nothing lasts - b.e

|5|

The next morning I pull into Billie's driveway five minutes late, I didn't do it on purpose, my body wasn't used to getting up a whole hour earlier so I got ready a lot slower than intended.

She's stood impatiently outside her door, running her hand through her black hair before walking over to my car, she's holding a large flask of water in one hand and her phone in the other.

When she got in the car, I was fully expecting a snarky comment about my late arrival but she simply put her bag in the backseat and sat down beside me, not saying a word.

I could smell the strong vanilla scent of whatever perfume she had on and was tempted to ask what she had on but my nerves got the better of me and decided to keep my mouth shut.

I reverse out of her driveway before putting on some music to fill the awkward silence between us, my hands were shaky on the steering wheel, I felt beyond anxious.

"I'm sorry I was late", I spoke casually, pretending I was at ease, "Hope it didn't ruin your ever so busy schedule"

"You weren't", she speaks flatly, "I leave at seven thirty, I told you seven twenty-five as I knew you'd be late"

My brows furrow as I let out a scoff, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Every psychology lesson last year, you showed up a second before the bell rung", she explains glancing at me, "It's not an insult, just an observation"

My blood boils, It wasn't a lie, I did turn up just on time for almost every psychology lesson last year but that was only because Amyra's locker was right next to the classroom and I'd loiter there until the very last second.

"So what you're keeping tabs on people's arrival time now?" I snap making her let out a laugh.

"You are so easy to irritate", she says before pulling out her phone.

"I'm much better at getting to my Harvard lectures on time", I begin, a smirk playing on my lips, "But you wouldn't know as you didn't even get in"

Our school got offered thirty places students to attend lectures done by Harvard lecturers in a range of different subjects, it was a rare opportunity for our school as not a lot of students aspired to join ivy league universities due to our location and the school's general reputation.

It was a pretty bad comment for me to make especially because everyone knew Billie was aiming for an ivy league university but I had few cards to play and I wanted to get under her skin and it seemed to work as she put her phone down and glared at me.

"Oh please, you didn't have to do shit to get in, all you had to do was submit your name and they'd just draw your name out if you were lucky and clearly for once, you were lucky", she snapped back, that wasn't true, sure part of it was luck depending how many students applied but they also looked at grades, if you weren't at least an A in every subject, you stood no chance.

"But please, tell me more about how you're so much smarter than me. Not like I haven't heard it before, people just love to assume they're so much better than you when you're 'just a cheerleader' as if I'm not aware of the 'dumb blonde' identity that comes with my sport" she continues, her voice level and calm.

"I never said I was smarter than you", I responded simply.

"You implied it, yet you're the one dumb enough to go out with Amyra Cole and think she wouldn't fuck you over", she said with an unamused laugh making my eyes widen.

"What the fuck did you just say?" I spoke firmly, my heart skyrocketing.

"Oh I'm sorry was that not clear enough for you?", she responded, batting her lashes at me mockingly.