5
It’s a cold day and I’m sitting by myself on the school wall, my packed lunch open on my lap. There’s barely anyone around, because they’ve all chosen to sit inside and I didn’t have anyone to eat with anyway. The wind is bitter and hurts my cheeks. But then a shadow falls across me and I look up. It’s a girl with long blonde hair tied up with blue ribbon into pigtails. I look at her in surprise as she speaks.
“Hi! My name’s Sophie! I’m new here!”
She holds out her hand and I tentatively shake it, wondering why she was talking to me. No one wanted to talk to me after that incident.
“What’s your name?” she asks, smiling.
“Delilah, “I say quietly, looking down into my lap shyly. She claps her hands together.
“That’s such a cool name! I’ve got a feeling we’re going to be great friends!”
She gives me a large toothy grin and I return it. We did become great friends, always by each other’s sides. We always shared packed lunches and we would sit on the wall and gossip about the teachers. She would always crack jokes that made me splutter my drink everywhere. We did each other’s hair, talked about random things just like any other friend. We were always there for each other and she made me feel special, safe, like I could do anything, and she would always be there to stick up for me when the times got rough. Something I’d never felt before. Which was weird; why did she want to talk to me and become my friend? This thought continually puzzled me. When she was around at my house on one afternoon, reading magazines that she had just bought from the newsagents, I ask her.
“Sophie?”
She turns over one of the pages.
“Yeah?”
“How come you asked me to be your friend? I mean, I’m not popular and all that, you know…” I say sheepishly, twiddling my thumbs. She looks at me, wide eyed, “What? I don’t care about that. That’s stupid!”
She grins at me and gives me a hug. But then she pulls away frowning.
“But, Delilah, wouldn’t you like to be popular? Just once? To have everyone at your feet as though you were the Queen? Like all of them?” she gestures towards the magazine, spreads that our full of posing celebrities, as though it was the bible.
I shake my head frantically.
“No way. I couldn’t. I’m not popular material. Besides, I’ve already blown that chance.”
She looks at me with a slightly haunted expression in her features, her eyes glazed over in a daydream.
“Just think about it though…”
I can see a different glint in her eye, as though something has flipped. Little did I know, something did and I was too far out to swim back to shore. From then on she would constantly bring up celebrities and media into our conversations and I always steered away from them. She talks about how she wants to be like them one day, all glamorous and popular. But I barely listen to what she’s saying.
One lunchtime when we’re sitting on the edge of the playground, eating our lunches, she suddenly points out a group of girls sitting on the other side.
“Hey, Delilah, can you introduce them to me?” she asks me, tugging on my arm and trying to pull me up.
“Why?” I ask her, confused.
YOU ARE READING
Dark Blue
Teen Fiction"Because I really don't have a future. I don't believe in myself. I'm not sure if I know myself anymore. That's why I come up here, because I am scared." ~ What would you give to not have to tread on eggshells everyday, scared off tipping the balanc...
