The Ties That Bind: Part Six

     "I'm sorry, uh, I really need to go," Sam muttered, trying to walk away, but Krystal's slimy claw grabbed hold of the faerie Uni's shoulder. The Krawk dragged Sam back toward her. "Hey, what are you--?"

     Krystal smirked, showing her pointed, blindingly white teeth. Sam remembered that smirk. That mischievous, vile--

     "I just thought we could do some catching up! I mean, I haven't seen you in what, two years?" Krystal asked, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. Sam raised an eyebrow. She wasn't going to fall for Krystal's nasty tricks. She knew what this Krawk was capable of, and she wasn't going to be fooled like she'd been fooled before.

     "No, Krystal. Like I said, I really have to get going," Sam insisted, backing away from the Krawk slowly.

     Krystal frowned and said, "Sam, I know what I did, and it was totally wrong. But that was such a long time ago. I've changed, I really have. Please, just give me a chance... I really do want to catch up with you."

     Sam narrowed her eyes, but didn't respond.

     "I mean, we used to be best friends..." Krystal said softly.

     And it was true. Krystal and Sam had been best friends. But that was a long time ago. Sam couldn't give Krystal any sympathy. She couldn't dwell on the past. The past was behind her. The past only reminded her of painful memories she'd rather let rot in the back of her mind.

     But unfortunately, something inside of Sam glued her feet to the ground. The faerie Uni looked over at the skating rink, knowing her owner and sister would be missing her, but...

     Catching up with old friends was way more important, right?!

     Right...

     -

     "So... you go to a different school now?"

     "Yes. I transferred the year after you left." Krystal paused, wondering if she should continue. She nibbled on her chocolate chip cookie and washed it down with her mug of Snowberry Tea. "I... after you left... I had no friends. I was alone. I thought I might as well just start from scratch again. Nobody wanted to talk to me after what happened."

     The red Krawk frowned, sniffing as she set her cookie down on the table. She patted around her eyes with the back of her hand, appearing to be crying. Sam rolled her eyes.

     Well, let's see, Sam thought, glaring at Krystal as she took another drink of her tea, there is a REASON nobody talked to you! Everyone HATED you! DUH! You impudent, manipulative little--

     Krystal looked up suddenly, and Sam smiled warmly.

     "Sooo..."

     Awkward silence. Sam peered around the mostly-empty coffee shop, shuffling her feet on the ground nervously as she waited for Krystal to say something.

     Anyway, as I was thinking... I'm glad you didn't have any friends! You didn't deserve any! Not after what you did! I can't even believe I'm sitting here with you, drinking tea and eating biscuits like everything's fine and dandy!

     Sam stuffed half of her Tigersquash Iced Bun into her mouth, chewing like a Kau. She was about to get up and leave, but Krystal started to talk again.

     "You know, sometimes I don't even know why I did what I did. It was so horrible of me..." she trailed off, looking out the window at random children who were pelting snowballs at each other's faces.

     Sam tried to remember what exactly it was that Krystal had done. I was such a long time ago...

     Oh, yeah.

     Krystal had told Sam that Mel hated her, in order to tear Sam and Mel apart. That of course was a lie. Krystal had hated Mel from the day she met her, and had always been competing against her for the position of Sam's best friend.

     So, of course, Sam got mad at Mel, and wouldn't talk to her. Mel realized what Krystal had told Sam, and... well, the rest is history. They ended up not speaking to each other for the remainder of the year, and then Sam moved at the beginning of the following school year.

     Tragic.

     "...I guess I was just jealous of Mel. I wanted to be your best friend. I wanted to be the one you chose when you could only pick one friend to bring with you to the Twisted Roses concert, or when you had a sleepover. I wanted to be the one you'd ask for advice, the one who you shared the most inside jokes with. And that's... the truth." Krystal sighed, and for once, Sam could hear the honesty gushing out from every word the Krawk said. After thinking everything Krystal had ever said to her had been a lie, Sam was starting to believe there really was a real person, a heart under all that ice.

     "Actually, that's... exactly how I feel right now with Mel. There's this stupid Zafara girl who is supposedly her new best friend, and Mel is totally ignoring me the whole time I'm here because I didn't write her every single day of my life after I moved. Uh, hello, I have a life?!"

