The Best Kept Secret.

-7- Being Lonely.

~ 7th. Also not as good as I'd hoped. Too choppy for my liking but it's ok. I got all my ideas out so hopefully it fills in the gap for the upcoming chapters.

Which in a way, means it's good it's so choppy. but, by all means, if your confused, just comment and i'll clear it up for you. Thanks.

x

That week went by slowly. Matty was busy with family commitments. His mom’s sister was in hospital, not that Matt liked her, but his mom had pulled him in to do all sorts of jobs and things for her around her house and around his own, driving his sisters around to dance lessons and all sorts, so I only saw him at school. And even then he was so pissy, he basically sat in silence and ate, leaving me with Leighton and Jake, not entirely bad but they were so awkward when Matt wasn’t talking.

I saw Kayla even less. She always seemed to be busy, and she mostly sat with Alex now at lunch. Now that I had a reason to look over there, it was becoming less clear to me the sort of person Alex was. He wasn’t a jock, nor an emo, not even a geek. He was hard to figure out. I wasn’t sure what he was into and at lunch he barely talked to Kayla. I think that’s more her fault though.

If she was taking my advice and zoning out in attempts to get him to mack out on her, she was doing it way to frequently. Frequently enough to make me wonder if she actually was just staring at him because she was genuinely interested in studying every aspect of his face and body.

Sometimes I found myself getting distracted by that too. His face. The way his chestnut eyes sparkled when he laughed. The way his lips curved upwards when he smiled. The way he flicked his fringe back over his forehead and raked a hand through his seemingly always messy hair.

Then I pulled myself back into reality. I was vowing to myself to find out what was so off with me about Alex and why my primal instinct told me to run away from him at every opportunity.

“Hey Charl?” Leighton’s voice pulled me from a daydream. As well as the sharp nudge he poked into my ribs.

“yeah?” I muttered back, biting into my forgotten sandwich.

“How come Matt’s sitting with Paul and Taylor today?” He asked, glancing up over Jake’s head at the popular kids table. You know the ones I’m talking about? The ‘in’ clique. The ones every other kid wants to be like. The people who run the school. Full of athletes, sluts and people who’s parents were heavily involved in school affairs, that was the table every wannabe student wanted to sit at.

Me, I was perfectly happy on my shitty little table in the middle of the cafeteria with my tiny group of friends, that seemed to be getting smaller by the day.

“You what?” I questioned, following his gaze.

And sure enough, Matt was sat between Paul, the schools star quarterback and Cassidy Parker, Alex’s sister.

“Come on Leight, we all knew Matt was desperate to get onto the team.” I tried to sound unmoved by the fact that Matt looked a million times happier over there than he had been over here the past few days, and tried to sound equally unmoved by the fact that Cassidy was hanging on to and laughing at his every word. In reality, I knew my voice was shaky and jealousy was swirling through my veins clouding through my eyes and setting a hazy fog through my brains.

“Never thought he’d be that one though.” Jake mumbled. “I thought he’d at least tell us if he got onto the team.”

That one, I couldn’t really make sound any better. I didn’t even know that my own boyfriend had tried out. And today, I’d gotten an excuse of why he wouldn’t see me at lunch. So much for having too much homework to do. Cassidy tossed her bleached hair over her shoulder and stood up, placing her hand on Matt’s arms as she made her way to the line with her usual sidekicks at her side. She smirked as she talked with them.

I was going to kill him.

Ok, so maybe not. Kill seems a bit harsh. Maybe demanding an explanation would be better.

“that’s just crap.” Leighton hissed. “I thought he was going home for lunch.”

“I thought he was doing homework in the library.” I replied, “Try not to get to put down by it Leighton, he’s probably just stressed out, his mom’s been keeping him at home to help with his aunt.”

And I was glad that I knew that was true. Matt had left his cell at my house and I had to drop it at the hospital two nights ago and ended up meeting his sick aunt and staying for like an hour at the hospital with him. It made the whole thing seem stupid and childish, even though their was still that tumbling in the pit of my stomach.

“I don’t care how stressed he is. How come he can’t hang with us, yet he drops everything for them?” Jake murmured, glaring down at his pizza.

“You’ll have to ask him that.” I responded, taking another bite of my food, in hopes it might stop this conversation from going where I didn’t want it too. It did. Jake and Leighton were silent for the rest of lunch. Silent and brooding. For two teenage, gigantic boys, they seemed massively pissed that their friend had sat at another table without them. Not that I’m saying they can’t have emotions, it’s just strange to see.

That was why I was glad to see the end of the day when it finally rolled around. Tomorrow was Friday. End of the week. Start of the weekend. The extra long weekend, seeing as we had the next Monday off school. Also, the eve of the double date. A day when I actually got Matt all to myself for the first time this week. And I was looking forward to it. Being alone all week had made my life seem unutterably boring. No Kayla and no Matt left me with virtually no-one, considering all the days Jake and Leighton were invited to go sit with girls. And coming home to an empty house was becoming more of a burden than I wanted it to be.

I used to love coming home and finding the house empty, it gave me a chance to hang out and invite people round more. Now, it made me feel lonely, wandering from room to room and finding nobody, and all I had was the company of my homework and the TV.

Of course, who likes spending all their time, dragging out homework to make it last longer? So obviously I was counting on this weekend to bring me back to the normal weeks of hanging out with everyone and not getting time to do much homework. The plus side was actually getting to talk to Kayla and Matt without anything else getting in the way, and I hoped that maybe, I might just get to see a little bit of Alex’s true personality too. I wanted to see what was so off-putting about him and I was desperate to find out.

Spending so much time in my head was obviously bad for me, because I jumped when my cell rang.

“Charlotte?” A voice rang through it, an easily recognizable one.

“Hey Scotty.” I murmured, disappointed, thinking it might be Matt, so I could ask him about lunch today.

“I just thought I’d call and let you know, Monday, I’m coming over. I haven’t seen you in a while and I got something to tell you.”

I wasn’t paying attention. It drifted in one ear and out the other. I nodded, then, remembering he couldn’t see me muttered a “yeah”, hoping it fit in with what he’d just said.

“Great. Love you sis,”

“Love you too Scott.”

I was alone again. Best get started on something. Maybe a long, strenuous recipe for my dinner. Anything to distract me at the moment.

I also know that that last part, doesn't fit in at all, but it's important. Something happens on Mondayyyy ;) Something that I need her big brother for and so he must be entered a little. He won't become a major character though so no worries! Just one little bump in the road...

Laters. And please, please, please comment for me. I like reading your messages :)