMG! I was livid!” Chloe fumed. “So I said to him, ‘You can keep waiting until heck freezes over! You’re just a phony, backstabbing slimeball who is supposed to be at home SICK!’ ”
“And get this! He said he didn’t have the slightest idea what we were talking about!” Zoey said.
“How could he just LIE right to our faces like that?” Chloe ranted. “That’s when I said really sweetly, ‘Okay, Brandon, maybe a refreshing drink will help clear up your foggy memory!’ ”
“OMG! You actually said that to him?” I gasped. “Then what happened?”
“I had to grab the Karate Kid before she dumped a cup of punch over his head and gave him a beatdown,” Zoey said, glaring at Chloe.
“Hey! Give me a break!” Chloe shot back. “I was trying to get a drink and he just happened to be in my way! Anything I almost did to him was purely accidental.”
“Chloe, just calm down! You’re not making this any better,” I scolded.
“You know what would make ME feel better? How about I ‘accidentally’ sock Brandon in the stomach?”
“Chloe, you can’t just walk up to a person and sock him in his stomach,” Zoey said. “There are laws against that!”
“Okay, then. How about I punch him in the nose?! Or give him a kick in the butt? He totally deserves that and more!”
“Chloe! This is a middle school dance, not the HUNGER GAMES!” I yelled. “I want to go HOME. Not to JAIL!”
Finally she regained her composure. “Sorry, Nikki! I just temporarily lost it,” she said quietly.
But I’d already had enough.
“Listen, guys! This is NUTS! I need to get out of here. I’m going to call my mom and have her pick me up. But the last person I want to see or talk to is Brandon.”
“Yeah, and he definitely doesn’t want to see ME!” Chloe said, making a fist and cracking her knuckles.
“Okay, Nikki. Chloe and I will go out and make sure the coast is clear. Then you can make your getaway. We’ll be right back.”
I glanced at myself in the mirror. I was a hot mess. But I put on two layers of lip gloss and gathered up all of my stuff, including my courage.
I was SO ready to leave that smelly stall.
Chloe and Zoey almost broke down the door rushing back into the bathroom.
“Nikki, you’re not going to believe what just happened!” Chloe screeched.
I rolled my eyes. “Please don’t tell me you punched Brandon.”
“Actually, I DIDN’T. But I REALLY, REALLY wanted to!” Chloe growled.
“We just saw Brandon again!” Zoey panted. “He says he wants to talk to you!”
I started to panic. “NO! I can’t talk to him right now! You guys didn’t tell him where I was, did you?!”
“Of course not!” they answered.
“I’ve tried really hard to be friends with Brandon. And after Crazy Burger, I thought we’d finally worked things out. But I give up! He has made me cry, upset my best friends, ruined the Sweetheart Dance, killed what little self-respect I had, and, and, um . . . driven me temporarily INSANE!”
“Nikki, don’t at myself in the mirror. about t rs say that about yourself,” Zoey said quietly. “You’re NOT insane!”
“JUST LOOK AT ME! Not only do I look like a zombie bride, but I’m having a complete meltdown. In a bathroom stall! While buried in a roll of toilet paper!”
“OMG!” Chloe quipped. “You ARE insane!”
“We’re really sorry, Nikki! We shouldn’t have made you come to the dance against your will,” Zoey mumbled.
“Don’t be sorry,” I replied. “It’s good that I finally learned the truth about Brandon. I just wish he had the decency to tell me himself, face-to-face.”
“I WOULD if you’d let me!” said a voice outside the bathroom door.
“BRANDON?!” I sputtered. “OMG!”
“I didn’t tell him you were hiding out in here! I swear!” Zoey whispered to me.
“Don’t look at me!” Chloe whisper-shouted. “I don’t talk to pathological liars!”
“Actually, I just followed Chloe and Zoey over here,” Brandon said. “Nikki, will you please come out so we can talk?!”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I shot back. “Just leave me alone. You should have just told me you wanted to go to the dance with MacKenzie and saved me a lot of heartache.”
“Nikki, YOU asked me to this dance. I think you owe me an explanation for why you decided to stand me up!” Brandon said.
“What?! I didn’t stand YOU up! You stood ME up! But I don’t want to talk about any of this.
You’re supposed to be home sick with the flu! Remember?” I yelled through the bathroom door.
“Okay, fine! If you’re not coming OUT, then I’m coming IN,” Brandon said.
Chloe, Zoey, and I were speechless.
