𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒆 - Ellie Williams

four - new friends

12:20pm

Me and Rachel were sitting on my bed, just looking at our individual phones but enjoying each other's company, that's when I saw the time.

"Rache" I smile at her, nudging her shoulder, calling her by her nickname 

"Yeah?" 

"Gotta get ready for track, wanna come?"

"I can come for a bit, but I got a lecture in 45 minutes"

"Alright that's fine."

"Hey after your track thing do you wanna get some food?" Rachel asked

"Nah I'm fine, I had a big breakfast, kind of like a brunch so I'm all good." I said, lying through my teeth

I smile at her and jump off the bed, walking a few steps to my wardrobe and picking out my tight fitting running shirt, since my other one was in the wash, and my running shorts.

I can feel Rachel's eyes on me as I pick out my outfit, I then turn so my back is facing her and take off my shirt and jeans leaving me exposed in only my bra and underwear. It wasn't a big deal though, we were just friends. I swiftly changed into my outfit.

Now fully changed, I walked to my bed to grab my phone when I noticed Rachel looking at me like she wanted to say something, but couldn't.

"You okay?" I ask her with concern

"Yeah it's just- I don't know. Are you sure that..." she pauses "I feel like you might not be telling me the truth, about Ellie I mean. No offence but I just don't buy that you went in her room to study, and stayed behind for an extra 2 hours just talking. I mean you hate her, right?"

I freezed, shit.

"What are you suggesting?" I ask with a hint of cockiness, my head tilting to the side.

"Did you... I don't know, do something with Ellie? Like drugs or...something...more." she gulped as she said it.

"Cmon, your joking right?" I scoff "I told you, I'm straight."

She looks at me, I felt her sensing that I was avoiding answering.

"Fine, let's go." She swiftly gets off the bed. I'm glad she dropped the subject, and I knew it wouldn't be a problem in the future because I promised myself that I would only talk to Ellie during our tutoring sessions, and that it would only be small talk.

—

"3, 2, 1, GO!"

As soon as I heard go I sprinted as fast as I could, I was in third place, but the race was only starting. It wasn't a serious race or anything, just a practice one.

As we approached the finish line I ended in 4th place. Shit

I'm good at running, better than most but that doesn't mean I'm the best. I got chosen for the running team, which I'm still proud of. 

With my hands on my knees standing up and trying to catch my breath, panting, I look up at the bleachers to see if Rachel is there. She's not, guess she went to her lecture.

"Hey, good job!" Said Aisha, one of the other girls on the team. She was faster than me.  She had luscious brown skin and big brown eyes with eyelashes that I could only dream of. She was basically perfect, which is ironic because my nickname is miss perfect. I guess there's worse things to be called.

"Thanks, you too!" I say still trying to catch my breath.

"So me and the other girls are going out for drinks because of the new girl that joined the team. It was sent on the group chat but you didn't respond, just checking if you wanna go." 

"Oh, yeah for sure! Sorry I didn't respond I'm just- erm, busy y'know?" I said 

"Don't worry about it, cmon" she said motioning to where the rest of the girls are, sitting down and sipping on water, taking a break.

I knew most of the girls on the team quite well, and I was intrigued about the new girl joining the team, seeing as she got third place in the race. Better than me.

I walked over to where all the girls where with Aisha and we all chatted for a bit, sitting down. That's when my attention focused on the new girl, I noticed she looked a bit awkward, probably nervous. I decided to talk to her to ease her nerves

"Hey, you did super good in the race" I said as friendly as possible, shifting my cross legged position to face her

"Thanks, you did as well" she smiled

"I'm Avery" 

"I'm Dina" she said

We continued talking, just the two of us. Dina was really nice, like I actually wanted to be friends with her. I mean, the other girls on the team are nice it's just, I felt like they were a bit fake but Dina wasn't. She was authentic and I liked that about her, i think she liked me as well, more than the other girls. Atleast I hope.

—-

I checked my phone, realising that we're probably going to get drinks soon. I pull up the group chat to see what time and see that I missed many, many messages. I finally find a message including what time it was and where to meet, shit.

We were meeting at 9pm and it was currently 8:23, not giving me much time to get ready, oops. I just got busy with studying and forgot about the whole thing.

I got ready quickly, slipping on a tight fitting satin short white dress. I then put on some colourful eyeshadow to make up for the boringly coloured dress. Some lipstick and heels. I grabbed my purse that was pre-packed with all the essentials from going out with Rachel and her friends the other night.

I made my way to the girls apartment, I think her name was Bianca. I knocked on the door to be greeted by all the other girls all dressed up, including Dina. We quickly made our way to the cars. 4 girls were in one care, 4 in the other. That just left me and Dina to get there.

"Uhh, did they just abandon us?" I ask

"Fuck I think they did. How come they left you? I thought you were close with them."

"Kind of, but they're closer to each other. Honestly I can't be bothered to try and befriend them even more, they're not that nice."

"Yeah I can tell." Dina said, referencing the fact that they just abandoned us

Suddenly Dina's face lights up.

"Ooh I have an idea! I got a friend who can drive us. She wanted to come to this thing anyways to 'make sure I wasn't lonely' or something." Dina chuckled, while pulling out her phone to text her friend.

"Wow that's actually perfect." I say, gratefully.

"Okay she immediately responded, she's coming right now. You don't mind her tagging along with us right?"

"Of course not!" I say cheerily

A few minutes later I see someone walking towards us, Dina waves and the figure waves back. But as this person gets closer and closer, I realise that they look familiar. It was dark so I couldn't see that well, but soon enough they got even closer and that's when it clicked.

She walked up and her eyes immediately landed on me, recognising me.

"Avery?!"

"Ellie?!"