Forsaking Lilly

Chapter Fifteen

" How can I be with you if you're with her," Eadie screamed as she reached forward to slap a boy named Nathaniel. Nathaniel had short, spiky, blonde hair and weird blue eyes. He wasn't cute to me, but I knew other girls in our Theatre class liked to whisper about him.

Nathaniel paused, obviously trying to remember the next part of this scene. Since I was snugged close to his side, I pretended to nuzzle my nose in his neck and muttered his lines to him. " Right," he whispered. On cue, as was written, he slung me away forcefully and I went tumbling to the floor. " She means nothing, Annabelle." Eadie stomped her foot, once or twice, and stormed off. And that was basically the end of our scene.

If I had written this, this whole scene would have been different. There would have been more conflict, and I wouldn't have been thrown to the damn floor. I also wouldn't have been the town whore, and I would have given myself more dignity. But Eadie had written the script, so I handled what I was dealt.

A sigh heavy in my breath, I stood up. I knew this little scene had to do with Eadie's growing animosity towards me. Ever since word got out that Cooper had been at my house, her and all of her snobby little friends had been treating me differently. It was expected, of course. Girls were just messy that way, and this was something that I'd always had to deal with.

" Wonderful, uh, performance." Mr.Ferron, the theatre teacher, gave an awkward laugh. From the audience formed by the rest of our classmates, I could see everyone found this funny. I wasn't embarrassed, but a quick look to my right told me that Eadie and Nathaniel were. The script was awfully short and awfully written, which I was sure Mr.Ferron was now aware of. It wasn't meant to entertain, it was meant to be a slap in my face.

I watched as the laughs grew louder and Eadie ran off stage. Even though she'd meant to embarrass me, my acting stayed on point. I delivered everything to my fullest potential, and didn't mess up once. The way I saw it, if she wanted to play hardball, I was for it.

" Checkmate," I muttered with a smile.

Lunch was going to be rather lonely. I knew this as soon as I spotted Eadie and her little group staring at me from their table. She'd purposely made sure that she got her food early so that her and her snob squad could stare at me and make me uncomfortable. Immature.

" Hey, Howl." Cooper's shoulder rammed roughly into mine as I headed for the Italian line.

" Sup, Coop," I muttered as I rubbed my sore arm. It seemed that, over night, our nicknames had stuck. Actually,a lot of things had happened between us over night. It was like we'd grown three inches closer. In the hallway, if he passed he said hi to me ( Actually he said things more like: 'Sup, Howl, or, ' Hey Howler) Another thing that came with being noticeable to Cooper, I was noticeable to everyone. People I didn't know were smiling, waving. Now, people talked to me in class, wanted to know what Maine was like, wanted to know what type of music I listened to. I almost thought that they wanted to get to know me, but I knew they only wanted to know me because he did.

" Are you excited about later?" I knew he was referring to Unk. He'd talked about it to me the whole ride here, and I had no doubt that he'd talk my ear off in Health. We made it through the line and we both grabbed little platters of pasta (I grabbed Fettuccine Alfredo, and he got Spaghetti).

" Yeah, I guess so," I said as I followed him to the table he usually ate at. Seeing that I had sat in the chair beside him had made him give me a strange look. I only smiled and started at my food. " But isn't it a little cold out to go swimming in the lake?"

" Well, yeah. But it also has campgrounds so, we can still chill," he shrugged and twirled his fork around in his spaghetti. I could feel eyes on my back, but I saw no need in looking over my shoulder. I knew that I wouldn't like what I found.