Matches | √

Chapter Two

flash | cause to shine briefly or suddenly

• • •

1/16/17

THE SOUND OF the passenger door slamming shut echoes from behind me.

I turn to see Francesca round the car from the driver's side to meet me. My best friend usually drives me in the mornings to school. Sometimes I walk or take the bus, but Francesca is there for me the majority of the time. In every way she is my best friend, and my sister. A part of me wishes I had my own car so I wouldn't be so dependent on other people, but my mother lets me borrow her car most nights when I need to get around.

Side by side we make our way up the front steps of Easton High School. The town is small enough to only have one high school for everyone.

As soon as we walk through the large open doors and enter through the threshold of Easton High all eyes are on us, or rather my best friend.

"Hi Franny!"

"Looking good Franny!"

"Morning Franny!"

"Franny, we have third period together!"

Voices shout from either side of the hallways filling the narrow locker lined halls with excited calls from our fellow classmates.

Boys letting their lips catcall and their eyes roam Francesca's body as if they've never seen a girl before. And maybe they haven't, at least like her. She is the embodiment of sex on a stick, and every guy would kill to have a chance to even speak to her let alone actually be with her.

Girls attempt to compliment their way into Francesca's good graces while their eyes take in my best friend with pure green-eyed envy. Like they wish they could be her, have her grades, her popularity, her looks, her life. Her everything.

As we continue to make our way down the hall no one even notices me. Maybe some do, but they pretend they don't. That I don't exist. That I haven't gone to school with them for years. Because I don't have money like most people here, because I'm tall and lanky with a flat as a board chest, because I'm boring. I am no Francesca and never will be. I was born to blend in, and that's what I'm doing. But if I'm sinking into the background I might as well have an amazing friend who is the forefront of everything.

We take a few steps to a small set of lockers on the left side of the hallway. That's where the popular crowd hangs out before classes begin in the mornings. Their Francesca's friends not mine, she grew up with them, and I didn't. Francesca and I met during our seventh grade year when we were paired up for an assignment about monarch butterflies. We went searching for them for hours, and quickly and surprisingly realized we actually had common interests.

I follow Francesca, like I always do, as we make our way to the group. Everyone erupts in enthusiastic "hellos" when she walks up. She then gives a few of her friends' quick hugs and kind smiles. They all love her, and who wouldn't? She's a wonderful friend who gives everyone she loves her whole heart freely and openly.

There's always a solid group of six to eight people in the group, with a couple floaters here and there. The guys, all athletes, tend to bring random floozies from time to time. The girls, mostly drill team dancers, sometimes bring guys up though they rarely bring fresh meat to the group.

They also rarely acknowledge my existence unless Francesca brings their attention to me, and then they pretend to care before rolling their eyes and starting a new conversation with the people they really care about. I know that I'm looked at as Francesca's "charity case friend", but it doesn't really bother me. I know our friendship, they don't. She always includes me, even if it annoys them. And she makes a point to draw me out of my comfort zone, which I would never do on my own.