Sweet Revenge

When she found the invitation for the college reunion under her door, Sarah had crossed the kitchen and frisbeed it directly into the trash. She’d never gone to one before, why start now?

However, there were two reasons that, not long after, she found herself digging the invitation out, wiping coffee grounds off the surface so she could read the details. First, her life was going really well; she was living in a nice apartment in the city, had just landed her dream job, and even had enough time left over to do the hobbies that made it look like she had her shit together.

Second, Kylie Graham was going to be there.

Just thinking about Kylie Graham made Sarah’s hands clench, her skin hot with irritation. If she was going to be there, then so was Sarah, and she would finally get to enjoy the look on Kylie’s face when she saw just how much Sarah was smashing at life. 

Now, pushing open the door to her old dining hall, following the trail of balloons and crepe paper, Sarah felt a worm of doubt in the pit of her stomach. What if Kylie was doing even better? But no, she had checked all her social media, and as far as she could tell, Kylie was working a day job she didn’t particularly like and still living in the run-down university town. Sarah grinned. I’m so gonna win, she thought.

The dining hall looked exactly as she remembered it, apart from the meager decorations and the tables bearing various punch bowls lined up at the side. People stood, sat, and meandered, while others shuffled around on a makeshift dance floor in the middle of the room. As Sarah surveyed the scene, trying to catch a glimpse of Kylie- ideally looking glum- she saw a hand sprout from the crowd near the drinks table.

Behind the hand emerged a face: Daniel, Sarah’s college friend whom she had met when they both got lost on the way to their first class. He made his way across the room, swiping a punch for her from the table, followed by their two other friends, Eloise and Marianne.

“Well, well, well,” Daniel said, pulling up at her side. “When you said you were coming, I couldn’t quite believe it. I thought maybe you’d pay someone to come wearing a mask of your face instead.”

“And she can afford that now, eh? With her hotshot new job and all.” Marianne said, nudging Sarah in the ribs. Eloise laughed and Sarah rolled her eyes, though she was secretly very glad to see the three of them.

“Please,” she said. “You think I’d spend my new salary on a bad doppelganger? Nah. And besides…I wanted to come.”

She turned her gaze away from scanning the room and found herself face to face with three sets of raised eyebrows.

“You wanted to come?” Eloise looked at her dubiously, then put her finger to her chin as if she were deep in thought. “Hmm, I wonder why…could it have something to do with that blonde over there in the corner?” She gestured with her chin toward the statuesque figure standing on the other side of the dance floor- Kylie Graham. Daniel groaned.

“Oh please don’t tell me you’ve still got that stupid rivalry with her.”

“It’s not a rivalry, she was my nemesis. Is my nemesis. And I’m about to win the game.”

Shooting the group a triumphant glance, she made her way across the crowded room, dodging drunk guests and rowdy footballers. Kylie was chatting to someone as she approached, but almost as if she had a sixth sense, she turned just as Sarah was about to tap her on the shoulder. She fixed her with her signature arch stare and, in an instant, Sarah felt like she was back in college. She instantly remembered all the old times- when Kylie’s grades came out just above hers, or when she beat her out for yet another award in the sorority they were both in.

If she was being honest with herself, Sarah guessed that part of why Kylie annoyed her so much was because they were similar. Watching her do everything she liked to do, but better, had been like a four-year-long torture session. And now, here she was again. Only now, Sarah would be the one who was doing it better. Finally.

She smiled sweetly as Kylie kissed her on both cheeks, a habit the sorority girls had picked up because they thought it made them look classy. Sarah had always thought the image clashed a bit with shotgunning a beer and running naked through campus during trial week, though. Annoyingly, Kylie had even been better at that; they’d been pledges at the same time, and she had jogged through campus in nothing but her infuriatingly gorgeous birthday suit as if she were fresh off her morning coffee and not streaking past the college president’s office.

“Sarah,” she said, letting the name sit in her mouth for a moment before discarding it. “How are you?”

