The Sister Of Popular

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"And are you sure you haven't done anything..." Holly started saying nervously over the phone.

"Anything what?" I asked her.

"You know...self-destructive," Holly said, articulating the words clearly but slowly.

"Not lately," I said, which was true if lately was a day. But whatever. I didn't like lying to my friends, but then, I had to.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, don't worry about me, Holls!" I said, laughing through the phone. I could see my mother, out of the corner of my eye, with a smile on her face whilst watching my phone conversation. Lately, she had been doing nothing but crying a lot of the time, and every time I saw that, I felt guilty. I wanted her to be the strong, teasing mum she used to be, but it was all my fault.

But she refused to let me think it was anyone's fault but hers, as she should have been more intrusive into mine and Levi's life, and actually developed better parenting skills.

Still, she loved to see me socialising with friends, so whenever the phone rang for me, my mum had this wide grin on her face.

I heard some crashing from the other end of the phone. "Holly?"

"Are you sure sure sure?" I heard a different voice say. Robyn.

"Yes! Robyn, have you been listening into our conversation this whole time?"

"...no," Robyn said, giggling, and then I heard her pass the phone back to Holly.

"Okay then, well, see you soon!" Holly's voice came back.

"Bye!"

"Bye!"

I hung up, and going past my beaming mother, I walked up the stairs. Holly and Robyn were honestly the sweetest friends ever; they would call me up on the house phone every day to make sure that I was okay. They were like the twins Levi and I once were, and thinking about their relationship made me sad. Because they could still keep it strong.

What happened?

I didn't really think I deserved these friends.

As I walked across the landing to get to my bedroom, I heard voices coming from Levi's bedroom.

Unless my brother had started talking to himself and referring to himself as 'Ashy-baby' out loud, he was talking to someone, and I was about to go past until I heard my name.

"Oh, it's just Lexi coming up the stairs. Creaky floorboards."

Then I heard a more feminine voice. "Lexi-Lulu? Aww, why was she out of her room?"

Levi laughed, and I could just see him smiling at his girlfriend over Skype. "To phone her so-called friends, God, she's so dumb! Doesn't she know they're just using her?"

"She's ridiculous," Ashley agreed, and giggled in an annoyingly high-pitched voice. "Her friends just went crawling back to her because they feel sorry for her!"

"Oh my God, Ash-Ash, you should see my mum!" Levi said, and it wasn't the way he used to talk. He used to talk in a normal accent with a slight Northern lilt, but now, he was starting to use phrases from the gangster part of London. "She's always got this stupid smile on her face when Lexi talks to anyone, like, God, it's not that big a deal!"

I was used to Levi talking crap about me and I had learnt to blank it out, but I couldn't stop listening in.

"The girl just wants so much attention, doesn't she?" Ashley said, sounding like a Barbie. Not that I had ever met a real life Barbie, but Ashley might as well have been one.