Her Wish

Her Wish [Chapter 29]

For the next week, Jennie’s life took a drastic change. All of a sudden, it was George by her side instead of Danny. Now, he had become her only friend.

She didn’t know whether to feel grateful or forlorn. Suddenly, certain things in her life that she’d spent a majority of her life wishing for were suddenly handed to her willingly, effortlessly. The boy she’d dreamed of for years was finally hers but only recently she’d begun to see someone else instead.

Idiot, she’d constantly scold herself. Why couldn’t she just be happy with what she had? Why did she always want more instead?

The rumors about the sudden restoration between Elie and Danny hadn’t died away, especially now with the addition of Jennie and George’s new relations added into the equation.

The short-lived sympathy for Jennie reversed back to resentment once more. Her newly established friendship or whatever it may have been between them only gave girls of their school reason to loathe her more.

“What happened to Jennie and Danny?” Jennie heard a curious classmate ask as Danny and Elie passed by in front of them, clearly not clued in on the happenings of the past few weeks.

“Didn’t you hear? They broke up.”

The last three words of the girl’s statement brought tears to her eyes, but she found herself unconsciously smiling through them.

They broke up.

If only, Jennie thought to herself, If only they had broken up. That would have made everything so much more official, so much clearer, and so much more justified. But it wasn’t. What was shared between Danny and Jennie had never been clear from the beginning. But hearing others now classify them as something that had been, Jennie found herself smiling.

“Yeah right,” another person whispered, shooting a scornful glare in her direction, “Jennie never had a chance to begin with.”

Then laughter, “I guess that’s what happens when you try to steal other people’s boyfriends.”

“What a slut. And now she’s already after someone else.”

And murmurs of agreement, “Elie wasn’t lying. She really is out to steal all the guys in the school.”

“It’s a good thing Danny dumped her.”

Everywhere she went; people didn’t even bother to make their dislike for Jennie a secret. She heard every whispered comment, every discontent and jealous remark directed towards her, every curse they muttered under their breaths as she passed by but still spoken purposely loud enough to reach her ears.

She heard it all and she felt it all. But that wasn’t what hurt her most. It had to endure listening to the commentary about Elie and Danny together that succeeded in tugging her emotions the most. They were playing with her, testing her limits, just waiting until the moment she collapsed.

And even worse, Jennie found herself barely surviving as she watched their relationship progress once more before her very own eyes. Only this time, it was different. Danny wasn’t as reluctant and he no longer merely pushed her to the side.

Jennie had lost count of how many times she asked to be excused to the bathroom in order to dry her own tears, refusing to allow the others to see that they had gotten to her, that they really had succeeded.

And through it all, George was the only one who knew. He was the only one who witnessed those fallen tears, who reached up with the baby soft pad of his thumb and wiped them away; whispering softly that it would be okay, that things could have been worse.