On the Outside Looking In (Wrong Reasons) by JL Paul Page B

reflection.
    “Morgan,” she said, clicking her tongue.
    “Hi, Jessica,” I said.
    Rolling her eyes, she approached the sink, leaning over it to fuss with her makeup, smacking her lips.  “I figured you’d be here.”
    “Oh?” I asked, clinging to my polite façade.  “Why wouldn’t I be here?”
    “Oh, I don’t know,” she said, turning dramatically away from the mirror, her hands gripping the counter behind her back.  “You don’t belong here – or, at least at our table.”
    Anger rippled throughout my body. “Why is that?  Irelyn and Bailey are my friends.”
    “They let you hang around because they feel sorry for you,” Jessica said as if explaining primary colors to a preschooler. 
    “That’s not true,” I said, keeping my head high and beating back my anger.
    “Sure it is,” she said.  “They feel bad for you because you follow them around like a little lost puppy.  Haven’t you noticed that you’re always the last to know things?  They only include you in things because they feel some sort of obligation.  It’s pathetic, really.”
    “Whatever,” I said, shaking my head.  “Irelyn and Bailey are not like that.”
    Shrugging, she turned back to the mirror.  “Believe what you want, I don’t care.”
    “Good,” I said as I walked toward the door.
    “But maybe you should consider something else,” she said, stopping me in my tracks.  “You sit at our table like a third wheel.  You gawk at the guys on the stage, wishing one of them would look at you like a woman and not like a cute little friend.”
    I took a deep breath, my hand on the door knob.  “You’re so full of yourself.”
    “Am I?” she said, turning to me with a fake smile, fluttering her eyelashes.  “Why don’t you get your own boyfriend, huh?  Quit living through the rest of us.  You hang on every word, breathing it in like it’s your life.”
    Narrowing my eyes, I shook my head.  “You’re wrong.”
    “Am I?” she asked, as she took a step forward.  “I see how you watch Spencer and I know you still have a thing for him.”
    I sucked in a breath, holding it in so that it puffed out my chest.  “He’s my friend.”
    “Whatever,” she said.  “You want him so badly.  You hope that he’ll dump me for you.  You want him crying on your shoulder, calling you all the time like he used to do.”
    “Yes,” I said, releasing the breath.  “He used to call me and confide in me, because we are friends.”
    “Not anymore,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.  “You make him uncomfortable, always hanging around.  He’s only nice to you because that’s the type of person he is.  He doesn’t even consider you a friend anymore.  Like I said, you’re that annoying little puppy that won’t go away.”
    She flashed another fake, sarcastic smile before brushing past me and walking out of the room.  I stood there, trembling from head to toe, wondering how I’d be able to sit at that table and pretend like nothing happened.  It wasn’t possible.  Even though I’d vowed earlier to not be that girl who sits home and cries, the one who didn’t run and hide, I’d been wrong.  I was exactly that girl – a coward.
    Checking my composure in the mirror, I walked out of the room and back to the table.  I pasted a smile on my face as I greeted the guys, slipping my coat off the back of my chair.
    “Hey, great set,” I said.  “I can’t hang around for the next one – I have an early shift tomorrow.”
    “Oh,” Irelyn said, the smile slipping off her face.  “That sucks.”
    “I know,” I said, my cheeks beginning to ache from my stiff smile.  I didn’t dare glance in Jessica’s direction.  “I’ll talk to you later, though.”
    Without another word, I spun on my heel, clutching my emotions with both hands, hoping that I would be able to hold onto it until I got to the car.
    “Hey, Morgan,” Evan said, wading through the crowd.
    I waved at him over my