Exposed

10

Jack picks me up the same time and place the following morning and drops me off at school. I get out of the car and thank him for the ride, but he gets out of the car and follows me. He puts his arm around me and we walk into the school gates together.

"What are you doing?" I ask

Jack's arm twitches around me for a second but he goes back to normal as he laughs,

"Today is a school kind of day, you know? Not that I'll go to class or anything."

"Noo, you should," I say

"What?"

"Come to class with me," I beg

He leans over and pecks me on the cheek.

"Fine, " He says, attempting to sound annoyed but grinning at the same time. My lips curve into a smile just like his. We walk hand in hand to class and I try not to ignore the wolf whistles that come from my friends who wait outside of class for me. Lily, Hunter, and Frankie sit on the wooden bench next to the door, Hunter's arms around Lily in an attempt to keep her warm, while Frankie sits next to them, uninterested and staring at her phone as always.

"So this is your second week into school Charlie and you already have a boyfriend!" Hunter laughs, I try not to stare at those perfectly toned arms he has wrapped around Lily. Instead, I look at Frankie, she looks up at me and then to Jack, a flash of emotion comes across her face momentarily, but she is quick to hide it before I can figure out what it was.

The bell rings and Hunter opens the door for Lily, who quickly walks in followed by Jack and I. He and Frankie were in a form class together, but they never bothered going to form time. He hugs Lily and she walks in, I follow her through the doorway and Jack follows me. We all sit together and through the following two classes, English and Math. At interval we meet with Hunter and Frankie, Frankie seems to be looking at Jack and I a bit strangely but I try to ignore it.

"Hey Frankie," Says Hunter, "Is that party still on in the weekend?"

"Yup," She says. "At Graham's place. You guys should all come." She looks at Jack and I.

"Sure where is-" I begin to ask but Jack cuts me off.

"I'm busy this weekend." He gets up.

"I'm gonna get lost for a bit now, I'll see you soon," He says to me, before leaving. He seems pissed off for some reason but I don't bother following him. I would rather avoid another encounter with Jack's stoner friends.

Frankie rolls her eyes "I only invited him to be nice, what an asshole."

"Frankie..." Says Hunter quietly, thinking I am unable to hear, "Charlie is dating Jack, you have to be nice now and move on."

Move on from what? Before I have time to think the bell goes and Lily and I get up to go to class.

"I'll text Lily the details for the party," Hunter says and I nod.

"See ya."

~

Jack must have left school early because after waiting by the school gates for half an hour the road is cleared out and almost no one is around. He was supposed to pick me up, but I decide to just walk myself home, I was bored with waiting.

The concrete is full of cracks, which I count. Small sprouts of green had shot up from the breakage of stone, but they had been trampled down slightly due to people stepping on them. I remember when I was little, my father used to walk me down the road to kindy every morning. I would skip excitedly, trying to make sure my feet didn't land on any lines or cracks. My father once told me a story about tiny little fairies who lived underground. He said that they lived in tiny little trees that sometimes came up and over the pavement whenever there was a crack. He said if you were quiet and listened hard enough, you could hear the fairies playing and singing underground.

This fascinated me as a 5-year-old, I once drew a picture of what I imagined the fairies to look like if only I had magnifying vision. My teacher Mrs. Smith, had loved my drawing.

"This is quite amazing Gem!" She had told me. Mrs. Smith thought I was a brilliant artist, she hung the drawing up on the classroom wall and urged me to draw her more pictures. This bugged Annabelle.

"Stop sucking up to the teacher so much, she's just lying because you are here favorite." She had told me. She then had pointed out all the flaws in my drawing, as if to prove her point. That day after class I had taken down the picture and shoved it into my backpack, far down where no one would ever see it again. I tried not to feel upset, I was doing the right thing because this put my friend out of her grumpy mood.

I climb up the steps to my home and let myself in, nobody's home, not until later, because my two brothers had a play at school and my parents had gone to watch. I still had the picture, it's at the very bottom of my box of 1st-grade artworks. All the ones I had deemed 'not good enough' and hid them quickly before anyone would have the chance to see them.

I rummage through the box through the never ending pile of paintings and sketches, to find the drawing. I didn't know why, but I needed to see it. I pull out a paper near the bottom, it's shiny surface reflects slightly off the tiny beam of sunshine that still streams through the window. I turn it around and drop it as soon as I see it. A collage of black and white pictures titled with "Best Friends." My eyes go straight to a red cross, Annabelle had drawn it over my friend Billie.

"This is for US!" She had said, "we don't want silly old Billie in it!" I had printed out a new collage for her after that, one with Billie cropped out of it so that she didn't ruin the page with her inky scarlet marker again. I kept the bad copy, I liked Billie, Billie was cool.

I scan over the pictures, there's one of Annabelle where her smile seems so bright and happy. Her skin glowed in every picture, while I looked pale and slightly ill. Her long curls bounced around her shoulders while my hair fell flat. She was always the popular and pretty one out of the two of us, and I always wondered why she stayed my best friend.

I stare at her face, so happy and alive. Alive.

She was gone now, six feet underground where no one could ever see her beaming smile, her sparkling eyes and adorable laugh ever again.

It was all my fault.