The day of the reunion came up quickly. I was both scared and happy. Happy to go and finally see Diane again. Terrified everything would fall apart in every aspect possible. A lot could happen in the span of a few months. For all I knew, Diane could’ve been deep in her eating disorder, barely able to get out of bed. Or worse, dead. Knowing Lars would glue himself to my side the whole time made matters worse. I knew Diane would be suspicious of him, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to fight him.
Lars took the day off so we could go together. Moments before we were just about ready to head out, he pointed out the massive black eye he gave me just a couple of days prior. The bloody thing took up a good chunk of the side of my face. Lars talked to Diane over text beforehand and claimed I had become friends with him again and that he was tagging along. He blew up at me after seeing Diane reply with a “Why are you still hanging around at that psycho”, which earned me the black eye. Somehow Diane’s actions were my fault.
“We’re just going to cover this.” He said as he pulled my fringe down over my black eye. My hair was thick enough that it easily covered it. It was more of an annoyance though. I could barely see through the eye my hair was covering. “And if anyone asks, you fell and hit it on something. Got it?”
I nodded.
“Good.” He smiled. “Let’s go then.”
We headed to the restaurant we were all supposed to meet up at. Usually, 20-40 people went. As it was a large number of people, the people running the event would simply book a spot at a restaurant. From there, everyone would chip in for the cost. We arrived a little bit late, but nobody seemed to mind. In the crowd, I could see people I recognized, and some that I didn’t. It wasn’t uncommon for classmates to bring a significant other, or a friend to accompany them. After scanning the crowd for one specific face, I finally spotted who I was looking for. She was joined by a crowd and many other familiar faces. As she usually was, she was smiling and chatting. The gal was a social one, that’s for sure. Before Lars could see the intentions I had, I ran over to her. Diane saw me coming and her face lit up.
“Hey!!” Diane laughed as I hugged her. “Long time no see!”
“I missed you!!” I was trying so hard not to cry. The crowd Diane was chatting with found our reunion adorable and giggled at it a bit. Lars followed me quickly and stood next to me. I could feel how unimpressed he was. But to everyone else, he looked like a sweet guy. He had this thing about him that allowed him to easily blend in with society. It was as if they could never see his true colors.
“I missed you too.” Diane laughed. To get the most out of the hug, I gripped her tightly. I really, really missed her. However, instead of enjoying the hug I longed for, all I felt were bones. Slowly, I moved my hand down a bit, running my hand down her back. I could almost feel every damn bone. I pulled back and looked at her. She gave me a happy smile, thinking I was going to continue talking as if I didn’t notice. But when she saw my frown, she knew what I was looking at. Her smile dropped, making her face look even more sunken in.
“Diane....” I sighed. “Look at you…”
“Don’t worry.” Diane laughed nervously. “Kevin’s helping me out.”
“We’ll have to talk about it later, ok?” I said. She didn’t look too thrilled but agreed. Looking to get the attention off her, she looked at Lars.
“You must be Lars.” Diane said a bit coldly.
“That’s me.” Lars smiled innocently. He put out his hand for a handshake, but Diane didn’t take it. “And you are?”
“Diane.” She replied. I was shocked to see her act so cold towards someone. Diane normally greeted everyone with a happy smile, even if she didn’t like them. Without breaking eye contact, she wrapped her arm around me, ready to lead me out of there. “We’re gonna go sit down.”
“Wait for me then.” Lars followed. Diane didn’t look too bothered by that for some odd reason. Instead, a grin formed on her face. Undoubtedly, she had a plan. When we went to sit down, Lars immediately took the chair next to mine. He sat down awfully quickly, and Diane used that to her advantage. Diane somehow tricked him thinking we were going to sit at one end of the table where there were three open chairs. The minute he sat, Diane grabbed me by the arm and we rushed over to the other side of the table where there were only 2 seats side by side. I was astonished by how quickly she moved, and how well planned out that was. Lars had no time to react and wasn’t able to join us. All he could do was glare. We sat down and I let out a sigh of relief. Until I noticed who Diane was sitting next to. Fucking Lucille. Her high school bully who was the sole cause of her anorexia.
“Uh, Diane?” I gave her a nudge and looked at Lucille, who was too busy socializing to notice us.
