The Change

Chapter Four

"Harmony! Anastasia! Time to get up!" Mom yelled.
"Ugh!" I groaned as I got up. I looked over at Harmony. She was still sleeping in her bed. I hit her alarm clock to make it go off. She jumped.
"Hey!" Her head flopped back on the pillow, her question muffled by the pillow. "What was that for?"
"Time to get up." I said as I wiped a hand over my face. I got up and went to pick out my clothes. Wait, I was tutoring Corey today! I need a perfect outfit! It took me fifteen minutes to be sure of my wardrobe. I chose my best crop top and ripped jeans.
"Thirty minutes!" Mom shouted.
Crap. I still didn't eat yet! I wasn't a morning person, so I moved slow in the mornings.
"Come on, Ana!" My little brother called. He always wanted to be early. If we weren't early enough, we were late in his eyes. I went into the bathroom. I put my contacts in, deodorant on, and washed my face.
"Anastasia!" Harmony groaned. "Hurry up!" Every day of my life it was always, Ana hurry up! Do this faster! Do this better! A C minus? Get this up! Don't be lazy! Do this, do that! Ugh, I was sick of it! I got ready, and was about to go out the door when. . . .
* * * * *
"They left me." I told my friend Paige. Good thing this was the last day of school, otherwise they would probably of left me other days this week, too.
"Really? I'm sorry."
"It's okay. It's just. . . . Ugh! How could they?!" I was pissed.
"Oh, I'm sorry. So, I was. . . ." She started to tell me her problem. How come I'm the only one how actually cares about other people's problems? I was the one how put my life on hold to listen and care about other people's problems. They didn't care about my problems. Not really. If I had a problem, this is usually how the conversation would go:
Me: I had a shit day.
Friend: Oh. Now let's talk about my problem!
Then they'd tell me a problem that's "totally more worse" than mine. I cared about people. I got uncomfortable even when people I don't know on t.v got hurt! Why didn't they care about anyone except themselves?
"Are you listening?"
Crap. "Yeah."
"Well, he asked me out."
This sounded important. I looked at her facial expression and her body posture to understand what to say next. "Who, again? I forgot the douche's name."
Right answer. "Corey Haim."
Okay, now I was listening! "What?! Really? What happened?"
"Weren't you listening?"
Time to be honest. "Sincerely, no. I was caught up in my own problems."
She rolled her eyes, expecting me to be the caring one. "I was on the bus, and I took out my new diamond encrusted watch, and Corey was like, 'That's rad. Where'd you get it?' And I was like, 'Dad bought it for me.' And he was like, 'Wicked.' So we talked about my family and my good looks and then he asked me out. He's popular, good looking, and dating him would make me powerful. . . . Maybe I'll date him."
A player playing a player? Huh. I tried to talk Paige out of her plan to date Corey. Even though he used me, manipulated me, lead me on, and was now cheating on me, there was something about him I couldn't overlook. I didn't know what I was feeling or why I was feeling it, but I didn't want anyone coming between me and him. "You know, I'm tutoring him."
"Really? Cool."
"You know, he's playing you."
She got an evil glint in her eye. "Oh, I know."
"You know, I'm acting him."
"He's a douche, a gold digger, and a cheat, Ana. He asked me out. Its okay, I'll make him pay for his ways. It'll be hard pretending to be his girlfriend, but he picked the wrong girls to mess with. If he wants to play with fire, he's gonna get burned."
Well, that didn't go well. I gathered my things for my last exam and class. After school, I'm going to talk to Corey about this. Why was I so stupid?! I should've listened to my instincts! Now I was hurt, broken, but still wanting him. He had played me, he knew what he was doing. He messed with me, just so he could get his way. He was a bad boy, and good at it. And the weird thing was. . . .
Every time he was bad, he drew me in even more.