Come As You Are Ch. 03

Author's Notes - Hello! The below story is Chapter 3 of the rewrite of "Come As You Are," a 19-chapter story I posted in Novels & Novellas back in 2019.

If you're reading this story for the first time, welcome! It's a tale I've put a lot of time and effort into, as well as a good bit of myself, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

If you're reading this story for the second time, thank you! The players and situations are the same, but rewritten and reordered in a way that I feel is "closer" to the characters than the original was. I've also taken into account the biggest complaints about the first edition and hopefully corrected them to your satisfaction.

So, with all appropriately further adieu...

X X X X X

Previously on "Come As You Are" -- Four lifelong friends reunite in the small ski resort town of Emerald Pines, Colorado, for their ten-year high school reunion -- professional chef Brenda Lattimore, celebrity video game streamer Sadie Bedford, ski instructor Michelle Min, and local business owner Colette Hansen. Over drinks and dinner the night before the reunion, the girls discover that unbeknownst to them, Brenda had slept with one of their classmates, the quiet social outcast Garrett West.

A strong blizzard during their senior year caused Garrett and Brenda to get snowed in together while working on an extra credit project at Brenda's house in the mountains, much to the dismay of Danny Eastman, a high school basketball star who was both Brenda's boyfriend and a frequent tormentor of Garrett. An act of kindness on Brenda's part leads to the discovery that Danny had cheated on her. Betrayed and hurt, Brenda enlists Garrett as a quick rebound, only for their encounter to turn into a passionate night. Sadly, the attempt to build upon their weekend together is ruined when Danny pummels Garrett for simply talking to Brenda.

Once Brenda finished her story, Colette confides to the group that she too had slept with Garrett a few weeks previous. Sadie adds that she too had slept with Garrett, in her case on prom night, while Michelle admits she also hooked up with Garrett when they ran into each other on Spring Break. Over the salad course, Sadie begins to spin her tale...

X X X X X

Come As You Are

Volume II - Sadie's Story

Chapter One - "Pull Shapes"

X X X X X

"The salads here are still as good as I remember..."

"Nice try Sadie," interrupted Michelle. "You don't get to slide out of this one."

"I'm NOT trying to slide out. I'm actually saying the salads here are still really good!" As the teenaged busboy took their empty wooden salad bowls Sadie looked at her friends gathered around the table. "I'm just... all the times we've met up after high school and sat around to dish, talk about the old days, and the name Garrett West never came up. Even when we'd reminisce about Gio, we rarely mentioned Garrett. We talked about Vienna more than him! You'd think in all this time one of us would have said something or let it slip."

"He did go radio silent," countered Colette. "No Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram. Just a handful of texts. Just like in high school, he was easily forgettable. And now here we are ready to talk about how each of us slept with him..."

"I didn't just sleep with him, I banged the hell out of him." There was a hint of pride in Michelle's statement.

"Word choice aside," Brenda chuckled, "it's still weird. All the time we've known each other and this is the one thing we all kept secret."

Colette nodded in agreement. "We all have good reasons. Brenda didn't want Danny to beat up Garrett, I only slept with him this past week, and Michelle... embarrassment?" Michelle nodded half-heartedly, making a see-saw motion with the hand holding her wine glass. "I'm sure you had a good reason too, Sadie. Whatever the reasons, I don't think anyone here is mad or upset, right?" The other three women nodded in agreement with Colette's question. "When you've known each other for as long as we have, there's always still going to be something like this. It's just part of being friends. We all have our own lives now, and you can only share so much over text or a phone call."

Michelle picked up her wine glass. "And I think we can all agree that this is probably why we're letting this all out tonight. To wine."

"To wine!" The four women lightly tapped their glasses together, smiles on their faces as they toasted before drinking. Sadie and Brenda both finished their glasses with the other two women not far behind.

"OK Sadie," Brenda said with playful sternness, "your motion of continuance is over. Your turn to spill. So, prom night?"

X X X X X

"Scoot over."

Sadie did as Michelle asked, sliding a few feet down the bench to let her friend sit down next to her. "Thank God I am DONE," Michelle said as she set a paper bag on the table. "Just got out of my AP Calculus final. I think I crushed it, but I was so tempted to go to the nurse's office and take a nap instead of coming to lunch."

"You would have taken a number," said Colette between bites of her sandwich. "There's a couple of people who had the same idea. I almost joined them."

