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Landon
Iknewitwasa bad idea, but I did it anyway.
It was our tradition as a group, and I invited someone new without asking everyone else. I mean, I told them in advance that I was bringing Tiffany to game night. But by "in advance," I meant about thirty minutes before they arrived at my house. I sent a simple text in the group chat, letting everyone know that there would be an extra guest joining tonight.
Did I think it would be a warm welcome for Tiffany? Yes, because my group of friends are nice and kind. But did I think they would want a new person to join without even having talked to her before? Probably not. And to make it worse, no one responded to my text. And I knew they'd all read it because they were all always on their phones. So they knew but just ignored it.
I didn't exactly invite Tiffany to the game night, though, but that wasn't something I could tell my friends. That felt rude to Tiffany if I just told everyone that she would be there because she essentially invited and inserted herself. And after she knew about the game night being tonight and told me she wanted to come, what was I supposed to do? Say no? Tell the girl I'd been dating for a few weeks that she couldn't hang out with me and my friends because she wasn't part of the inner circle? Yeah, I didn't see that going over very well.
Currently, I was the only one at the house. Belle went out to get more Dr. Peppers because, in her words: "I need my lucky game night drink; otherwise, I’ll lose everything." To which I reminded her that she literally never wins anything. Regardless, she insisted on the sodas and left to get them. That left me fixing the snack trays that she usually took care of, and I realized how serious the job was. There had to be enough snacks in this house to feed an army, but what was supposed to go on the tray?
I started with the Trader Joe’s salsa, of course, filling a large bowl with the contents of the jar and placing it in the middle of the tray, surrounded by chips. There were no double-dippers in our group because we weren’t heathens, so we all felt comfortable sharing one salsa bowl. I added a bowl of M&Ms, along with fruit snacks that I emptied from their individual packages. That was all I could fit on the tray, and I wondered how Belle always fit so much on the tray when she did it.
But everyone coming over knew they could get any snacks they wanted at any time, and it wasn't a big deal. The snacks didn't have to be perfect.
The sound of the door opening pulled me from my snack tray dilemma, and I poked my head out of the kitchen to see Andrew walking in with a deck of cards and a bag of Doritos.
"What's up, dude?" he asked, looking around the house. "Anyone else here?"
"Nope," I told him as he set the chips down on the dining table where we always played.
"Good. Need to tell you something."
"Go ahead, shoot," I said, wondering what he could need to tell me that he had to make sure no one else was there.
"I was talking to Leslie about Tiffany," he started, and I immediately got angry.
I knew it wasn't cool of me to invite her, but they could at least all have enough respect for me not to talk about her.
"Easy, man. Just hear me out. I was just wondering if you remembered why Tiffany and Belle weren't friends in college?" He held up his hands, and I realized I must have jumped to conclusions about why they were talking about her.
I shrugged. "I mean, I guess they just never got close. Why?" I shoved my hands in my pockets, not really recalling anything major.
"I don't know, man. Leslie told me that she thinks Tiffany was pretty rude and ugly to Belle in college, and that's why they weren't cool."
"Rude how?" I asked, feeling something dirty rise in the pit of my stomach. I hoped that that wasn't even close to the truth and it was just a misunderstanding.
"Not really sure. That's all I know. I just wanted to see if you knew about it at all," Andrew just shook his head, proverbially absolving himself of any responsibility in the conversation.
I racked my brain, but couldn't remember anything. "I don't know, Andrew. Tiffany was always sweet in college, so I can't imagine her being ugly to anyone. Especially Belle."
"Okay, sure."
After that weird conversation, I couldn't help but keep thinking about it as everyone else arrived. Had Tiffany been mean to Belle? Wouldn't Belle have told me if something like that happened?
As soon as Tiffany arrived, I put the worries out of my head. She was so sweet and caring for everyone around her, and I just really think that there was a miscommunication somewhere.
"Hey everyone! I brought chips and queso!" She said proudly, holding a crockpot with a grocery bag hanging off of her forearm. Immediately, I rushed over to take the crockpot from her and free her hands. I walked it into the kitchen to plug it up, and she followed me.
"Thanks for bringing this, Tiff." I turned the crockpot on low and turned to her, taking the grocery bag from her and setting it on the counter.
"I couldn't come empty-handed!" She responded brightly. I heard Belle's voice as she walked in, saying hello to everyone, and figured that Tiffany and I should join them. With a hand on her back, I led her out of the kitchen and nearly choked on the air as I saw Belle.
Well, it wasn't the sight of Belle that stopped me. It was the guy that was with her.
"Zach!" Andrew exclaimed, walking up to the beach-haired surfer boy, giving him a bro hug.
"Wait, you know each other?" Belle asked, a smile wide on her face as she looked between them. When Zach finished his hug with Andrew, he took the case of Dr. Peppers from Belle.
