Gold Illusion

6. What comes around goes around

In the few days that Steffi and Harrison had realised their connection they began to grow very close. Steffi helped him choose what to wear in the mornings and gave him girl advice and in turn Harrison would help Steffi with boy advice as well as put a smile on her face with his 'hilarious' jokes.

Soon they realised their very opposite personalities. Steffi was the mature one, always on time and in control. Whilst Harrison was far more laid back, and as Steffi soon discovered extremely popular. It became apparent that he had two very different personalities. When he was alone with Steffi he was kind and interested, but with his friends he was unimpressed and even rude at times. Of course all the girls loved this and he was very sought after. Steffi almost wished she could rub it in their faces how close she was with Harrison. In fact she finally admitted to herself how much she liked having him in her head. He was becoming her constant, something she relied on, something she craved.

But she didn't realise this until the posters for the ball began to line the walls of the school hallways.  Whispers started and everyone began to freak out about who was taking who. Of course Steffi hadn't been at the school long enough to get to know any boy well enough for him to ask her. That was until Liv - who had apparently forgotten all about their fight, in favour of gossip - alerted her to the fact that for some unknown reason, she seemed to be the girl that almost every boy was trying to ask. Except Liv had an answer for that as well.  Apparently she was very mysterious to the boys, and this made her very desirable.

As soon as she heard the news she rushed over to the bathroom to tell Harrison. Although he had been helping Steffi talk to some of the guys at school, he was far less excited about it than she thought he would be. Mixed in with her excitement, she also felt a deep aching in her stomach. She had never really felt it before, so she had some difficulty placing it. Then it came again, even deeper when Steffi began telling Harrison about Jake, the cute boy from her Math class, she was almost 100% sure was going to ask her. This time it felt like walking into a wall. It was jealousy. But it made no sense, she was jealous of herself? Maybe she had just interpreted her sudden adrenaline rush to be jealousy. But she knew of no other emotion that was this deep and nauseating. Then she remembered when Harrison had been able to tell that something was troubling her. He must be the one feeling jealous. Steffi decided to test out her theory a little bit more as she began telling more and more stories about all the boys that she thought were going to ask her. As she continued the ache became deeper. She felt triumphant. He liked her, he was jealous of the other boys.

But her victory was short lived. Harrison had a habit of enjoying a night out with a beautiful girl whenever something upset him during the day. With all the girls falling over themselves to even talk to him, it was easy pickings for him to entice a girl to go out with him. Except this time when Harrison chose Sophie, a tall dark haired girl, supposedly on a modelling contract and cheer leading scholarship she felt the deep aching again. But this time it was so much harder. It was so raw. When she had felt Harrison's jealousy it was as if it had been diluted. Whereas what she was feeling was almost overwhelming. And that was the moment that her life began to shift. Harrison became more and more important, and she spent more and more time trying to impress him.

Liv grew into a smaller and smaller piece of her life, and Harrison even convinced her to take the scholarship at the girls school. Steffi had a sneaky suspicion that this was as a result of the sudden interest from all the boys at her school. But somehow he managed to persuade her. She agreed with him that this was an amazing opportunity that wasn't offered lightly. For Steffi to be offered a place proved that she was someone extraordinary and she should explore her talents.

Before sending off her letter of acceptance she had to tell her parents - if only for the signature that was required. Harrison was right there beside her the whole entire time. Coaching her on what to say and helping her whenever her parents tried to come up with an excuse for her not to go. Finally - and surprisingly - they gave in.

It almost seemed as though Steffi's life was starting to take a turn for the better.

The next day, as expected Jake from Steffi's math class asked her to the ball. She graciously accepted, whilst trying to ignore the groans and whines in her head from Harrison. He even offered to take Steffi out on a little date to the movies, so that they could get to know each other better before the night of the ball.

As news of Steffi and Jake spread throughout the school it slowly occurred to Steffi that this was the equivalent of going out with someone. She was officially off limits to the other boys. Well maybe with the exception of one...