Figuring a greeting like that would be too rude after such a wonderful hug, I decided that I would indeed engage her in a little small talk. Besides, I wanted to appear disinterested. I still did not know the true motives behind this meeting. I didn't want her to know that since I agreed to our lunch date, I have been waiting on bated breath to hear what she had to say.

"Is that a virgin margarita," I asked as I sat next to her. I turned to the bartender and ordered myself a virgin strawberry daiquiri.

"Nope, it has Patron in it. Wanna sip?"

"No thanks. I have to go back to work."

"Well I don't. Anyway, that is why God made mints."

The bartender sat my drink down. I went in my purse to pull out my Visa debit card, but Katrina stopped me. She paid for my drink and wouldn't take no for an answer. We sat for a moment and quietly sipped our drinks. I decided to reignite our conversation by making small talk, but before I could think of some clever introduction, Katrina began to divulge the reason why we were meeting.

"I wanna apologize," she said.

"For what," I asked.

"For not being a better friend to you after what happened at the club, I felt like I was the cause of all of that drama. I thought you were mad at me and was cutting us all off."

"I thought you guys wanted to stay away," I replied as I shrugged my shoulders. "I know this whole thing must be strange for everyone. I'm thankful that you showed me the pictures. It hurt to see them, but at least now I know the truth…and I know how close you and Michelle are. I'm sure you felt torn this whole time. I thought maybe you felt that the bond you had with Michelle was stronger."

Katrina looked at me as if my eyes had just popped out of the sockets – it was a look of shock and disgust. She laughed.

"Strong bond? Jade, the only bond I shared with Michelle is the certainty of knowing that with her I must always watch my back. She is the personification of the word 'frienemy.' I always knew she was an opportunist. Half of the grades she received were due to final exams completed on her back."

This time my eyes did bug out of my head. "Shut up Trina! Are you telling me she has been screwing professors?"

"Are you listening? I know of at least three. That is what she does. She has sex with them and then threatens to expose them. She is the caramel Monica Lewinsky – keeping mementos as hostage. The grade is ransom. Once she gets the grade she releases it."

"I remember she told me that some history professor was interested in her. She said that she went out on a few dates with him after the semester was over and that she ultimately ended it because she felt like it was still a conflict of interest and immoral."

Katrina spit out her drink from laughter. "Immoral…. Jade please, that should be her middle name. She is one of the biggest scam artists that I know. How do you think she pays for her tuition? Through check scams that's how…when I first met her she was stripping three nights a week."

"Word? Trina, stop playing."

"Yes indeed. Let's see if we can move to a booth and order."

"I really didn't ask you lunch to talk about her business as far as school goes. I'm not one to put people's business out on blast. I had two reasons for calling you. One was to apologize for not warning you."

"What do you mean by that," I asked.

"I really hate seeing the way things went down with the group. We were all so close. Sometimes I still can't believe all that has happened, but if I would have said something maybe things would be different."

"Trina…you are losing me. What are you saying? Did you know that Justin and Michelle were creeping?"

"No! I'm sure there were signs. I mean, Ty picked up on it didn't he? To be honest, I was oblivious to anything that they might have been doing. I don't know if you knew, but Skeeter and I were kicking it."

"I saw that you two were extra flirty, but that is all I thought it was."

"Well, both us had decided to cool things down because we were starting to have arguments. Besides, I don't want to be serious with anyone. But what I mean by saying something is that I should've told you that she did the same thing to me."

"You can't feel bad about that Trina. Justin and Michelle are grown."

"True dat. I didn't know Justin and Michelle were fooling around until I saw them acting out at the club that night and that is when I sent you the pictures. After that thing in the club, I thought the group was dead."

"I thought so too. I haven't spoken to anyone. Are you guys still getting together?"

"We weren't until last weekend. We all got together for Justin family's barbeque in Cape Cod."

Each year Justin's family has a big three-day barbecue at their house in Cape Cod. The Gardner's invited all their neighbors as well as the employees and their families from the headquarter office of Justin father's company. They have live music, a DJ, activities galore, and fireworks on the last day. The food is catered from this place in Atlanta and is out of this world. When Justin and I were together, I use to love to take part in them. I used to assist his mom with the planning and helped her play hostess. We really became close from those events. I miss not being able to go this year as well as the contact I lost with his mom. I haven't talk to her since the break up. Justin and I had talked about bringing the group to the Cape for the barbecue this year. I didn't think he would go through with it now that the group dynamic had changed.

"Aren't those barbecues fabulous? I used to look forward to them, Thanksgiving, and Christmas when he and I were together. We talked about having you guys come with us. Hmmm…so he brought y'all huh?

"Yup…. and that thing was off the hook. I have never seen anything like it. VH-1 should do a special on it."

We both began to laugh.

"I guess Michelle was there too," I said as I drew the corner of my lips tight.

"Of course she was," Trina said as she gave me the duh face. "She was acting like Cinderella and he was acting like prince charming…or should I say the puppet prince charming"

"Word!"

"Not hardly," she said as she sipped the last drop of her margarita, "Michelle called her "mom", and Mrs. Gardner gave her a look like she was not impressed. She even asked Justin what was wrong with him at dinner. When his mom was around she was constantly giving Michelle the crooked eye. Skeeter told me that Mrs. Gardner told Justin that he could do better and that Michelle isn't the girl for him."

"Wow."

"Uh huh…. doesn't surprise me. My parents didn't care for her either. Older people have a better BS detector than we do. The barbeque was nice and all…but their display offended me the whole weekend. Especially after I realized that she was wearing your great grandmother's jewelry."

There it was…the reason why Katrina called me here. I dropped my fork and leaned forward. My face froze and turned into cement. "What! What do you mean that bitch had on my great grandmother's jewelry?"

"Like I said, she was wearing your great grandmother's antique estate jewelry. The necklace, earrings, and the ring…I remember when you showed them to us. You wore them on New Year's when we went out. Did you leave the jewelry at Justin's house?"

"Yeah I did. But…Justin wouldn't do…are you sure it was my great grandmother's pieces?"

"I am positive. Now you understand why I said I was disgusted. If you don't believe me look."

Katrina took her phone out of her purse and showed me a picture of all of them at the barbeque. Sure enough Michelle was wearing my great grandmother's jewelry. Immediately my head began to pound, I have never felt so violated. The jewelry is a family heirloom, the only thing that I have that belonged to my great grandmother. How dare he give it to her? It is not even his to give.

How dare she wear something that she knows belongs to me? She has no shame. My brain looked past the pain and began to percolate with ideas. I knew what I was going to do. This thing has gotten gutter dirty--so it looks like I'm going to have to get grimy.