"How are you holding up?" asked Sadie.

"The new anxiety meds have been a huge help," Colette answered. "We might have finally found the dosage that works for me. I feel confident instead of like I just picked a bouquet of whoopsie-daisies"

"I'm glad I'm done. I don't think I could handle any more stress." Brenda's lunch was a salad and a bottle of water, compared to the slice of pizza and soda that Sadie had just wolfed down.

"Don't you have your History final this afternoon?" asked Michelle.

"I don't have to take it. I had an A all year thanks to extra credit. I just have to help Mrs. Jaine proctor the exam."

"Lucky." Michelle peeled the banana she had taken from the paper bag. "I wouldn't have taken any exams if it wasn't for the damn AP's. Three straight days of tests." She sighed. "At least I can pick up my prom dress this afternoon. They were able to get the exact one I wanted."

"Any chance of hitching a ride?" Sadie asked with a bright smile. "There's a pre-order waiting for me at Gamestop."

"Sure," Michelle answered, "if you don't mind waiting around a bit while we're there. I want to make sure the dress fits and they don't have to make any major alterations."

"No problem." Sadie turned to Brenda and Colette. "So either of you have luck finding a last minute date?"

Colette's shoulders dropped. "Nope. Two days before prom and nothing."

"I heard Aaron Coran was going to ask me," Brenda said. "But then Danny cornered him in the stairwell and now he's taking Jacqueline Caldwell." The platinum blonde put her head in her hands. "A junior! He's taking a junior!"

Sadie crushed the can of Coke. She stared daggers at Danny from across the crowded lunchroom. "You think I could wing him from here?"

The cafeteria of Emerald Pines High School was filled with the sound of teenagers both relieved and concerned about the conclusion of Finals Week, mixed with the clatter of trays and clink of silverware. The four girls sat at the round table in the corner closest to the windows, the same table they had claimed the first lunch period of their freshman year and would soon relinquish to the next generation of students. The same would be true for several other tables - the long table featuring the state champion basketball team led by Danny Eastman, the yearbook and poetry magazine round table chaired by Rosemary McBrenan, and even the picnic tables just outside the cafeteria, whose rotating membership was headed by the inseparable trio of Anthony Giovanni, Vienna Polley, and Garrett West. Today the three were joined by Evelyn Ballion, whose black parasol protected her pale skin from the early summer sun, as well as several of Gio and Michelle's ski teammates. The cafeteria's central table was where Amy Yates, her brown hair perfectly styled and not a thread out of place on her designer clothes, held court for one of the final times. Three popular juniors sat around her, fawning over the current queen bee of Emerald Pines High School in the hopes of being handed the crown upon graduation.

Sadie waved her hand in a circle to encompass Colette and Brenda. "Last year any guy in our class would have knifed someone to be our prom dates. Now? A little peer pressure from Danny, a rumor from Amy, and no one's got the balls to ask any of us."

"No one but Gio," Michelle said. "He walked up in the middle of gym class and asked me, right in front of Danny. He was pissed, but no way was Danny going to pick a fight with him. I don't know who'd win between the two of them but I'd bet pretty much everyone would cheer for Gio."

"Let's go down the list," Colette proposed. "Who's left who doesn't have a date?"

Brenda peered around the cafeteria. "I think Ian Rocker doesn't have one, but he'll spend the entire time in the bathroom getting high... and that's it. That's the only guy in our class who doesn't have a prom date, and no way am I asking him, no matter how desperate I am."

Colette motioned out the window at the picnic tables. "I don't think Garrett is going with anyone. I know for sure Vienna isn't. She's DJ'ing the after-party at Kim Ellis' place."

"I'm not surprised Vienna isn't going," proclaimed Michelle as she dropped her banana peel in her bag. "But who the hell would ask Scarecrow?"

Brenda was tapping her fingers against the table as she looked out the window. Sadie followed her gaze. Garrett was listening to Gio, who appeared to be telling a joke. Garrett's brown hair was still the tangled mop it always was, and in deference to the cool June weather he was wearing a loose red long-sleeved shirt - the opposite of the tight black t-shirt worn by Gio sitting next to him. Six-foot-three, muscular, co-captain of the ski team, and a gorgeous Italian specimen, Anthony "Gio" Giovanni's grin was slowly spreading across his face as he finished his joke.

