“Well, it’s official,” Anna declared. She had set her cell phone down a little harder than necessary on the counter, threw her arms up in the air and shook her head. She looked at Wendy, who was sitting on the toilet seat with a sad look on her face, as she leaned against the door and slid down so she was sitting on the floor. “She not only hates him, but us too.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t hate us,” Wendy said quietly as she glanced at Anna’s phone. “Maybe her phone died…?”
Anna rolled her eyes. It was ridiculous that she and Wendy had locked themselves in a bathroom to make a phone call. The truth was that they were dying to find out what had happened between Blair and Justin. Justin refused to talk about it, ever since the wedding when he and JC had had the conversation by the pool. Of course, JC informed Anna of the news not long after Justin told him, but even those details were nothing to boast about. There was absolutely no explanation and Wendy and Anna were big on knowing details, not to mention the fact that they actually missed hanging out with Blair.
It was a little after ten o’clock the morning of thanksgiving and the cooking was well underway. This year was different than previous thanksgivings; this year Justin’s family as well as all of the other guys’ families flew in and were spending it at Justin’s house. It seemed as though all of the women were in the kitchen making more food than people could eat while the men gathered around the televisions and talked loudly. While Caitlin and Kelly were playing a game called Pretty, Pretty Princess with Brianna, Wendy and Anna had escaped the crowd of people and took refuge in the bathroom down the hall. They had tried to get a hold of Blair for the past couple days, but only got her phone’s voicemail and answering machine. Not bothering to leave messages, they always hung up and tried again later.
“Knock, knock,” JC’s voice said through the door.
Anna smiled and scooted away from the door. She looked at Wendy before telling him to come in. He simply opened the door and poked his head in but Anna hissed at him to get in and shut the door. After all, this was a top secret mission.
“Meddling, are we?” he asked, knowing full well that the two women were fully content hiding and making phone calls.
Wendy looked guilty when he looked at her and Anna held her forefinger and thumb close together so they were almost touching. “Just a little.”
“Traitor,” JC pretended to cough.
Both Wendy and Anna scoffed at him.
“We’re not traitors,” Anna pouted.
“Yeah,” Wendy interjected, “We can still be friends with Blair.”
There was another knock on the door, this time it was Chris’s voice. JC answered him with a yeah? And Chris tried to open the door; unfortunately for him, Anna had locked the door after JC entered. JC lifted his hand and undid the lock to let Chris in. Chris was somewhat surprised to find Lance’s red-haired girlfriend sitting on the toilet and JC and Anna sitting on the floor next to one another. He shrugged it off and joined in on the pow-wow.
“Yeah, Jace, I’d have to agree with the girls,” Chris said, only somewhat making fun of them. “I mean, I feel like a kid in the middle of a divorce. I just love them both so much and I don’t understand why it’s happened.”
“Oh, I totally know what you’re talking about,” Wendy said loudly, “I just didn’t know how to explain it.”
There was another knock on the door. This time it was Kelly, Brianna and Caitlin. Now it was starting to get ridiculous. Pretty soon, not everyone would be able to fit inside the bathroom and their fun would be spoiled. Wendy moved from the toilet seat to the floor next to Anna, who was sitting next to JC, who was sitting next to the door, so Kelly could sit there with Brianna on her lap. On the other side of the toilet, Chris and Caitlin sat against the wall. Caitlin asked what they were talking about and was informed by all who had taken part in the conversation that they were talking about Justin and Blair.
All of a sudden, Anna’s phone rang, playing Ashlee Simpson’s “Pieces of Me”, from the counter. Anna laughed embarrassedly as she leaned across the room to get the phone. She didn’t bother to check the caller ID and was surprised to hear Blair’s voice on the other end.
“Blair?”
“Hey, Anna,” Blair said cheerfully, “Did you call me a few minutes ago?”
Anna smiled happily and sat back down next to JC and cuddling under his arm. “Yeah, how are you doing?” she asked, trying to keep the moment light and keep awkwardness away.
“I’m doing great,” Blair answered on reflex. She was great, she felt great and she probably looked great, but when it came down to matters of the heart, she wasn’t doing so great. She had escaped upstairs to get away from her sister and mother for a few minutes when she saw she had missed a few calls on her cell phone. “How are you?”
As suspected, there was a knock on the door. All pairs of eyes looked from one to another. They knew they had been discovered. Their fun was done, but if they were lucky, it wasn’t Justin on the other end of the door.
“Uh oh,” Anna said. “Hold on just a second, okay, B?”
“Okay?” Blair responded uncertainly.
Chris opened the door from his seat on the floor. All seven occupants of the bathroom looked into the eyes of all of their relatives, including Justin. They all looked a little confused, but there were more looks of amusement on their faces. Justin stared at the six adults expectedly, waiting for an explanation as to why they were all in the bathroom together.
“Hey, B?” Anna said, holding the phone back up to her ear, “Can I call you back in a few minutes?”
Blair’s brow furrowed and shrugged even though she knew Anna couldn’t see her. “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll talk to you later.”
“’Kay, bye!”
Anna closed her phone, threw it into her purse and smiled sweetly at Justin, ignoring the rest of the people surrounding the bathroom door. “Hi.”
