Breaking the story

Too much Elijah

A stupid giggle forced its way through my lips and I internally fumed. Elijah, his muscles almost bursting through his shirt, was leaning against the wall and talking to me.

"We could sit together on the summer trip...if you're game?" He flashed his gleaming teeth in my face and I couldn't have been more turned off if I tried. His gaze strayed to the gaggle of girls behind me and he tensed his muscles for effect. What a poser.

"Yeah, that sounds great!" I gasped and fake Beatrice's heart swooned. The love of her life had asked to sit beside her on a manky bus full of clichéd teens. The world was perfect. That is, if Grace wasn't shooting me daggers from across the room. Here we go. Her face was glazed and she glared at me.

I was dreading this summer trip. Nobody knew exactly where it would be, but it was sure to be full of suspense and drama. Lucas was lounging beside Bloom, the epitome of relaxed bad boy, but his eyes were on Jenny who sat alone at a table.

Apparently, this was my time to shine.

"You're not like other girls, Beatrice," Elijah said softly. This writer clearly had no original ideas. It was Lucas's tagline about Jenny. Not like other girls...what exactly did that mean?! I walked like a girl, talked like a girl...maybe I was secretly a robot.

"Thanks," I said, blushing. As soon as Elijah had pranced away, Grace made her move.

She stalked towards me like a neon lion, her pink hair making my head pound.

"I didn't know you liked Elijah," she said, her eyes full of small-seriously!-flames. What the hell?! Was I about to be barbecued? Were we in an anime fight scene?

"I-I...well.." Fake Beatrice stammered and I remembered my homemade scene in the book with yearning. Why couldn't the story have gone like that?

"So you do like him. Some friend you are!" Grace half-screamed. She stormed away in a huff and Iris took her arm and glared at me. So it was like that. I felt a flicker of real hurt before I forced it away. This wasn't real. They didn't really hate me.

The scene finally released me and I wanted to cry. I didn't want to feel like this. There had to be some way to change it.

As I turned to leave, a hand touched my shoulder.

"Do you always steal your friend's boyfriends?"

I glowered at Rowan, who watched me with an irritated expression. He stood nonchalantly, a book in one hand and a designer bag in the other. Not just an Uber-snob...but a hot nerd! I felt as if I'd had an epiphany. The writer must be shaking genres up and had made a slapdash smart twat with a penchant for bullying.

"Elijah isn't my boyfriend, so no," I snapped. He smiled as if that pleased him for some reason.

"So you're not sitting with him on the summer trip?" He asked.

"I'm sorry, you're not supposed to remember me," I said, suddenly confused. How could he even remember who I was? "And to answer your question, yes, tragically I will be sitting with Elijah. You should thank me for my sacrifice."

He laughed at that and it transformed his face for a moment. The snobbish expression vanished and a real person emerged.

"Of course I remember you," he said, grinning. "Beatrice, from the Gala. Friends with the scholarship girl."

My surge of hope died, noting the faint sneer which had reappeared on his face.

"She has a name, you know. It's Jenny."