This is installment #2 of my favorite high school soap opera, so if you need to catch up and read #1, it's located in my last post or in the archives of my personal blog.

And now, the saga continues . . .

Laine had never been with me to my grandparents house. It is my happy place, my paradise. They have a large diving pool, an in ground hot tub and gorgeous landscaping in the large backyard. My grandmother is an interior designer and the house is decorated to perfection. Hermie, their full time housekeeper is and excellent cook and we had amazing meals every day. My favorite room is the guest bedroom, which is all pink and white with the two most comfortable twin sized beds in history. Sleeping in there is like waking up in a pink, lacy dream. From the first day Laine arrived we knew we were in for the summer of our lives. Gorgeous, sunny Southern California, a long list of boys to meet (thanks to my lifelong friend Sheila who lived close by and also EFY the week before.), definite plans to go sailing with Jason, and a beautiful, calm place to stay.

Now, I should probably tell you a little bit about Laine.

Laine was always the gorgeous friend. With her thick dark hair, gorgeous huge green eyes and high cheekbones, she had won some modeling competitions and seemed to have a large flock of male followers wherever she went. We had a joke in our group of friends that whenever we met a group of guys, we always introduced Laine as “the taken one” even if she wasn’t, because if we didn’t, pretty soon most of the guys were fighting over Laine. Now, looking back, I realize this was a bit of an over exaggeration. We all had our fair share of male suitors. Laine just always seemed to have one or more on the verge of obsession, and whenever one was shooed away or took off, another was never far behind. There had also been several instances of stolen boyfriends. So basically, Laine was perfect and gorgeous and she was spending the summer with me and my perfect boy. Does anyone else feel impending DOOM? No? Well, if so you are smarter than I, because I didn’t. Stupid, stupid Kate.

We were having the time of our lives. My grandmother had pretty much given us unlimited use of her sweet car (Volvo station wagon baby! But it was new, leather and had a sunroof! Woot!). I was sixteen, Laine was seventeen, we were hot and we knew it. That’s all we needed. We drove back and forth between Seal Beach and Huntington Beach over and over. We spent endless hours walking both town’s main streets.

Now, not to forget Jason, the dark haired, green eyed soccer playing god from EFY. I had his number and we had plans to get together in a week or so.

As luck would have it, on Laine’s third day in California, we were driving down Seal Beach Main Street and driving in the opposite direction was Jason. He and his family were working on the sailboat that day and had to stop at the hardware store. Our timing was perfect. We parked and I ran excitedly into the hardware store and Jason and I hugged. I introduced him to Laine and we all decided to get together for dinner that night. Now, I was too giddy with lurve and idiotically naïve to realize that this meeting was the beginning of a very bizarre situation.

From that day on, Jason, Laine and I did something together almost every day. There were other meetings with other hot boys mixed between (other stories for other days) but Jason really consumed most of our time. We met his family, met his best friend (intended as a set up for Laine), went on sailing excursions, went and toured his office, went out to dinner again and again and again. I sat in the front seat with him when he drove. We sat next to each other at dinner. He asked me when we could be alone, we hugged and snuggled and did things like that . . . I was gaga for the guy, and from every indication, he felt the same way.

BUT.

I was totally oblivious to what was going on around me.

He had fallen in love with Laine, and she with him. And, as I was the vehicle and enabler keeping them together, they had no intention of ever telling me. So letting me believe he was gaga for me too was the best way to keep them together.

Now, the fun part of Soap Opera Sunday! Other people's soapy stories!!

Here is the list of our participants for the week:

Goofballsworld

Fourier Analyst

The Quiltmakers Gift

Soccer Mom in Denial

Summershine

Temporary? Insanity

Emma Sometimes

Brillig the Great

A2EatWrite

Canadian Flake

Anno's Place

Novembrance

Their links are located on mine or Brillig's personal blogs, so go check them out!

If you’re participating , PLEASE remember to link your post back to me and my fellow conspirator Brillig so that your readers can find the whole soapy list! Rules are in my first blog post if you wanna play too!!