Chapter 15

Both of the girls spent all of Tuesday morning in meetings.

"Hey babe what's up" Lainey answered her phone from her desk at work.

"Thinking about taking a lunch break. Have you taken yours?" Peyton asked as she twiddled the pencils on her desk.

"I don't think I'm going to take one since I'm leaving early today."

"Why are you leaving early?"

"Uhh..."

"What?... Did you tell me and I forget? I'm sorry, my memory is terrible."

"We are supposed to pick up my siblings from school and go for ice cream, remember. Megan wanted you to pay for everyone to make up for last time remember?"

"Shit! I knew I was forgetting something. What time are you leaving?"

"Depends, are you still going?"

"Yeah, I'll just work through lunch today and either come back after we're finished or come in early tomorrow."

"Are we going together or meeting there?"

"We can meet there. I have a meeting in South Town this afternoon, but I should be done by 4:00. Do you think we can hit a place over there?"

"Yeah, there's a place that sells rolled ice cream on the corner of Center and 24th. Plus if we go all the way over there we should pull up about the time you do, so that'll work perfectly."

"Thank goodness! I'm so sorry I forgot." Peyton sighed.

Lainey laughed. "I would worry more about Megan finding out you forgot."

"I'LL BE THERE!"

Later that day Lainey was waiting in the pick-up line, at the school, for her siblings when she got a call from Eli.

"Heeeyyyyyy biiiittttch! You at work?"

"No I'm waiting to pick up my siblings so that we can go for ice cream."

"And you didn't offer to get me some? Fake!"

"First off I'm not even paying, and second off even if I was you make your own damn money so you can buy your own damn ice cream."

"Who's paying?"

"We are meeting Peyton there, and this is her apology to Megan for ruining it last time we went."

"Gross, I still don't trust her."

"Eli" Lainey warned.

"I'm just saying there's something fishy going on and I'm not talking about her vagina."

"Fuck you Eli! She's not that bad, plus I've forgiven her for everything so can't you at least try and be a little nicer. I mean it was her and I that had problems, not you two. I get that you want to have my back but give the girl a break, it's not like we were saints to her in high school either. She's just as much a hostage in this engagement as I am."

"Jeez, I didn't know you loved her already. My bad." Eli scoffed.

"I didn't say I love her. I'm just saying there's two sides to every story, and there's no reason to make this any harder than it already is."

"I'm not-"

"I don't want to hear it. Megan and Colten just walked out." Lainey said before hanging up before he could say anything else.

"Hey sis! Who were you yelling at? We could hear you from outside the car." Megan laughed as her and Colten climbed in the backseat of Lainey's car.

"Eli, he was being stupid."

"Are you really surprised?" Megan retorted.

Lainey looked at her sister through the rearview mirror and raised her eyebrows as if to question whether or not the girl really wanted to go down that rabbit hole right now.

"Anyway," Megan said changing the subject since she could tell Lainey didn't want to talk about it. "Where's Peyton? Did she forget? Because if she-"

"We're meeting her there. Damn, who got on your nerves today?" Lainey questioned as she pulled out of the parking lot.

"Stupid Dillon. He thinks we should date, but I keep turning him down because he could never handle me."

Lainey furrowed her brows not knowing what her sister was talking about. "Have you given him a chance?"

"No, but he still makes his mommy cut the crusts off his sandwich and never tells me no when I tell him to give me his zebra cakes. Why would I ever date someone who can't be a man and eat the whole sandwich, and doesn't even have enough of a backbone to stand up for the best part of the meal?" Oh to be young again.

Lainey just laughed at her sister's logic. "How was your day Colten?"

"I have in school suspension for the next three days, but other than that it was pretty average."

"How did you get ISS? Mom and Dad are going to kill you."

"Got in a fight." he said nonchalantly. "Don't worry I won obviously." He added.

"Why?"

"Mark was being a bully to Emmie so I punched him."

"That was... nice?" Lainey said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Colten's a hero. Where are we going? This isn't the way to our normal ice cream place." Megan interrupted.

"That's because we are going to one in South Town."

"Ewww, gross."

"Megan!"

"What? It takes like 500 hours to get there."

"40 minutes max" Lainey said rolling her eyes.

The conversation between Lainey and her siblings continued all the way to the ice cream shop, where they saw Peyton already there waiting.

"Hey, I'm glad you're here. I was worried your meeting would run late." Lainey said as they came to the table Peyton was sitting at outside the shop.

"Nope, I actually cut it short so I wouldn't be late." Peyton said to Lainey before turning to Megan and Colten. "Hello Megan, hello Colten. How was your guys' day?"

"I-" Megan started.

"That's a great question with a long story behind it, so how about we order ice cream and then talk about it." Lainey cut in.

The four of them all sat around enjoying their ice cream and having a good time for hours. They hadn't even realized how long it had been until Lainey's phone rang.

"Yes, mother?"

"Do you have your siblings?"

"Yes"

"You do realize it's like 7:00 right and no one told the chef that they wouldn't be there for dinner, or the nanny that they weren't coming home from school."

"And they're just now looking for them?"

"Just have them home in the next hour. It's a school night."

"Yes, ma'am" Lainey said before hanging up.

