"I CANT BELIEVE THE MUSICAL IS IN A FEW DAYS!" Jessie yells excitedly,causing people at other tables to be startled and look over, "calm down!" Clara lightly slaps his arm and shakes her head in annoyance,she doesn't want the attention of others looking over,neither do I. I sigh heavily at the mention of the musical,I wish I was able to be perform and be apart of it,but now it was definitely too late,so should I even bother keeping to my Dr's plan of eating meals? Clara notices my hesitance as I pick at my food and gives me a gentle smile of concern. "Are you all coming to the wizard of oz?" Jessie looks round the table, Ryan isn't back from the bathroom yet so he can't ask him,though I suspect it'll be a no. Clara shakes her head looking at me "I'm not going because Ellies not in it anymore, unless your going Ellie? Then I'll come to support you if I haven't got to babysit my little sister" we smile in unison,it's nice to know I'll have Clara's support if I watch the musical I was supposed to be staring in,before my parents pulled me out of it to focus on healing my relationship with food,which is just force feeding really. Jessie leans over the table and puts his hands in a prayer like position "please,please come Ellie, I'm throwing an after party in my hobby hall after and ther-" "a party?" Clara perks up eager to know more, "will there be...refreshments?" She has a michevious look plastered on her face as she presses Jessie for more after party details, just as she does Ryan comes back from the bathroom and I'm sure he's going to decline the party invitation buy I'm shocked when he accepts. Maybe Jessie has an aura about him?
"I don't know if my parents will let me go to a party?" I shyly interject, Jessie's face frowns but Clara jumps in her seat as an idea pops into her head.
"We'll tell them your staying at mine after,for a sleepover!" She beams with pride at her idea and Ryan nods excitedly excited for us all to party later this week.
"It's a shame you couldn't be in it Ellie,please finish your lunch" Ryan points to the remainder of my lunch infront of me.
As Ryan makes the comment about my lunch I look away feeling frustration, it doesn't seem fair that they all know a fraction of the difficulty I have with eating but tell me to eat like im a fussy toddler,staring off at the other tables I notice Eli and his friends walk past, he looks a little angry as he's explaining something to them,I wonder what they're talking about.
One of his friends looks over to our table and with a flirty smile winks, as I follow the eyeline I notice Clara is the one he's winking at and she's returning a flirty gesture back to him. I give Clara a questionable look before laughing in embarrassment for both her and the stranger who winked at her. I notice her head turn and follow them as they walk away somewhere further into the hall amongst the bodies of people,
"Who was that?" I tease her, "oh,that was Tom,Tom Kingsley" she blushes "we have a lesson together" she tries to cover her roses cheaks as I tease her more. Jessie abruptly stands up from the table pointing over to some students I recognise from musical theatre practice when I first joined "Hey I'm going to go invite others from the musical to the after party" "be right back" he stops by me placing a hand on my shoulder and whispering in my ear "don't worry I'm not inviting tone deaf Beth" I giggle, Beth really was tone deaf when we would all rehearse "thank goodness!" I whisper back as he leaves our table and follows after the group of musical teens that entered the cafeteria not long ago.
As I pick after the food infront of me I start jiggling my leg,its maybe an inrriational thought,or perhaps a valid one but my head tells me that if I jiggle and shake my leg whilst I eat ill be burning calories at the same time and that makes me feel less guilty about eating,if it were up to me I wouldn't eat my lunch at all but I know Clara would report back to my dad about this,and Ryan would possible say something to my brother like him and Jessie did not long ago. Clara's finished her lunch and smiles at me from across the table then her smile quickly turns to a frown as she is peering behind me, I turn to see across from us in the cafeteria a irritated yet calm Jessie trying to reason with a hot-headed Eli, I cant make out what they're saying as they're far from our table but shouting has started and I can make out some words a "Calm down you buffoon!" from Jessie.
Students heads around us are turning towards the loud aggressive bickering between Jessie and Eli as Eli throws a punch and Jessie swiftly ducks,then Eli grabs his collar and the rich boy kicks his shin,then Eli jabs a right hook in his face,then a left,then a right and then- "break it up! Break it up!".
An important looking member of staff who I'd only seen in reception interrupts the boys with her strong presence. She is rather slim and tall,with oval shaped glasses and a pointy nose,her hair is as sleek as a car bonnet and her clothes look like they've been taken off a barbie doll,steam pressed,sophisticated and posh. With just a hand pushed between the boys fury fit she breaks up their fight and leads them both out of the cafeteria,presumably to the heads office. I wonder what trouble my brother might get in,and I hope Jessie's okay, Eli really knocked into him with his knuckles.
"What the hell!" Clara yells looking towards me then Ryan, "who started the fight? What were they arguing about before,did anyone of you hear?" I ask the table,listening diligently for answers.
"Your brother,Ellie,is a vicious little shit" Clara slams a hand on the table,shaking her head in disgust "I don't understand HOW you two are related" she adds. I fiddle with my hands nervously,I'm not like my brother,I'd hate for them to think I'd hurt anyone violently like that. "Eli started the fight, I dont know why though. I know Jessie can be...stuck up at times,but not 'punch him in the face' spoiled" Ryan rolls his eyes and shakes his head too,then gives me a sympathetic smile "he's not like that at home is he?" Ryan's tilts his head in concern as he asks and I feel myself freeze up a little, I feel a slight sense of relief that someone can see that things aren't okay at home but when I go to speak Clara cuts me off from responding "Ryan did you not see how Eli responded when I wanted to have Ellie over for a sleepover? He's overly protective of her" she speaks as though I'm not in the room " he might be an ass but he clearly wouldn't hurt ellie". If only they knew.
YOU ARE READING
My Brother.
Short StoryChapters out at least once a week. A dark story about being abused by twin brother and escaping it. Trigger warning for abuse in this story. This was difficult to go through so please don't read this or continue to read this if it could trigger you.