Sarah opened her mouth, perfectly prepared to roll out the speech of her recent accomplishments, when she was stopped short by the arrival of a tall, handsome man dressed in a suit. Kylie smirked, her stupidly perfect mouth practically dripping with relish.

“Oh, sorry. Sarah, this is my boyfriend, Matthew. He’s a lawyer.”

Of course he is. 

She should have known. The one thing Sarah didn’t have to laud over Kylie was her dating status- uncomfortably single. And somehow, Kylie had managed to find the one thing she could top her in and make it seem like the most important thing in the world. The man, Matthew, shot Kylie a glance as she introduced him. He opened his mouth to say something, but she carried on, putting a hand on his arm.

“I hear you have a new job. That’s…nice.” She looked her up and down, and Sarah suddenly felt oddly exposed. “Must be pretty time consuming.”

“No, actually.” She said, trying not to sound too much like a child disagreeing with their older, more mature sibling. “I mean, it is pretty demanding, but I’ve just taken up running, and I recently attended a rug tufting workshop.”

“Ah,” she replied, sounding like Sarah had just told her about this cool new band, The Rolling Stones. “I did rug tufting last year.”

Arrghh, she is so infuriating, Sarah thought, draining her cup of overly-strong punch. Why can’t she just let me have this, just this once?

“Oops, guess I need another drink. You guys want any?” She turned away before they could answer, or before she could say something stupid. On her way back to the drinks table, she forced herself to breathe deeply.

“Ah, Sarah.” Daniel waved her over. “We were just taking bets on whether Eloise is finally going to go for that guy in her office. Thoughts?”

“Huh? Um, I don’t know. Did you guys see that, though? Did you know Kylie has a new boy toy?” Her friends exchanged glances, used to her rants about the blonde ponytail across the room who was currently laughing with the college president.

“Oh, just forget her, Sarah.” Eloise shrugged, handing her another cup of punch.

“You think telling her to forget it will work?” Daniel shook his head like a teacher who had given up on his most disappointing student. “They’ve been obsessed with each other for years.”

“We’re not obsessed with each other; she just gets under my nerves, that’s all.” Sarah narrowed her eyes as Kylie and Matthew walked across the dance floor, exiting towards the bathrooms. “There’s something fishy going on.”

She could feel her friends watching as she sulked across the room in the same direction but decided she didn’t care. She had come here for one reason, and one reason only- to show up Kylie Graham. And that’s what she’s going to do, even if it took a little digging.

Pushing open the door, Sarah was hit by a refreshing waft of cool air after the crush of bodies in the dining hall. For a moment, she was at a loss, trying to work out which way they had gone. But then, she heard voices coming from the men’s bathroom. Slowly, Sarah pulled her heels off and padded down the hall, resisting the urge to cup a hand around her ear.

“...wasn’t what I signed up for.” That was Matthew’s voice. He sounded annoyed.

Sarah grinned and crept closer.

“Oh come on, are you really complaining? I bought you dinner, showed you a good time-”

“A good time?” He sighed. “This is a first date, Kylie. When you offered to pick me up, I didn’t think you’d be taking me to your college reunion. We met on Tinder, for God’s sake.”

Sarah’s mouth dropped open. She couldn’t believe her luck. Had Kylie picked up a guy on Tinder just to show him off at the reunion? Oh, this was fantastic. Her smile dropped, though, as she heard movement and saw Matthew starting to emerge from the bathroom. Sidestepping behind a trophy case, she crossed her fingers that it would hide her as the couple emerged into the hallway.

Matthew came striding past, heading towards the exit and, presumably, a taxi. Kylie followed.

“Matthew! Matt, wait! I’ll stop telling people you’re a lawyer.”

“I work at Dairy Queen, you psycho!”