     Krystal chuckled slightly, and Sam gave her a confused and slightly shocked look.

     "What're you laughing about? This is serious! And it stinks!"

     Krystal just shook her head, and that smirk started to form on her face again. "Do you want your friend back, Sam?"

     The faerie Uni nodded, setting her elbow on the table tiredly. "Yes! Yes I do! I've been trying to make her jealous by using Garret, that kooky little twerp, but I think he's just making things worse." She groaned, rubbing her forehead with her hoof.

     "Well, if you want your friend back... I can help you with that."

     Sam raised a brow. Could she trust Krystal? Did she really want this evil red Krawk to 'help' her? Knowing Krystal, it would probably just backfire and make Mel hate her even more than she already did.

     "You just need to keep doing what you're doing. Hang out with Garret. Make her even more jealous," Krystal continued, finishing the last of her drink.

     "Yeah, but that's pretty much impossible now. Garret is totally avoiding me."

     Krystal moved her eyes around the cafe, deep in thought. "Hm. Well, I guess we'll just have to bring it up to the next level," she decided.

     "We'll?" Sam asked, a little confused. Krystal smirked.

     "Exactly."

     -

     Garret stirred suddenly from his sleep -- he had dozed off while trying to finish some homework that was due tomorrow. Someone was knocking at the door. The Eyrie got up and went down the hallway to answer it.

     "Dude!" Mikey shouted as he charged into Garret's house, closely followed by Chad. "You'll never guess what happened!"

     Garret wrinkled his eyebrows. He wasn't up for Chad and Mikey's little guessing games at the moment. In fact, he wished he had the guts to just kick them both out of his house.

     "Come on! Just guess once!" Chad pleaded, giving Garret the Poogle puppy eyes. The Eyrie sighed.

     "You... saw Fyora and she gave you a billion neopoints."

     "No! Even better!" Mikey exclaimed. "We were at Mel and Kelsie's house and..." The green Shoyru trailed off and reached into his pocket for something.

     "And... GUESS WHAT WE FOUND!" Chad finished, spinning around in circles and doing a little jig.

     "What?" Garret questioned eagerly. Mikey pulled two square-shaped yellow pieces of paper out of his pocket and handed them to Garret.

     "Party invitations," he said, grinning widely. "Snatched 'em for ya."

     Garret looked down at the yellow pieces of paper.

     You've been invited...

     To Kally Kay's big birthday bonanza!

     When? On Saturday, twentieth of Running.

     Time? At seven p.m. to midnight.

     Where? Kally Kay's mansion, of course.

     Please RSVP to the hugest party of the year!

     This invitation is good for ONE ADMITTANCE ONLY

     STAY AWAY FROM THE PARTY IF YOU AREN'T INVITED!

     (Invitation stealers will be persecuted!)

     You have been warned...

     Oh, and dress nice of course!

     DON'T FORGET TO BRING A PRESENT. :)

     Garret looked up at Mikey and Chad.

     "Who the heck is Kally Kay?"

     "Er... actually, we don't even know. I think she's Kelsie's aunt or something weird like that."

     Garret sighed. He was sort of disappointed in Mikey and Chad for stealing again. Sure, it was just a couple of invitations to a lame party, but their new hobby was beginning to really tick him off.

     "So just give one of them to Sam and she'll be really happy! And don't forget to tell her it was us who got them!" Mikey winked, nudging Garret in the stomach with his elbow. Garret groaned.

     "Yeah, whatever..."

     "Anyway, we have to go now," Mikey said quickly, pushing Chad back towards the front door. "See you later."

     "Don't forget to tell Sam we were the ones who got the invitations!" Chad added before slamming the door behind them.

     Garret sighed again, dragging his feet as he inched back toward the table where his math homework was sitting.

     How was he going to get out of this? He didn't want to go to the party, he didn't want to keep hanging out with Sam, and he didn't really want to be friends with Mikey and Chad anymore. All he wanted was to get Mel to be his friend again.

     Maybe the best option was to wait it out. After Sam was gone, everything would go back to normal, right?

To be continued...