Dammit Dan, You Stole My Hart

Chapter 2

Eleanor - 27/05/16, Friday

But you gotta keep your head up, oh. And you can let your hair down, eh. You gotta keep--

Andy Grammer's voice cut off abruptly, as I stabbed at the 'pause' button, tearing my earbuds out. I was already at school anyway. Getting off the bus, I kept my head down, eyes trained on my sneaker-clad feet as I slouched through the school gates. It was another dreary day at dreary school attending dreary classes that consisted of dreary lectures being delivered by dreary teachers. Don't we all love dreary routine?

The sunlight reflected off shiny cars - woe to the student who parked in the teacher's spot - and into my eyes. I ducked my head even more, but couldn't hide behind my hair like outside school. Stupid school regulations, forcing girls to tie up their tresses. Sorry, Andy, I can't 'let down my hair' like you want me to.

And because there was nothing to hide behind, I could see everyone. By everyone, I mean Macey Newman. What she knew, everybody knew. What she said, everybody said. It was like her words were the Gospel of the gossip chain. To make it worse, she'd been fixating on me for days already.

She drew her new boy toy closer - Josh, Jorge.. Jonathan? No, he was dumped last week - and said something to him, giggling. I don't think he was actually listening to her, because with the way he was staring at how the light reflected off her glossy lipstick, he seemed zombified. Nevertheless, the surroundings kids leaned in, probably hungry for another piece of gossip. Macey turned and smirked at me. The whispering started.

What happened to keeping my head down?

*^*^*

"Hey gorgeous."

I whipped around to find Andrew standing there, leaning against the lockers. I felt my cheeks flush at his words.

I punched his arm playfully. "Don't call me that!"

"Well, I'm just stating the truth," he said nonchalantly. He had been doing this thing for the past few days, since the start of the week, coming up to my locker and surprising me with some kind of comment about my beauty.

Which I took lightly of course. After all, who else other than my best friend would take me to be beautiful? Besides, Andrew had been complimenting me for as long as I could remember.

As long as you've had a crush on him.

Andrew wasn't that jock, or bad boy that all the good girls (I guess I was one of those?) usually fell for. Instead he was that sweet guy that had been with me through all the ups and downs of my life. And believe me when I say, I haven't exactly had the best childhood or early teenage years.

After Nathan, I had been in quite the state of depression, and he was the hero that had saved me from sinking further. But that's all he would be to me. My best friend, my hero. After all, there was no possible way he could, anyone could love a broken person like me.

I grabbed the books from my locker, and the both of us walked into class together. I proceeded to plop myself on my chair and braced myself for the extremely interesting lesson that was about to ensue.

*^*^*

Class had been rather uneventful and boring as always, and lunch break had finally come round.

After collecting our rather delectable meal, Andrew and I sat down at our usual table. Kimberly was already waiting for us there.

"Well, has anything happened between the two of you yet?"

Being one of the few people who knew of my crush on Andrew, she happened to be a strong believer that Andrew and I were meant to be. I had met her when she came over when I had just moved into Rowentia. The new environment, although refreshing, had been quite intimidating. It had been quite the difference from Riverdale. She had made it her mission to make me her friend, and here we were a few months into our friendship, and she was basically my second best friend.