"We should wrap this up. Mom wants you guys home in the next hour." Lainey said to the group.

"How is she going to know? She's in Sacramento tonight and Dad's in Miami." Colten said.

"I didn't ask, nor do I care how she'll find out. However, it is a school night, and Peyton and I have work in the morning so we really should be heading out anyway."

"Ok, fine. Thanks for the ice cream, Peyton." Colten said getting up to throw away his trash.

Lainey looked to Megan for her to thank Peyton as well, but all she saw was Megan staring at Peyton. "Megan don't you have something you'd like to say to Peyton?" Lainey prompted.

"I'm not sure what I want to say yet. Let me mull it over while I throw away my trash." Megan said standing up and walking away.

"Did I do something wrong?" Peyton asked worriedly.

"I don't think so... but I'm not sure." Lainey laughed

"What does that mean?"

"It means that whatever happens from here, you're on your own."

"I've decided I don't want to say anything." Megan said walking up behind the girls and startling them. "Colten told me to tell you he went to the bathroom by the way." She said taking her seat back and again staring at Peyton.

The three girls all sat in silence until Colten got back.

"Rea-" Colten started, but quickly cut himself off when he realized no one else was talking. "Ah shit, what did I miss?"

"Nothing" Megan said standing up. "Lets go"

The four of them walked out together and as they started to go their separate ways Megan called out to Peyton.

"Hey, Peyton!"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for the ice cream. I don't hate you, but don't get any funny ideas because I still don't like you either."

Peyton hesitated before saying, "I'll take it. Have a good night guys."

Lainey took her siblings home before going home herself.

"Rue left a note saying she made dinner and put it in the fridge if you want some." Peyton said from the table as Lainey walked into the kitchen.

"Thanks. Did she say where she went?"

"Nope"

Lainey sat down with her dinner across from Peyton and the girls ate in a comfortable silence.

After Peyton was finished she took her plate to the sink and rinsed it before going back to the table to sit with Lainey till she finished.

"You don't have to wait for me to finish if you don't want to."

"I don't mind." Peyton said scrolling through her socials.

They sat in silence while Lainey ate until Peyton broke it again. "Did you see that our English teacher got fired for 'inappropriate actions' with a student? Whatever that means."

Lainey laughed a bit. "About time."

Peyton looked up at Lainey confused.

"Oh, please you can't tell me you Never noticed." Lainey said in disbelief.

"Never noticed what?"

"Dude, I can name at least 3 guys from our class that hooked up with her just to pass junior year."

Peyton sighed and rolled her eyes. "Did we even go to the same school? I feel like I wasn't even there at this point. Apparently I knew nothing that was going on the entire time I was there."

"That's because you kind of lived inside your little bubble of 'yes men' and never really paid much attention to anything else."

"What else did I miss?"

"I can name three other big events just off the top of my head I can almost guarantee you missed."

"Name them."

"Ok..." Lainey paused to think about which ones she thought Peyton probably missed. "Freshman year, when that group of juniors put a jar of moonshine in the shop teacher's office so that they'd fire him because he was racist."

"I thought he resigned?"

"He tried after they found the moonshine, but it wasn't accepted because they wanted to fire him instead. How about senior year when the football boys put snakes in the cross country lockers so the cross country runners spray painted the football pads bright purple and then threw the cans in the football lockers so that they would go down for it?"

"Is that why they all got new pads in like the middle of the season?"

"Yep, the school board was pissed and the football boys had to buy the ruined ones off the school, plus raise the extra money needed to afford new ones."

"Oh, yeah, I remember Scott selling donuts to my family for a fundraiser for something to do with football. What else?"

"How about all the times I fucked your ex-bestfriend at lunch?"

Peyton's mouth flew open "Josie?!"

"Handicapped stall of the upstairs bathroom in the English department. You even walked in with someone else talking about something, and we had to stop so you wouldn't catch us."

"I thought... she always told us she was going to the library."

Lainey laughed and said. "Yeah, she didn't want you guys to know she was hooking up with the only person you all hated. We even dated for a couple of months and you guys never found out."

Peyton was stunned into silence while Lainey was dying laughing.

"I guess that explains why she always told anyone who brought you up to shut up. I just figured it was because she was afraid you'd fight them."

"I mean don't get me wrong I would have, but yeah she definitely had other intentions in mind."

"Why did you guys break up?"

"Someone out of your group was spreading a rumor about me hooking up with Wilson twins at the time we were together. After that it didn't matter what I did or said she didn't trust me, and we couldn't come out as a couple because she wasn't out of the closet yet and I didn't want to push her, so we ended up breaking up. She found out later that the rumor was false and apologized, but by that time I was over it and wasn't interested in being with someone who I knew wouldn't trust me enough for a secret relationship, and she wasn't ready to come out yet so I told her it'd be better if we stayed friends until she was more comfortable with herself."

"Did you?"

"Nah, we kind of drifted apart and I haven't spoken to her since graduation when we did it in the auditorium before lining up for the ceremony."

"On that note I'm going to shower and go to bed. Glad to know I could have passed as legally blind in high school." Peyton joked as she got up and started up the stairs.

Lainey got up to rinse her plate and do the same.