Enemies

by Tijan

One, Stone was a big deal everywhere in this state. Two, he wouldn’t be happy to show me the ropes. He loathed me more than I hated him, and that said a lot. And three, I had a fealing my dad was sitting right next to her. He loathed going to get coffee with the men in town as much as Stone and I despised each other. But, there was an upside to my relationship with Gail. I barely had to speak. It was mostly a one-sided dynamic, and to prove this, Gail kept right on chatting. She would exhaust herself, do both parts of our conversation so it went how she wanted it to go, and once she was happy she’d end the call. Which is what she was doing right now. “Stone is such a sweet boy.” He was an arrogant prick. “And you know, that family. They fell on hard times, too.” His family was rich, and because he could, his dad fired mine shortly after turning their grocery store into a franchise. “And Barb, she just looks so amazing. Her skin was glowing. She looks like she has trimmed down, too.” Barb was haggard looking. Stone’s mom was skinny because she smoked and drank champagne every day. Once every couple days, she’d throw in a piece of chicken, maybe a salad with that. And I knew this because we’d been their neighbors until we were forced to sell the house, and once upon a time, Stone and I had been great friends. I’d been at their house a lot growing up. All that changed once we hit puberty, of course, but Barb just kept getting skinnier and more gaunt-looking. And people talked.