A/N - title from What About Her by SM6
Chloe Valentine has always hated vulnerability. It's not okay to show weakness, you have to be strong in front of people unless you are alone.
And even when you are alone you have to keep making sure that side can still be shown. You have to make sure your eyeliner is perfectly straight, your grades can't be anything below a 75 which is still bad, and you have to be commanding. Of course, you have to date the most popular guy at school you don't even like as well.
And if you step out of line on any rule like that then you better be ready for your social life to basically be over.
Chloe knows this better than anyone. Everyone had a place, and she had worked her ass off to keep her place as the hottest, most perfect girl in school. But clearly these rules have been abandoned by Jake.
Stupid, impulsive Jake Dillinger. She really does love him. Ever since he showed up in middle school and wowed everyone, he's been able to worm his way into people and get them to be head over heels.
You're supposed to make everyone love you, but that doesn't mean you can be with just anyone. Chloe and Jake have been broken up for less than a week and she already caught him making some move on this theatre girl.
Christine is her name, and everything about her is just so off. It doesn't even make sense for her to be part of this equation..
Jake getting with Katrina Liang in freshman year after their first breakup had pissed off Chloe immensely, but at least Katrina made sense for him. She's pretty, she's well-liked, and she dresses fairly well. Katrina is even a cheerleader for crying out loud. She fits into the type of girls Jake is supposed to like.
Chloe absolutely hates to admit it, but even Madeline does. She's a big partier like Jake, and is pretty as much as Chloe can say she isn't even top five of the girls at the school.
But Christine? This girl fit none of that. Chloe barely even knew she existed before rehearsal for the play, and now Jake and her were hanging out at the mall together?
Christine, to be fair, is pretty. In a nerdy, weirdo kind of way. Her hair always has a plethora of weird, colorful clips in it, and her outfits are seventy percent sweaters thrown on shirts with weird phrases and skirts underneath (honest to god, Chloe could swear Christine just puts a shirt on over her dresses sometimes).
Sure, it's endearing if you're into that stuff, but Jake Dillinger should not be thinking about Christine in that way. The fact Chloe and Jake had just broken up aside, it doesn't make sense.
Jake wouldn't even stay with Christine that long in the unlikely event they did get together. Girls and extracurriculars to Jake might as well be fucking interchangeable.
Something about Christine, though, makes Chloe absolutely fume. Again, girl is fairly pretty in some geeky thespian way. On some level Chloe is aware that contributes to this anger in some way.
This girl could find any other freak to date (like that weirdo with the blue sweater. Jerry? But he might be gay to sign up for theatre like this) and she instead is talking with her boyfriend.
Well, unfortunately for her, Jake isn't there today. Archery, of course. Chloe knows he had changed from swimming to archery on a whim and even if she found it dumb, at least it meant Christine couldn't talk to him.
Chloe doesn't think messing with Christine at least a little would be that bad. If anything, she's probably helping the girl out, as she sits there and warns her about how Jake flops between a bunch of choices all of the time. If the poor thing thought she actually had a chance with him, it would probably crush her when Chloe and Jake inevitably got back together.
Being this close to Christine felt weird and made a pit form in her stomach. The girl's short black hair and the few moles on her tan skin, and the way her cheeks seems to turn a little darker color as Chloe talks.
Now Chloe's stomach was in knots as she continues to talk, both at passive aggression about Jake, and Brooke butting in to the conversation for a second, but now she's kind of realizing how cute Christine kind of looks when she's panicky.
God, not in some weird harass-y way. But the way she seems to get so nervous as Chloe speaks is kind of cute. She wonders as she up and says a saccharine "bye!" if Christine acted that way when she was with Jake the last few days.
Chloe sure hopes not.