Sadie could almost see the groan that Vienna made at the punchline. A dirty blonde compared to Brenda's platinum blonde, Vienna dyed her shaved scalp black in contrast. Her hair framed her face, coming down to just above her shoulders. A second-hand gray skirt and hand-me-down black blouse comprised her outfit.

"If you're that worried about prom," Sadie said as she continued to stare out the window, "why not ask Garrett?"

"I thought about it... I did!" Brenda glared at Michelle, who had laughed at both Sadie's question and Brenda's answer. "But Danny hasn't even looked at me since we broke up. If I took Garrett, he might take it as..."

"Shots fired?"

"Yeah, Colette. Danny would see it as his ex-girlfriend and worst enemy teaming up to humiliate him, and I REALLY don't want to deal with that drama on prom night. And I don't want to put Garrett through it either. Ever since Danny beat him up he's just been... he's here, but his brain's already left town. Even Ms. Jaine stopped calling on him in class." Brenda gave her friends a shrug. "Doesn't really matter. In a week and a half, this is all over and done. After this summer those two will never see each other again and I'll be the girl who didn't go to prom."

"It's the dress," Sadie teased. "You bought that dress back in October because it was on sale specifically to wear to prom. You cursed yourself."

"Then why don't YOU ask Garrett to prom?" Brenda countered. "Maybe you could give his brain a jumpstart."

"No way! I'd break that poor boy in half. They'd find him the next morning by the side of the road, absolutely shell shocked."

"Maybe there's still someone who could ask you to prom?" Colette had been gazing off in the distance as her friends volleyed comments back and forth. "It would be a longshot, and you'd have to be open-minded." With a nervous smile, she reached across the table and took Brenda's hand in hers. "Brenda Lattimore, will you come to prom with me?"

"Not funny Colette," Brenda said, trying to pull her hand away.

"I'm being serious! Look, neither of us is going right now. I'm not going to let one of my best friends miss her senior prom, and I'm definitely not going to let you settle for some burnout like Ian Rocker." Colette's smile grew more confident as she kept a hold of Brenda's hand. "Look at it like this - people are going to freak. Danny is DEFINITELY going to freak. Plus I won't pressure you to sleep with me."

"That's the clincher," Brenda laughed. "Yeah, why not? It'll be fun, and one hell of a story to tell our kids."

Michelle looked over at Sadie. "I guess that means Ian Rocker for you."

Sadie pursed her lips together as she considered her options. "No. No, I'll have a date." She patted her ample chest. "Myself. There's always been enough of me to go around, so if I want to take my ass to prom, I'm taking my ass to prom. I mean, hell, you two are going as a couple." She motioned to Colette and Brenda. "Two girls together and one girl apart. If we're going to upset the apple cart, let's light that sucker on fire and shove it off the top of Taylor Peak!"

X X X X X

Mandy Breckenridge looked up as Brenda, Colette, and Sadie walked into the student store. "Hey," she called out warmly from her spot behind the cash register.

"Hey, Mandy." Colette leaned against the counter. "How's it going?"

Mandy tapped the notebook laying in on the counter with a black pen. "Just making a list of what I'm going to need at college. I'm heading to Aurora in a few weeks so I can volunteer at Anschutz Medical before school starts." She closed the notebook and set it to one side. "So, what brings you three in here?"

"We need to buy prom tickets," stated Colette.

"You managed to find dates? That's awesome!" As Mandy grabbed an olive lockbox from underneath the counter, she asked, "Who did you manage to snag?"

"Each other." Colette lightly smacked Brenda on her back. "Brenda's my date."

"That's pretty clever. Good workaround. What about you, Sadie? Who's the lucky guy? Or girl, possibly?"

"It's just me, myself, and I. I'll be taking myself to prom as my own date."

Mandy's hearty laugh briefly filled the student store before she managed to quiet herself. "So you'll be getting drunk and taking advantage of yourself then," she teased. Sadie winked in response, drawing another laugh. "Alright," Mandy said as she opened the lockbox, "it's $40 per person..."

"What is so amusing, Miss Breckenridge?"

Sadie's spine automatically stiffened at the sound of the voice being spoken from the doorway to the back office. Standing with her arms crossed was Miss Starr, the faculty advisor for the Emerald Pines Student Store since the late 1980s. Mandy lowered her eyes to the counter to avoid meeting Miss Starr's stern glare. "Sorry Miss Starr," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to disturb you."