“NO WAY! He CAN’T be serious!” I finally gasped.
We stared at the door in disbelief as it slowly creaked open and Brandon peeked in.
His face was flushed, and he looked totally bewildered.
I could NOT believe he’d actually come inside the girls’ bathroom to talk to me.
“I can’t believe I’m actually inside the girls’ bathroom. But I really need to talk to you!” he muttered.
Chloe and Zoey were about to protest.
But I think Brandon looked so utterly embarrassed that they felt kind of sorry for him.
“If anyone catches me in here, I’ll probably get detention for a month!” he said, looking around nervously. “Anyway, I really apologize for coming in here, but I’m desperate!”
“Actually, Chloe and I were just leaving,” Zoey said.
“I’M not going anywhere,” Chloe said, folding her arms. “There’s no way I’d miss any of THIS! I wish I had a bucket of popcorn and some gummy bears.”
“Chloe! Let’s go!” Zoey said stern at myself in the mirror. about t rsly.
She grabbed Chloe’s arm and dragged her through the door.
“OW! That hurt!” Chloe complained, rubbing her arm.
Chloe turned around and shot Brandon a dirty look. “Hey, dude, you better watch your step. We’ll be standing right outside this door. Listening!”
“Um, Chloe, don’t worry. I’ll be just fine. Really!” I assured her.
Once Brandon and I were alone, my heart started pounding and my palms got sweaty.
“Nikki . . . you’ve been acting kind of strange ever since my birthday,” Brandon said. “But I don’t understand why.”
“ME?! YOU’VE been acting strange lately,” I said, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. “And those text messages! They’ve been just . . . CRUEL!”
“Text messages? What text messages?!”
“Don’t pretend you didn’t send them!” I glared at him. “They came directly from your phone. At first I didn’t want to believe you gave MacKenzie that crazy picture of me, but now I’m starting to wonder. If you don’t want to be friends with me anymore, just say so!”
“Nikki, it seems like YOU don’t want to be friends with ME. One minute you’re fine and the next minute you’re mad at me. This whole month has been crazy! I thought maybe it had to do with the Sweetheart Dance or something.”
My phone chimed, and I pulled it out of my purse.
It was yet another text message from Brandon.
“See? This is EXACTLY what I’m talking about. I’m really tired of your texts. Seriously!” I said, pointing to my phone.
ME, PUTTING BRANDON ON BLAST BECAUSE I’M SICK AND TIRED OF HIS SORTA WEIRD AND SLIGHTLY OFFENSIVE TEXT MESSAGES
“Um, Nikki! You have a problem. I’ve been HERE in the GIRLS’ BATHROOM talking to YOU for the past three minutes.”
“I have a problem?! Really? You’re the dude sneaking into the GIRLS’ bathroom! Obviously, YOU have a problem!! Have you considered counseling?”
“Nikki! How could I have just sent YOU a TEXT?! Did you see me do it?” he asked.
“Huh?” I muttered, staring at my phone.
Okay, now I was totally confused.
“Then WHO just sent me this text?!”
I opened the message on my phone and read it out loud: “I’m so sorry about the dance. But I just coughed up what looked like a big slimy greenish booger, and thought of you!”
Then I handed my phone to Brandon so he could read the text that had come from HIS phone.
He read the message, scowled, and shook his head.
“So that text is supposed to be at myself in the mirror. even t rs from ME?” Brandon asked. “Come on! Do you think I would actually talk about something as crass and juvenile as boogers? And when have I EVER used a smiley face? I’m really sorry you had to go through all of this, Nikki.”
“Well, if these texts aren’t from you, then WHO is sending them? And WHY are they coming from YOUR phone?”
“I don’t know. But what I do know is that I COULDN’T have sent them because I lost my cell phone a month ago! It’s been missing since my party. Since Theo’s brother has a phone just like mine, we thought maybe he’d accidentally taken it back to college or something.”
A wave of relief washed over me.
So Brandon had NOT been sending all of those crazy text messages for the past month! Maybe we could actually salvage our friendship after all.
“Well, that makes me feel a lot better. But why didn’t you just tell me you lost your phone?”
“Because you never gave me a chance. I missed going to Crazy Burger with you the first time because Theo and I were searching all over the place for my phone. I tried to apologize and explain everything that next day at school, but you blew me off,” he said.
“Okay, so maybe part of the misunderstanding was MY fault. I’m sorry. But why were you hanging out with MacKenzie just now?”
