“Sometimes you don’t have to give people a chance,” I said, scowling. “If you’re going to be pissed off at me for the simple fact of me talking to someone at a party who isn’t you, fine then. I think you’re jealous, and it’s really pathetic.”
I turned back to my work and realized my face was probably just as red as hers was. I can’t really explain the emotions I felt. One part of me was glad I had hurt Josephine, but I couldn’t really figure out what she had done to me. The other was really damn upset and wanted to apologize. But I knew I wasn’t going to. It really bothered me that I wanted Josephine to be upset. I was not a callous person. She was my friend. My first real friend. Why did I want to turn this on her?
After a while she spoke again. “Listen, I’m sorry,” she said softly, keeping her eyes on her work. “I just felt hurt, that’s all. It was stupid of me. Of course I’m totally fine with you making new friends.”
She paused, and I knew that it was my turn to apologize. “I’m sorry too, Josephine. I guess I just got caught up talking to that girl, because we like a lot of the same bands.”
We worked quietly for a while, and Josephine suddenly said, “You should be careful with Fern.”
“Why’s that?”
“She’s weird.”
“Oh, we’re all weird,” I said.
“No, I mean really weird.” Josephine lowered her voice conspiratorially. “When I went to Our Lady, I knew her. She was in a bunch of my classes. Everyone used to say stuff about her.”
“What stuff?”
“Like, she’s into Satanism and shit like that. Do you re-mem-ber in the newspapers a year ago, last winter, about those peacocks in the petting zoo at Bingeman Park? How someone broke in there at night and killed a bunch of them?”
“Yeah, my dad was talking about that.”
“Yeah, well they say Fern was one of the people who killed them. That it was like a sacrifice to the devil, something like that. And it gets worse.”
I stared at her, waiting.
“I guess her family had a dog and she killed the dog too. Sacrificed him to the devil. And she has an older brother. They say she has sex with him, that he’s a devil worshipper too, and they have, like, orgies with the other devil worshippers in their coven, or whatever.”
“Witches have covens, not devil worshippers,” I said.
“Whatever. It’s all the same shit.”
“Josephine, I don’t believe any of that. It’s just stupid gossip.”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “But I know Fern better than you do, and I know she’s weird.”
“People just like to pick on people who are different,” I said. “Fern listens to music and dresses different from most of the people at school. So they have to go make up rumours about her. This is exactly the same kind of stuff an asshole like Brandi would start about me. I mean, how would anyone know what happened to her dog?”
“I don’t know,” Josephine said. “You’re right, it could just be gossip, I guess. But what I’m telling you is to be careful. I don’t know anyone who likes her.”
“Well, now you do,” I said.
xXx
I felt exhausted for the rest of that day over the argument we’d had. All that crap about Fern was so obviously just stupid gossip, churned out by the assholes. Incest and killing animals? It was completely ridiculous, and how weak of Josephine to buy into it. How lame of her to tell me! All it did was prove my point, that she was jealous about me and Fern developing a friendship, and she wanted to try to ruin things. I mean, it didn’t even make sense. Orgies? How had that managed to leak out into the school gossip system? Had someone seen her kill her family’s dog, or caught her having sex with her brother?
The worst part of it all was that I was now thinking about what Josephine had said. Of course I knew it was garbage; none of it was true and Josephine should be fucking ashamed of herself for perpetuating it. On the other hand, I couldn’t help but be a tiny bit interested in the potential shred of truth in all of it. Was Fern really into devil worship? Killing her dog and sleeping with her brother were revolting concepts, but I couldn’t help but feel scandalized in a very fascinated way.