"Thank you. Now I... Miss Bedford." Miss Starr turned in Sadie's direction. "Let me guess. Miss Breckenridge's laughter came as a result of one of your standard crude and inappropriate comments."

"A comment, yes. Crude and inappropriate?" Sadie put a hand against her chest, blinking with faux shock. "I would never violate the sanctity of the high school in such a manner."

The teacher scoffed in response. "I have a mental image from earlier this spring of you and Mr. Huff in the supply pavilion during a soccer game that says otherwise."

Colette turned to look at Sadie. With one hand covering her mouth, she silently asked, "Conrad Huff?" Sadie's response was to shrug and puff one of her cheeks out several times. Her friend immediately recognized the universal gesture, causing her to chuckle even as she blushed somewhat.

"Are you looking to purchase something," asked Miss Starr, "or simply wasting Miss Breckenridge's time?"

Brenda took the lead, stepping forward to stand next to Colette at the counter. "We're here to buy prom tickets, Miss Starr."

The teacher stood in the doorway, keeping her firm glare, as Mandy opened the lockbox. "OK," she repeated, "that's $40 per person. I can break a fifty no problem if that's all you have."

Sadie began digging through her backpack for her wallet while Colette reached into the front pocket of her jean overalls, coming out with four folded bills. "Would you take four American $20 bills in non-sequential order?"

"Absolutely." Mandy took the money from Colette, rapidly counting it before adding it to the lockbox. In return, she laid a green ticket on the counter and set the pen next to it. "Just sign your name on the line, one on the top and one on the bottom. Present it at the door on Friday night." Sadie watched as Colette took the pen and messily scrawled her signature on the top line before sliding the ticket over to Brenda.

As Brenda picked up the pen, however, Miss Starr coughed semi-politely. "No, Miss Lattimore. Miss Hansen's date signs underneath her signature. You and Miss Bedford will sign your own tickets."

"Oh no, Miss Starr, it's OK. Colette and I are going to prom together."

Miss Starr's eyes narrowed behind her glasses. Sadie involuntarily shivered as the temperature in the student store dropped almost twenty degrees from nothing more than the negative waves emanating from the older woman. "Absolutely not," Miss Starr stated, each syllable drilled through with a core of righteous indignation. "Two young women may not go to the prom together. It's against regulations." The teacher's hands went to her hips in an attempt to signify the finality of her infallible statement. "Two women on a date? Imagine what all those young men will be thinking when they see you together!"

Sadie held up her hand. "Miss Starr, it's prom night. Believe me, the young men will be thinking about it anyway."

"Maybe when they look at you, Miss Bedford. Now, be quiet. Miss Hansen, you and Miss Lattimore will have to find male dates if you wish to attend the senior prom."

"There aren't any more eligible males in the senior class, Miss Starr." Colette motioned to Brenda and Sadie. "They're all taken. There's no one left to ask us to prom."

"That's not my concern. Miss Breckenridge, please take the ticket back from Miss Hansen and return her the eighty dollars..."

Brenda quickly snatched the green ticket from the countertop. Even as Miss Starr was opening her mouth to protest, Brenda had the ticket against Sadie's shoulder, black pen in hand. "The ticket has been paid for, " she said, "and... as of now, it's been signed by the two of us." The pen was placed back on the counter before Brenda calmly slid the ticket into the front pocket of Colette's overalls. "Everything is above board," Brenda told Miss Starr. "We followed the rules and did what the bulletin said. It's our senior prom, Miss Starr. Let us have this. Please?"

There was no hesitation in Miss Starr's response. "No. Rules are rules..."

"Good afternoon, everyone."

All five women turned towards the entrance to the student store as a middle-aged woman with pale blonde hair wearing a dark blue pants suit walked into the room. "How are we doing?" asked Doctor Johnson, Head Principal of Emerald Pines Senior High School.

"Just getting our prom tickets," Sadie answered quickly before Miss Starr could dominate the conversation.

"Nothing like waiting until the last minute," the administrator said with a polite smile. "Miss Starr, could I grab you for a moment? The contractors want to start working on this space the Monday after graduation and I want to see when the best time would be to clear everything out."

"Of course," Miss Starr answered in a coldly polite tone. "I just need to deal with this issue." She gestured to the three young women at the front counter. "Miss Hansen and Miss Lattimore are attempting to go to prom together as each other's dates, and they refuse to listen to me when I tell them such a pairing is strictly forbidden."