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Well, that escalated quickly.

Tara usually liked that meme, but now it just seemed like a cruel joke. The way things went were just not how they were supposed to go.

It was clear Willow wanted calm. It was something Tara wanted too. Hence the willingness to let Grayson have his peace and be done with it. 

But Allison. Oh Allison. Maybe it was the lack of social interactions in high school. Tara did remember Allison as being somewhat on the nerdy side. But wow, she went right for the pills. Honestly, Tara didn't even remember about the pills. It was so long ago. But clearly Allison did, and she went for Grayson right off the bat on it.

Tessa was right. It was just an effort to play nice. Allison didn't need to go there. Not within the first line.

But there it went, and of course, if there is any sign of imperfections in her paper kingdom, then Amanda had to come running over to smooth out the creases. She even had the nerve to think it was on the women at the bar that caused this? Grayson came over first. Grayson made this situation happen. Yes, Allison fucked up, but the fact that Amanda so quickly lept to his defense without having heard anything, Tara wondered if Amanda tore a calf muscle with that maneuver. At least Tessa had the whole puzzle before commenting.

And the look. It was a quick look, but it was a look. It was clear Amanda still thought Tara was Mike freaking Tyson or something. Still looking down on her. Still unwilling to get her hands dirty to actually accomplish something, and expecting everything to just run on her own clock. Some things never change.

Speaking of things that never changed, it was clear from Grayson's reaction to Allison's shot that the apology was just lip service intended to just smooth things over enough to move on and enjoy the time. For someone who wanted to move on, he definitely did nothing of the sort once he decided to really open up. The self-righteous bullshit that was coming out of his mouth, it could have been fed straight from Amanda, but this appeared to be all goatee. Like he had a Bible out lecturing the women on their silly squabbles. Blanketing them all with that brush when only one of them really spoke like they wanted to fight.

But no, not only did he try and clap back at Allison, he had to go dragging her and Willow into this. Again, talking with an unearned sense of smug satisfaction, as if dressing down the women was going to make him sound any less pretentious. The smile creeping over his face as he said this just made it worse. If he truly wanted peace, he definitely prepared them for war.

And then the kicker, the absolute cherry on the shit sundae that all this created, the proof that Grayson was still Grayson. Not two minutes after addressing Willow and trying to make things better, he goes skipping off with Amanda! Again! Prom 2: Electric Boogaloo! Grayson didn't learn a goddamn thing after 10 years to sit on it. Unfreakingbelievable.

So what was Tara going to do about all this?

There was nothing she could do. If she got up and decked him, it would be proving both members of the snoot squad correct. That is if she even could deck him anymore. She'd probably fail and look even worse and just have the violent streak without the ability to back it up anymore. She'd be a laughingstock, which was worse than being feared or just being a shell of herself. And she didn't have the mental faculties to come up with a quick barb to disarm him. Heck, it took her time just to work up the nerve to even talk to Willow again. The quick wit was sorely lacking at this time.

So Tara sat there and did nothing. Grayson and Amanda walked away. Probably to go have sex in the beach house or something like that. They were clearly done warming up with that performance.

There was silence over the four women remaining at the bar for the moment. The awkward had been ratcheted up to such high levels it was hard to imagine how things could possibly get any more awkward.

At least Allison had enough awareness to break the pause with a subject change. [color=pink]"So, Willow... how are things with you and your husband?"[/color]

[color=217633]"Yeah!"[/color] Tara seconded as she was just as eager to move on from what had happened as she assumed the rest of the party was. She also had no clue how things were going since the deletion of Willow's social media accounts, so this would be a better catch-up then explaining what she was doing in Oviedo. [color=217633]"I mean, you were the last person before Tessa to be able to get me into a dress this fancy, it had better have resulted in a lot happier times than this, right?"[/color] As Rudy came back to check on his customers, Tara polished off the rest of her mojito and motioned to the bartender. [color=217633]"Rudy, you just want to grab that bottle of Jameson on the shelf there and leave it in front of me until it's empty? Thanks a bunch, doll."[/color]

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