You Really Got A Hold On Me

To Know Her Is To Love Her

"What's she doing here?!" 

I asked, as annoyed as Abby was. 

"Who's this Bethany when she's at home?" Pete asked, curious to know what we were talking about.

"Bethany Stewart" I told him, "she goes to our school." 

"And she's a bitch" Abby added, "she's the most popular girl in school and we hate her." 

"Bethany Stewart?" John asked, "I heard me mates talking bout her, everyone knows 'er." 

"What's she doing with Ben?" Abby asked, "she better not be on a date, I'll kill Ben if he's seeing 'er. I'll be back" she said, getting up from her seat and making her way over to Ben and Bethany. 

Even though I had had a silly childhood crush on Abby's brother Ben for years you would think that I would have felt even the tiniest best jealous that I saw Ben with a girl - and Bethany Stewart none the less - but I didn't. I had Paul and that made me happier more than anything - I didn't even think about Ben anymore, ever since I had met Paul - he just seemed to conquer all my feelings, taking them over and invading my thoughts every second of every day. Bethany was welcome to Ben as far as I was concerned, I had Paul. And boy was I proud. Bethany might even see me here with him, I thought. That would show her. 

I turned around and saw Abby folding her arms and Bethany looking as annoying as ever. After a few minutes of talking and Abby pulling Ben to one side for a private chat, she returned to our table. 

"So what happened?" I asked, concerned. 

"It's like she is determined to make my life a misery! Bethany Stewart is dating my brother!" 

"Oh no" I said, knowing that this wasn't good at all. 

"I told Ben he can't go out with her, like c'mon it's Bethany for crying out loud, but he just said he could go out with whoever he wanted and besides she is, and I quote, hot. Now she's gonna be hanging around all the time at home, rubbing it in my face, I just know she's doing it to get back at me for pranking her." Abby said animately. 

"Oh by all means, she's a regular among the lads" John piped up, "rumour's going round that she's slept- " 

"With half the guys in Liverpool" Abby finished off, knowing what John was going to say. "She'll just string him along like she does all the others." 

"And obviously Ben is none the wiser" I said, thinking that Ben probably, unlike most of us, hadn't heard about Bethany Stewart and her reputation. 

Wednesday afternoon came around and I was home from another day at school, trying to ignore the large pile of homework that had been accumulating over the past few days. I knew I would have to deal with it some time or another and I didn't want to work on it tomorrow because tomorrow was Thursday and that meant Paul. Finally Dad would sit down for tea with Paul and the two could talk properly, I only prayed to God that Dad would like Paul and I wanted everything to go smoothly. 

I sat on my bedroom floor, stroking Darcy, thinking about tomorrow evening but then reluctantly grabbed my school books and started on some homework. When I was about half way through our weekly essay for English I heard a knock at the door. 

"I'll get it!" I called to Dad, running down stairs and to the front door. I half thought it might be Paul, coming round for a surprise visit but when I opened the door it was in fact Abby. 

"Abby!" I said, pleased to see her but wondering what she was doing here. "Is everything okay?" 

"Yeah, well no, not really" she said, stepping inside and closing the door behind her. "I'm sorry, I just had to come round because Bethany's at mine with Ben and they're being all lovey dovey in me face y'know, I just had to get outta there or I would have surely punched her."