The door at the far end of the hall slammed shut. Kylie exhaled, her shoulders slumping a little in her skin-tight pink dress. For a moment, Sarah felt kind of sorry for her, standing alone in the darkened hall like a snubbed homecoming princess. She felt sorry for her, that is, until Kylie spotted her.

“Sarah? What the fuck?” Her face went cherry red as she glimpsed her, cowering behind the trophy case. “Were you spying on me?”

“I-”

“Unbelievable. You are unbelievable.”

Without another word, Kylie turned on her perfectly pointed heel and stormed back into the dining hall. Sarah almost felt bad for eavesdropping, until she felt that familiar anger boiling in her veins. No, she thought as she stalked after the queen bee. She does not get to make me look bad.

Shoving open the door, she scanned the room for the hot pink dress disappearing into the crowd. After a moment, she saw her grabbing a man from the edge of the dance floor and dragging him onto it. The man, for his part, looked delighted. Sarah huffed. She didn’t even turn when a voice spoke up at her elbow.

“Hey, Sarah, how are you?”

She didn’t have to turn because she knew who it was. Eli, the guy who’d held a candle for her all throughout college, who seemed to think that flirting consisted mainly of telling her she was wrong about, well, everything. But Eli’s subtle-as-a-bowling-ball chat up lines might actually be convenient for once. She turned and grabbed Eli’s hand so fast he almost pulled it away in shock.

“Do you want to dance?”

Sarah assumed he replied with some kind of affirmative, but she was too busy pulling him onto the dance floor to hear it. The grossly under-qualified DJ happened to be playing a slow song and so, reluctantly, she pulled him in close, scanning the dance floor over his shoulder.

“So, what have you been up to?” Eli asked over the top of her head.

“Shhh.”

She spotted Kylie, who was also looking back at her, and swung Eli in her direction. Now dancing side-by-side, the two girls twirled their unconvinced partners in a battle of sensuality. Sarah resisted the urge to stick out her tongue as Kylie came spinning past.

Suddenly, the song ended and another one started up, a pop beat blaring through the speakers. The two men spotted their opportunity and attempted to escape, but Sarah grabbed Eli’s wrist while Kylie pulled her man back by his jacket collar. The rest of the dancers must have felt the frantic energy coming from the four of them because they soon began to pull away, leaving a space in the middle of the floor.

Sarah, trying out moves she’d never seen before- let alone attempted- began to twist around Eli in a sexy, pole dancer style. Unfortunately, this meant letting go of her partner’s hands and, as soon as he could, he disengaged and shot off the dance floor. He took refuge with Sarah’s friends, who had gathered to watch the train wreck. Sarah wasn’t about to give up, though, and she continued dancing as if no one was watching, when she was, in fact, acutely aware of Kylie’s vengeful gaze.

Kylie, her attention distracted, soon lost hold of her own partner too. He wobbled off the dance floor, presumably in search of the nearest toilets, considering his face was now a shade of green. Kylie and Sarah were the only ones left in the center of the floor. 

Suddenly, and irrevocably, they were in a dance off.

Sarah whipped out a move from high school, pretending not to feel the crack as her shoulder twisted awkwardly. Kylie laughed and responded, impossibly elegant, though the pissed off look on her face slightly ruined the aesthetic. Closer and closer they danced, back and forth, the music getting louder as the song crescendoed, swapping moves like they used to swap backhanded compliments in the halls of the sorority house.

Finally, the song reached a climax and ended with a bang. Saraha and Kylie were left, nose to nose, breathing heavily and trying to work out who was on top. Until-

“Oh, just kiss already!”

Daniel shouted it from the side of the dance floor, fed up with the game the two of them were convinced they were playing. But everyone else has known better for a long time.

Sarah and Kylie looked at each other. Slowly, Kylie grinned.

“You really are always one step behind, huh?”

And she kissed Sarah, deeply, as the gathered crowd cheered and rushed onto the dance floor for the next song. Sarah came up for air, thinking contentedly to herself:

Maybe I am one step behind, but hey, the view’s better back here, anyway.