“You’re right. I was talking to MacKenzie earlier tonight. But she came up to me, not the other way around. She told me you were home sick with the flu and wouldn’t be coming to the dance.”
“Wait a minute! I got a text message right before the dance saying the exact same thing! That YOU had the flu and couldn’t make it!”
“You’re kidding! So you thought I was just NOT going to show up?” Brandon asked.
“To be honest, I didn’t know what to think! I wanted to stay home, but Chloe and Zoey dragged me here. And when I saw you here with MacKenzie when you were supposed to be home sick, I got a little upset!”
“A little?!”
“Okay! I TOTALLY lost it!!” I admitted.
“Well, I knew you’d never just stand me up like that! That’s why I asked Chloe and Zoey if you were here. Zoey gave me the stink eye and Chloe went nuts and tried to dump a cup of punch over my head. It was scary!”
“I’m really sorry. That was probably my fault. I guess they were mad at you because of all the things I’d said about you.”
“Well, I’d feel a lot safer if you told your BFFs to back off. Anyway, I’m really glad we talked. Now maybe things can get back to normal.”
“Yeah, but we still don’t know who is behind those text messages or how they got your phone,” I said. “Although, I think I have a hunch who’s probably responsible.”
“Me too. My phone seemed to disappear around the same time MacKenzie left my party that night. But we need proof she has it.”
We just stared at my phone and racked our brains. And the more times we read that nasty text message, the more angry and frustrated we became . . . .
SQUEEEt rs0" height="526" src="kindle:embed:004O?mime=image/jpg" alt="Images"/>
That’s when the most brilliant idea popped into my head.
It was the perfect prank and would expose the culprit.
And all I had to do was send a very simple text message. To . . . BRANDON!
*****
FROM NIKKI:
Hi Brandon,
I know you were happy about MacKenzie’s generous offer to help Fuzzy Friends. But I think buying her that diamond necklace from Tiffany & Co. as a thank-you gift was a bit much. Anyway, I went ahead and gift-wrapped it like you asked me. But I placed it in #1573 (behind the school), which is exactly where it belongs.
Sorry !
8:17 p.m.
*****
Now all we had to do was wait patiently for the perpetrator to take the bait.
Brandon smiled at me. “Nikki, you’re an evil genius. So, now that we’ve squashed all the drama, are you and I . . . cool again?”
“Sure! We’re cool!” I said, blushing.
“Great. Let’s get the heck out of here. Friends don’t let friends hide out in the gir
ls’ bathroom!”
Then we both laughed really hard at Brandon’s joke.
Chloe, Zoey, Brandon, and I walked back to the dance together and joined Theo and Marcus at our table.
When I told my BFFs about the mysterious text messages and Brandon’s lost phone, they could hardly believe it.
Anyway, we pigged out on wing-dings. And the fancy catered dinner was fabulous too.
I couldn’t believe an evening that had started out so horribly wrong had turned out to be so . . . wonderful!
But mostly I was SUPERhappy that we were all finally getting along again, just like old times.
Okay! I had learned my lesson. I would NEVER, EVER doubt Brandon’s friendship again, I told myself.
“Oh, Brandon! There you are!” MacKenzie squealed. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”
She was really surprised to see me sitting there. “OMG! Nikki!” She sneered. “What are YOU doing here? I thought you were home sick. You’re obviously coming down with something! Your face looks like death on a STICK! I hope it’s not contagious.”
I just rolled my eyes at that girl.
“BTW, I have a little surprise for you. Apparently, a few of your so-called friends have been handing out copies of that hideous picture of you behind your back. I just wanted to let you know. Hey, with friends like those, who needs enemies? Anyway, I thought I’d give you this one to hang in your locker!” Then she shoved a poster right in my face . . . .
“We ripped down the posters YOU put up! No real friend of mine would do that to me!” I shot back.
“Oh, really?” at myself in the mirror.all the " aid=" c MacKenzie said, and stared right at Brandon! “I guess you never know who you can trust! Right, Brandon?”
“MacKenzie, you’re such a liar! Brandon would never do something like that!” I argued.
Brandon looked really uncomfortable and glared at MacKenzie. But I noticed that for some reason, he avoided looking at me. Why was he acting so . . . guilty?
MacKenzie laughed. “He was giving them out to people right under your nose!”
“Brandon, WHAT is she talking about?” I was starting to get upset all over again.
“I had absolutely nothing to do with the posters that were plastered up last week. But MacKenzie’s right. I have to admit, this one is mine . . .,” Brandon said, hanging his head.