Ugly Girl

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen: Zoey

“Zoey, honey, are you in here?” I heard Ally call out from the other side of the bathroom stall.

Wiping my tears away, I call out with a shaky voice, “Y-yeah.”

Ally lightly knocks on my stall, “Zoey, I know what happened. Lizzy is a popularity hungry skank. She’s just jealous that we chose to use you to become popular and not her.”

I draw another shaky breath and say, “B-but she was our friend!”

“Not if she went and did this. Hon, come out here so I can see you.”

Unlatching the lock on the stall door, I stumble out of small space, trying to clean myself up quickly. Ally places her hands on each of my shoulders and sighs sadly. Without thinking, I burst into tears and fly into her arms. “Why would she do that, Ally?”

“She’s jealous of you,” Ally whispers while squeezing me back. “We have to go back to class now though.” She pulls a makeup back out of her purse and smear concealer on my splotchy eyes and cheeks. “You know what you’re going to do?”

“W-what?”

“Ignore Beth Jones and ignore Lizzy. They aren’t worth your time and don’t you dare let them see that this affected you.” Ally takes a step back to look me up and down, “Ready?”

I nod and hold onto Ally’s loose tank-top as she slowly walks out of the school’s bathroom. Johnny stands there, his brows furrowed in worry. He holds his arms out for me and quickly hugs me.

“You okay, Zoe?”

I nod into his chest and pull away, sticking close to Ally. The bell suddenly rings, signaling for our next class to begin. Ally quickly pecks Johnny on the cheek before turning to walk me to my next class.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah I will,” I smile weakly at her, “I have Ryan in my next class.” I can tell Ally has some doubt in her eyes but she doesn’t say anything. She only nods and hurries off to make her next class.

I walk in and take a seat next to Ryan, who grins at me happily.

“What’s wrong?” he asks frantically when he notices my red rimmed eyes. He reaches over and grabs my hand.

Wiping my face uncertainly, I explain the whole story to him. His eyes seem to grow wider with every sentence.

“What about Ally and Johnny?”

I raise my eyebrows, “What do you mean?”

“Well, from what I know, Lizzy was a pretty close friend. If she would do that, why wouldn’t Ally and Johnny?” Ryan shrugs, “I wouldn’t trust them.”

As much as I hate to admit it, Ryan isn’t the brightest crayon in the box; he could never come up with that on his own. In that case, it must be either true or obvious.

~~~

                My heart skips a beat when I see Johnny and Ally advancing towards me. Ryan is right; I need to say something to the two of them.

                “Hey,” Ally says when they get close enough, “How are you?”

                Taking a deep breath, I turn to them and snap, “Why would you want to know?”

                Johnny and Ally exchange bewildered glances, “Zoey, what did we do?”

                I roll my eyes, “Please, you know exactly! If Lizzy would do that to me, why wouldn’t you two?” I yell. I feel my chest heat up with anger. “Just leave me alone! I don’t want friends like you!” I turn on my heel and storm off in Ryan’s direction. However, I’m intercepted by Beth Jones. “What do you want?” I scream.

                “I want to apologize.” This catches me so off guard, I stop dead in my tracks. “I was jealous of you and I shouldn’t have used Lizzy like that.” She smiles lightly at me, “I really hope we can be friends.”

                Considering the fact I had just screamed at my other friends, I nod and smile, “Sure Beth.”

                Beth smiles happily at me and follows me as I walk up to Ryan. I think I had successfully made myself in the top three list of popularity. Too bad I had no idea what Beth Jones had planned for me.