Too Much Drama

Copyright © 2016 by Laurie Friedman

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Cataloging-in-Publication Data for
Too Much Drama
is on file at the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4677-8589-1 (trade hard cover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4677-9570-8 (eBook)

Manufactured in the United States of America

1 – BP – 12/31/15

eISBN: 978-1-46779-570-8 (pdf)
eISBN: 978-1-51240-493-7 (ePub)
eISBN: 978-1-51240-492-0 (mobi)

For Gloria Rothstein—a great friend and reader!
—L.B.F.

Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

—Dostoevsky

Sunday, November 30, 5:45 p.m.
In my room

Someone should invent a product, like a smoke alarm, that alerts you when a life disaster is coming your way. Say, when your best friend since kindergarten is about to show up, tell you the friendship is over, then make a dramatic exit to prove she means it. Because that's exactly what Brynn just did, and it would have been nice to be prepared.

Brynn came over after lunch, and she looked upset. I could tell she'd been crying. She'd told me she was going with her parents to Birmingham to see her grandmother, who has been sick. They're really close, so I thought that was the problem. “Is Nana OK?” I asked when I opened the front door and saw the look on her face.

“Can we go to your room?” Brynn asked.

“Sure.” I figured if she had bad news, she didn't want to share it with me on my front porch. When we got to my room, I closed the door. Brynn sat down on my bed. She was still crying. I handed her a tissue. “What's wrong?” I asked softly.

Brynn made a grunting sound and then got up and walked to the other side of my room. The way she did it gave me the feeling she didn't want to be sitting on the bed with me, but I thought for sure I was imagining things. There's been a lot of tension between us for a while, but right before her trip to Birmingham, Brynn had been supportive when I was nervous about the solo I performed in the dance show. It seemed as though we were back on better terms, and I didn't see what could have changed. “Did something happen?” I raised a brow to show I was encouraging her to explain.

Brynn shot me a piercing look. “You know what happened.” She pressed her lips together as if she was waiting for me to respond.

I shook my head. I had no idea what Brynn was talking about.

“Don't play dumb,” said Brynn. “It's insulting.”

I didn't like where this was going. “What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Billy broke up with me,” said Brynn. “And it's your fault.”

“WHAT!” The word flew out of my mouth. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I didn't know that they'd broken up, and the idea that I had anything to do with it was crazy. “What are you talking about?” I tried to keep my voice steady.

Brynn's voice was anything but. “Billy. Broke. Up. With. Me. And. It's. Your. Fault.” Brynn enunciated her words like she wanted each one to sink in.

My shock was turning into anger. Brynn's accusations were ridiculous. “I didn't even know you broke up. How could I have had anything to do with it?” I asked.

“You're supposed to be my best friend.” Brynn's voice rose as she spoke. “And ever since Sophie moved to town, you haven't acted like it. You're always protecting her and taking her side. I get that she's your sort-of cousin, but you treat her as if she's some pathetic newcomer who can't take care of herself. You know as well as I do that she's liked Billy from the moment she moved to Faraway, and you haven't done anything to stop it.”

Who did Brynn think I was? God? “What could I possibly do to stop how one person feels about another person?”

Brynn pointed her finger at me accusatorily. “See! You admit it. Sophie does like Billy. I knew it.”

“Are you trying to trap me?” I asked. “I didn't admit anything. Whatever happens between Sophie and Billy has nothing to do with me.”

Brynn shook her head from side to side like she didn't agree. “You don't get what it means to be a friend, do you?”

Even though Brynn was the one who showed up mad, now I was too. “You're the one who doesn't get how to be a friend,” I said. “When you and Billy started going out, you didn't even tell me. I had to hear it from other people. How do you think that made me feel?” I paused so I could gather my thoughts. There was a long list of things Brynn had done over the past few months that fell into the Bad Best Friend category. I'd held a lot in, and now I wanted her to hear all of it.

But I didn't make it any further down my list.

“I don't really care what you have to say,” said Brynn. “I didn't just come here to tell you that Billy broke up with me.”

This was complete insanity. “There's more?” I asked.

Brynn took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “I came to tell you that our friendship is over. It's a shame, but you're not the girl you used to be.”

I'd heard enough. “Neither are you,” I said to Brynn.

She smirked. “What are you saying? That you don't want to be friends either?”

“That's exactly what I'm saying.” I wiped my forehead. My room felt too warm.

“Great,” said Brynn. “We finally agree on something. Then she walked toward my door as though she was leaving, but she stopped short and turned to face me. “You make me sick, April. You really do.” Then she walked out of the house and slammed the front door behind her.

I heard her loud and clear, and I'm sure everyone else in my house did too.

6:01 p.m.

May and June just came into my room. “Mom wanted me to tell you it's time for dinner,” said May. She gave me a tentative look as if she wanted to say something about what happened, but wasn't sure what. “I'm sorry Brynn yelled at you,” she said.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

May opened her mouth like she was going to say more, then she shut it and left. It was clear my room wasn't somewhere she wanted to be. I couldn't blame her.

June didn't budge. “We heard Brynn screaming,” she said. “I Googled it, and it's impossible for one person to make another person sick unless you poison them. You didn't poison Brynn. Did you?”

I laughed. “I didn't poison her.” It was a ridiculous, albeit interesting, idea.

“Are you and Brynn still friends?” asked June.

I wasn't sure how to respond to that. But June didn't wait for an answer. “Tina Chen and Katie Cross were best friends in first and second grade, and now they're not friends because Tina is friends with Carson Brooks, who Katie doesn't like.” June looked at me like it was my turn to comment.

Her grade-school analysis of friendship and its application to my situation was impressive. I smiled at her. “I don't really want to talk about this,” I said.

June nodded like she understood. “Do you want to eat dinner?”

“That's exactly what I'd like to do,” I told my little sister. I had no idea that breaking up with your bestie could give you an appetite.

Apparently, it can.

7:17 p.m.
Post-dinner

I love roasted chicken but not when it's served with a side dish of curiosity.

At dinner, Mom couldn't stop asking questions about what happened with Brynn. “Did you girls have a fight?” she asked as soon as we sat down.

“Mom.” I stuffed my mouth full with chicken and rice and silently willed her to get that my lack of an answer meant it was a topic I didn't want to discuss.

But Mom's mind-reading skills were particularly weak tonight. “Did something happen at school?” she asked.

I chewed slowly, swallowed, and then took a sip of water. “Lots of things happen at school,” I said.

Mom made a face. “I meant did something happen between you and Brynn? At school or elsewhere for that matter?”

“April didn't poison her,” said June.

I had to laugh. Mom failed to see the humor. “April, what is going on with you and Brynn?” She put her fork down and looked at me like she was waiting for an answer. She reminded me of the girl in
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
who told her dad she wanted an Oompa Loompa, and she wanted one NOW!

“April doesn't want to talk about it,” said June. For only eight, her voice was impressively authoritative.

Mom looked from June to me, and then, without saying another word, she picked her fork back up and took another bite of her dinner.

I winked at June to let her know she'd done a good job at managing the dinner conversation. June smiled back, looking pleased with herself.

But she couldn't have been half as pleased as I was to not be talking about Brynn.

8:17 p.m.
called Billy

Even though I didn't want to talk to my family about it, I had to call Billy to find out why he broke up with Brynn. I wasn't prying. I just needed to make sense of the way Brynn had acted. When I told Billy what happened when she came over, he was quiet for a long time while he thought about what he wanted to say.

“I broke up with Brynn because when I told her what you, Sophie, and I did last night, she freaked out. I told her it was no big deal, but she made it into one.”