Free Hush Money by Susan Bischoff

finality of imparting some great piece of
wisdom.
    “Duh.”
    “And the thing with bullies is that they’re
really cowards. All talk, no action. I mean, what’s he ever really done? Nothing. Classic bully behavior is to rely on the fact
that people feel threatened and capitulate before they ever have to
bring about any actual consequences.”
    Classic bully behavior? Capitulate? I
felt like I had just walked into a Psych 101 lecture hall. Then I
remembered my dad saying, when they had first moved to Fairview,
that Kat’s father was the new psych prof at the college. Lord,
save us.
    “Plus, he’s just a stupid thug, Joss. We
can’t let ourselves be afraid of an idiot like that. All we have to
do is show him and everybody else that he’s not all that, he’s not
so tough, then it’s going to be impossible for him to push us or
anybody else around any more.”
    While she was spewing this insanity, I heard
the doorbell, voices, footsteps on the stairs, and then the Three
Musketeers burst through the door in a fit of giggles that stopped
when they saw me. Maybe I have that effect on people. But they were
friendly enough and said hi to me before they hit Kat’s
snacky buffet and started making themselves comfortable. I wondered
whose seat I was occupying.
    “We all hate that chair,” Heather said
suddenly. When I looked over at her she was taking a long drink of
soda.
    “I’m surprised Kat got anyone to sit in it. I
hope you don’t fall on your head.”
    I looked at Maddy, but it didn’t seem like
she was making fun of me, exactly. Still, I just wanted to get out
of there. It had been over ten years since I’d hung out at a
friend’s house with other girls my age. I was pretty sure the rules
were different now, and I didn’t know them. Plus, there’s no way to
hide in a group of five, especially when you’re the novelty.
    “So…when is this big party supposed to take
place?”
    “Friday night,” Kat said. “Boy/girl,
obviously.”
    “I beg your pardon?” It seemed like I was
saying that a lot. “Party?”
    “For my birthday,” Kat said. “It’s tomorrow,
really, but the party’s this weekend.”
    “Um…oh.”
    “I can’t believe you waited this long to
start planning it,” Maddy said.
    “Nah, my mom’s already totally on that. She
likes to do parties. All I have to do is invite people. And really,
it’s Fairview, so not like anyone’s got big plans for the weekend.
No big.”
    “True enough. Ok, so who’s on the guest
list?”
    And then they commenced to pretty much list
every single person in our class from Angela Mason, cheerleading
goddess, down to Rob Grayson, computer geek. I think they even
would have invited me, whether I’d been in on this planning session
or not. And that begged the question, what was I doing
there?
    “You’re coming, right Joss?” Heather
asked.
    “I, um…have to ask my Dad…”
    “Ask your mom; she likes me,” Kat
grinned.
    I had to smile and roll my eyes at her.
    “And of course we’ll be asking Dylan, just
for you.”
    I choked on my soda and Heather jumped up to
pound me on the back. “Damn, Kat. I hope you plan to be more subtle
in the rest of your matchmaking scheme. Give the girl some
warning.”
    “Matchmaking??” I croaked.
    “No. Inviting both of you to my party is as
far as I’m going with it—”
    “Yet!” Maddy coughed into her glove.
    “—sort of.”
    “What does ‘sort of’ mean?” The edge of
hysteria in my voice was so not cool.
    “The way I see it,” Kat said, “the biggest
impediment to your future happiness with Dylan—”
    “What makes you think I want future happiness
with Dylan??”
    “That would be my eyes, dear. Now, as I was
saying, your problem, as I see it, is Marco. Marco’s pissed off at
you for rejecting him, and Dylan can’t make his move because
Marco’s standing between you. The big bully. We get rid of Marco,
problem solved. Do you see what I’m saying?”
    She was giving me that meaningful