“Oh, I know.” Diane said. “But it was the only seating available where we could sit next to each other. And I figured it would be better than sitting with, well, him.”
I looked over to see Lars shooting me an ice-cold glare. He was furious. The seats around him filled up fast. Our old biology teacher sat next to him with her husband.
“Poor Mrs. Smith.” Diane said.
“Do you wanna switch seating?” I asked quietly. “So you’re not right next to Lucille?”
“Oh, I’ll be fine.” Diane laughed. “I think we’re on better terms now anyway. She actually emailed me a couple of weeks ago to apologize for being the way she was when we were younger. She wanted to make sure I would be ok with eating around her.”
“Oh, really?” I was quite surprised. “People really change huh?”
“Yea.” Diane laughed.
Within a couple of minutes, everyone was seated and everyone started ordering their food. Surprisingly, Diane picked something she wanted. Despite looking nervous about ordering, she did so without an anxiety attack. The entire time, Lars kept glaring at me. The only time he broke eye contact was when Mrs. Smith leaned over and whispered something in his ear. His eyes widened a bit and he whipped around to look at her. Although I couldn’t hear it, it looked like the two were arguing.
“Huh. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Lars and Mrs. Smith know each other.” Diane pointed out.
“Sure looks like it.” I said.
“So are you two really friends again? You looked awfully uncomfortable around him.”
“Uh, yeah, something like that.”
“You sure?” Diane gave me a look. “Cuz’ I can’t shake the feeling that I’m not actually talking to you over text. And I never heard you speak about being friends with him over the phone. It just popped up conveniently.”
“Well, uh-”
“Oh! Diane!” Lucille conveniently looked our way and realized she was sitting next to us. I let out a sigh of relief. I escaped that one. “You made it!”
“Oh, yea!” Diane smiled nervously. I could tell she was still nervous to be around Lucille.
“I know I said this already over email, but I’m so, so, so sorry for how I treated you in high school.” Lucille said. She tried to put her hands on top of Diane’s to add that extra layer of comfort, but Diane pulled away fairly quickly. Lucille sighed and continued. “I was looking for attention cuz’ I didn’t feel my parents were giving me any and I took it out on you. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s ok.”
“I really hope you’re doing better now.” Lucille sighed. I could tell she knew Diane wasn’t, which made her look even more guilty. “And if there’s anything I can do, just let me know.”
“Thanks.” Diane smiled.
“It’s good to see you too Robin.” Lucille smiled at me.
I nodded. I wasn’t one for socializing. While Diane and Lucille talked, I kept an eye on Lars. Something just seemed off between him and Mrs. Smith. There was no way the two could possibly know each other. Lars was older than Mrs. Smith, so I knew she didn’t teach him. Mrs. Smith taught us when she was quite young, so as far I knew, Lars would’ve graduated before then. My next best guess was that they were family. However, they looked nothing alike. I knew they weren’t friends because Lars only hung out with people who attended the bar he liked to go to. It would be extremely hard to believe that Mrs. Smith would even be caught at a bar. In class, if the topic of alcohol ever came up, she would go on a rant about how the stuff was toxic and ruined people and their lives. I was dumbfounded and couldn’t find an answer that could explain how they knew each other.
The rest of the dinner was pretty uneventful. Diane seemed to be ok with eating her meal. I knew it was most likely because she skipped other meals in the day to make up for this one meal. So it probably wasn’t bothering her that much because of it. Masking these sorts of things was Diane’s specialty.
Everyone was happy to use the time to catch up. Over dinner, we all chatted and caught up on each other's lives. A lot of my old classmates had gotten the job they wanted, were married or had kids. It was quite nice to hear how everyone was doing. But with Lars glaring at me constantly from a distance, I couldn’t help but feel very uneasy.
After dinner, most of us stuck around just to chat a bit more before we had to leave. Some people wanted to make plans to meet up. Of course, we all know how those go. They plan to meet up because they’ve come to the realization that the other is fun to be around, but they never actually go through with the plan of hanging out. Diane dragged me around and made those types of plans with a good portion of people. In the end, we both knew she would only actually hang out with one or two of them. Diane kept me glued to her side the entire time she chatted. She wasn’t letting me go anywhere without her. She didn’t want Lars grabbing me and dragging me out of there.
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