𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 - Ginny and Georgia

17

The sun was shining through the clouds and slightly blinding Amelia as she strolled down the street, making her way home. She was listening to music in an attempt to shut out all the noise around her but most importantly the noise inside of her head.

She started to think of how different things were only a year before. The late weekend nights of Marcus learning her to skateboard as Max sat on the curb laughing at her. The school days of getting to know Peter who just had started at Wellsbury. The sound of chatter at the dinner table as her mother and father joked around. Everything seemed to be simpler back then.

Now, everything was so fucked. Her mother who at times perhaps used to show alcoholism tendencies had become a full-blown alcoholic. Her friendships had gone to shit, and Amelia who would never hurt a fly had turned into a self-destructive, lying, and cheating type of person. Lately, when she looked at herself in the mirror she wouldn't even recognize herself.

But, there was still time for her to try and be better, to turn herself around, and her conversation with Abby made her realize that time was now.

As she entered her room she let out a deep breath as she sat down on her bed, pulling her phone out of her pocket. She felt her fingers shake against her phone as she sent Marcus a message to come over because she had something to tell him.

Five minutes passed before he made it there through her window per usual. He was wearing a white hoodie under his brown jacket and something about the way he had styled his hair that day she liked. Just by getting eye contact with him, she felt like reevaluating what she was about to do. But, she couldn't.

"You wanted to talk?" He said casually, their shoulders grazing as he sat down beside her, leaving Amelia with a feeling of wanting to be closer to him.

She scooted a bit away, fiddling with her hands in her lap as she cleared her throat nervously. "Ehm, yeah..."

She stopped up, completely forgetting the lines that had been playing over and over again in her head as nothing but uncertainty took over her. It was different playing out a scenario in her head of how their conversation would go than sitting there actually having to have it with him.

"So..." He dragged out with a subtly amused smirk
at how the conversation had come to a halt. He turned his head towards her causing one single strand of hair to fall out of place from the rest of it. "Do I get to know the thing you want to tell me today or tomorrow?"

She didn't respond causing Marcus's humorous facial expression to disappear as he noticed Amelia didn't seem all that happy.

"This whole thing of you pretending to be fine and me having to try and figure out what's wrong is starting to become old" He chuckled lowly. What he meant was that it was better to talk about it.

"Says the master of hiding his own feelings" She muttered out pettily under her breath, her eyes straight forward rather than on him.

He furrowed his eyebrows at the comment, not liking nor understanding why she had to turn it around on him as he blurted out defensively "What?"

"I may have been drunk on Friday but I still remembered everything you told me" She continued pushing for whatever reason. She knew that like her, he didn't want to be confronted with his problems unexpectedly and perhaps that was exactly why she did it. It would be easier for them to stop what they were doing if she drove him away.

He got up from the bed, pacing back and forward one time as he ran his fingers through his hair, clearly bothered by it. "Can we just drop this"

"Yeah we should drop this, us" She turned the question around as she too got up from the bed, crossing her arms as she stood in front of him.
"Whatever the hell we've been doing"

"You know that's not what I meant," He said throwing his head slightly back in frustration.

"But, I do" She started. "Have you ever come to think of how what we've been doing can affect the people we care for? Max would lose it if she found out and Peter would become devastated. And, even Padma, how do you think she'd feel if she found out that while you've been hooking up with her, and she's been getting high hopes for something more, you've been screwing someone behind her back?"

"I don't give a fuck about what anyone else thinks" He shook his head determinately as he got closer to her. "This is between you and me"

"So what Marcus? We'll continue with this thing of ours whenever you feel like it, huh? Whenever you're bored with leading on poor Padma you'll just climb through my window, we'll fuck, only for you to leave and pretend like nothing happened until you decide it does?" She let out in infuriation referring to the only time they had slept together, the day he took her virginity.

"It's not like that, Amelia..." He replied lowly, not knowing what to say to fix the situation. He had come over to hang out with her, he didn't expect all of this.

"Then what is it like? For me, it seems like nothing more than me being stupid that night when I kissed you, maybe I was curious as to how it would feel. Then, you kissed me back and we both got caught up in the moment. Clearly, none of us have feelings for the other, we're only two dumb teenagers experimenting"

As the words left Amelia's lips, Marcus felt his jaw clenching and an odd type of pain in his chest. He was having a mixture of emotions that he wasn't able to distinct. All he knew was that he had to cover it up, she couldn't see him reacting that way.

"You're right" He let out with a bitter chuckle as he glanced down onto the floor to try and regain himself. Amelia, on the other hand, didn't notice the strange look on his face, she was too busy fiddling with her hands out of anxiousness and discomfort. By the time she had laid her attention fully back on him again his seconds earlier bothered facial expression had turned blank, hiding any trail of what he truly was feeling.

"I've always seen you as nothing more than a friend anyway so I guess this all was just meaningless shit" He continued with a fake smile and a shrug as he headed for the window.

Meaningless shit.

"Yeah" Amelia replied weakly as she glanced over at the boy who didn't even look back ones as he disappeared out the window. And when he was completely gone, one single tear traveled down her cheek which she instantly wiped away.