Duet

Emo

Phil walks into his new form room, only to be greeted by the sound of a rock song. Must be coming from the girl in the corner, as she's the only one here. "Who's this music?"

The girl lifts her head to give Phil a dubious glare.

"No, I'm being serious. I like it!"

"Muse." Is her sharp reply; she maintains eye contact, almost staring him down, willing him to retreat.

"Cool." He says, oblivious to her death stare, simply waiting for a reply.

Narrowing her eyes, she looks back down at her phone. "What, no comments about my clothes?"

"Well, I think goths are beautiful."

"Firstly: I'm emo. Secondly, this better not be some sort of fetish, because I know a lot of guys-"

"No no no no no!" Phil interrupts, desperately trying to match his thoughts to words. "Actually, you're the first person I've seen dressed like that. And I think you're beautiful. So."

She rolls her eyes, dragging her gaze to Phil once more to make a sarcastic comment. "Hun, don't try that with me."

Stuttering, Phil attempts to form a coherent sentence to redeem himself, when the classroom door swings open. It bounces off the wall as a group of girls walk in.

Dyed hair, fake tan, inch-thick makeup - Phil wasn't one to judge, but if he was, he'd describe them as one word. Popular.

They immediately erupt in cackles of laughter when they see the two together. One with a tight pencil skirt and dip-dyed hair comes over to him, placing a condescending hand on his arm.

"Oh, Phil, you don't want to get involved with Dan. The faggot'll just end up sacrificing you to satan or something."

"My name's Melissa." She mumbles under her breath, still seemingly engrossed in her mobile. This causes another burst of laughter from the group of populars.

"Ew, dirty trannie! Did he just speak?"

What's wrong with these girls? Phil wonders, I didn't realise that people actually act like this. "Hey, back off. She can be whoever she wants to be."

"There's no use being protective, Phil. He'll have killed himself before we even leave high school, anyway." The routine collective titter comes from behind the girl, and she crosses her arms defiantly, smirking over Phil's shoulder.

Just as Phil opens his mouth to say something he'll probably regret, a voice murmurs in his ear from behind. "Leave it, Phil. Come on." Melissa attempts to take his arm and lead him out of the classroom, but he stands his ground - he raises his voice to address the whole room.

"No. You make a beautiful goth girl, and I'm going to make them see that."

Melissa muffles a snort of laughter, turning to tell him: "Emo."

"Right, emo."