The Heartthrob Won't Leave

Chapter Four (New Chapters)

Watching the football game that night, they ran so fast it almost made Blake sick just watching them. While Stella sat at her side, cheering and laughing, her lips bright red and lipstick across both of her cheeks to look fierce, wearing a shirt with the number 11 on it, Zac's jersey number. Blake just didn't know what to do, especially when Stella had asked her to attend the game. Even though Blake really didn't want to, her heart broke at the thought of upsetting her friend. She knew she would do anything to avoid any kind of confrontation or angry feelings towards her, and if it meant doing things she wasn't necessarily fond of, so be it. There were more than just the students from their school, but many other ones too, mostly consisting of beautiful girls cheering on the famous three, Zac, Lucian, and Jace, the most popular boys that seemed to walk the earth, each with their own unique personality, and weirdly enough, each attracting different kinds of girls. 

With Zac, of course, it was the rebellious girls, the ones with Daddy issues who wanted to fix the broken bad boy. Lucian's biggest fan was Melody, beautiful, smart, and musical, they often sang duets together in the music room after class, and the rest of the students could hear them echoing through the halls between classes, including Blake. And she had to admit, Lucian had a beautiful voice, smooth and sharp. Not to mention the flock of art girls that only attended their classes to possibly get the chance to sit next to him just once, as if they got that opportunity, that their lives would be complete and they would die happy. She had seen his paintings too, hung up in the halls, a sort of mercy abstract version of living creatures and fantasy fanfares of dark worlds where no life existed at all. It was strange, art she often found herself stopping in the hall on her way to class and just staring at, often not even noticing the time passed until the bell rings and she realizes she's late, just like always.

Despite how Jace treated Blake, he was popular for not a single skill he possessed that separated him from the others, but instead just because of how kind he was. He'd take the shirt off his back, becon your every call, be your puppy if you wanted him to. But, Blake knew something that few did, just how much Jace resented himself. He had friends everywhere, and it almost made Blake sick watching him try so hard for the validation the poor soul seemed to crave so desperately, but always found himself looking for it in the wrong places. In a way, she wasn't mad at Jace for the way he treated her, she felt more pity for him than anger, more sadness, staring at such a lost person. And, being in the background like she always was, nothing more than a shadow to the hero of the story, she watched them win once again, and they made it look so easy too. She wondered what it would be like, to win so easily and feel so free.

"What's with the gloomy face?" She lifted her head slightly at the words, turning her head from her locker and to the sight of Jane. She grabbed ahold of Blake's face with her strong hands, using her thumbs to turn the edges of her lips up into some sort of tight clown smile. Despite her depressed being, Jane's effort to make her smile did have the smallest of sparks of happiness igniting in her chest, which when Jane's hands fell away, kept the edges of her mouth lifted for her friend for a few moments before they faltered.

"You're always my problem Janie" she responded, pulling out the drawstring bag from her locker and shutting the door, stuffing the lock in place. Janie laughed, yanking on Blake's shoulder, making her stumble as they head towards the gymnasium. Her history class had been canceled because the teacher had an emergency, but instead of letting them get the time off, they were forced to join that morning's gym glass instead. Entering the girl's change room, she placed her bag on the bench next to Mikayla's purple mess of clothes. 

She pulled her shirt over her head, and couldn't help but notice the looks of the other girls in the room, partially clothed, standing inches apart. She feared what she couldn't hear, what was coming out of their lips as they moved. There would be speech, and then a laugh causes a shiver down her spine. Blake couldn't help but glance down at her own body, wanting to hide it away, the little extra flab might as well have been a ticket to death in high school. She never understood how the world functioned, how everyone insisted you to be yourself, to love yourself, but then the same world, the same people would point out every flaw and make you feel like trash. She was quick to pull on her gym shirt, change her shorts, and move right for the exit.