Pride and Prejudice and Teenagers.

Chapter 15.

The next day, I'm drinking coffee with Charlotte when the door opens. Colin enters, announcing: "Will and Finn are now coming over."

"For you then, Lizzie. They'd never have come to speak to me." She says and I roll my eyes.

"Will hates me as much as I hate him." I manage to say before the door opens. The guy I walked into yesterday enters, and I assume he's Finn. Will enters from behind him, ducking his head under the beamed doorway because of his height.

After being introduced as Will's cousin by Colin, Finn greets me. "So you're the famous Elizabeth?" He asks.

"Famous? I think you've got the wrong girl. Cathy is in the main house." I laugh. Finn walks over and sits opposite me at the table. Will chooses to sit down on the sofa across the room from me.

"I just mean I've heard a lot about you." He smiles. He's not as attractive as Will but I see a vague resemblance between the two. His manners are certainly nicer than Will's. "You sing, right? And play piano?"

"Oh, a little. Not very well at all though." I admit. I wish Will had sat somewhere else, he's at an angle where I can't avoid his gaze whilst talking to Finn.

"Well I'm sure you're just being modest. Anyway, what brings you down here?"

"Charlotte invited me." I say, nodding to my friend who seems to be trying to engage Will in her conversation with Colin. Again, I look at Will and find his eyes set on me. I snap my gaze back to his cousin. "Do you know if there are any good footpaths around here?" I ask him.

"You're thinking of walking in this weather?" He asks, looking out of the window at the cold scenery.

"It's not that bad, besides, I have a thick coat." We exchange smiles.

"Maybe I'll walk you down to the river sometime." He offers and I open my mouth to accept when Will suddenly stands up and walks over to us.

"We should probably head back to Cathy's." He grunts at his cousin. Finn, uncaring of his cousin's attitude, stands up happily and bids me his goodbyes. I too stand up, and walk over and grab my coat from the rack. Colin walks Finn and Will out, but Will stops at where I stand beside the front door buttoning up my coat.

"I came to ask if you're feeling better." He states with little emotion in his voice. I stare up at him, momentarily confused. "You left the party yesterday? Said you felt ill?"

"Oh yeah, I felt awful. Tell Catherine I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly." I rush.

"Are you putting your coat on because you're cold?" He asks, watching me struggle with the countless buttons.

"I'm going out for a walk." I say as if it's obvious.

"But you just said you felt awful..?" He catches me out.

"Uh, I felt awful yesterday, I'm fine now." I tell him, avoiding his eyes.

"Maybe you shouldn't be going out in your condition."

"Will, I'm fine. Not that it's any of your concern anyway." I state. I suddenly find him placing one of his large hands on my forehead and I grunt. His hands then both fall and cup my cheeks. My eyes glare up into his blue ones.

"You're quite cold." His hands pull away from my face as he speaks but drop down to my coat where he does the front up much quicker than I was managing to. "Just don't take this off and don't stray too far." His monotonous tone sounds empty. He leaves without saying goodbye.

Will's point of view.

"I wondered where you'd gotten too! Everyone's in the lounge." I hear Catherine's sickly-sweet tone call out. I haven't missed her half as much as I thought I might. After being seperated from her, I realised I was in no way happy with her. We began our relationship when we were a little over 13, naive and innocent to the way of the world. Our parents, avid business partners, encouraged our relationship fervently as a way of uniting our families. If it weren't for our fathers, I expect we'd never have even called what we were a 'relationship'. We started as two kids who liked hanging around and ended up being eachother's accessory to events, parties, meetings, you name it.

My father wanted the best for me. What he saw in Catherine was the girl with the bows in her ponytail. He never witnessed the popularity obsessed, superficial side of Catherine that appeared when she hit high school. When I realised Catherine wasn't the girl I first grew to like, it was too late. My father was adamant that she was the one for me. I think it was when he got sick that he began to panic about who I'd have left. Having grown up without a mother, my father was all I had. I suppose that's why he hung on to the idea of Cathy and I being together forever, so he wouldn't think he was leaving me in this world alone to care for my sister.

This is why I stayed with her for so long. This is why I spent most of my teenage years miserable. Because alongside a dying father, I was being used like a handbag by a girl who I was intended to marry one day. I feel sick to my guts when I think about the day my Dad finally passed, because part of me was happy. Part of me screamed freedom! That's the part of me that snapped when everything happened with George and I finally let loose on him and broke up with Cathy. That's the year I missed most of my schoolwork for - to overcome everything, the depression of my father's death, the guilt for what happened to my sister, and the pain of letting my father down by breaking it off with Cathy. I just wish I'd told him. I wish I'd held his hand and told him that I was never happy with Cathy and that it was all a facade to please him. I wish I'd told him he could leave Georgiana and I alone together and that we'd be fine.

"I've been thinking." I hear Catherine's voice continue. "I'm willing to take you back. I know what you did to me was awful. I know you need time to fall for me again, but with time you will. Until then, we can just pretend it's like it used to be." Her cheek presses against my shoulder.

"I don't want that, Catherine." I tell her. I can't let her manipulate me.

I walk away from her words and press my hand against the wall. "Look, I know things are different between us now. I get that. But we were great as a couple-"

"Go away, Catherine." I groan.

"Don't you see? It doesn't matter how we feel! We had everyone wrapped around our fingers, everything just-"

"Please, leave me alone." I beg her.

"What would your father think if he saw you now? He thought we'd be engaged by this time! He never would have thought his own son would have flunked out of grammar school and ended up retaking his final year! I hate to say it but he'd be so disappointed in you-"

Before she can finish her words, I pick up the nearest thing to my hand and throw it across the room. It shatters as it hits the wall and I realise it was a vase because flowers tumble to the floor.

I look over at Cathy and her eyes are wide. She takes a step towards me but one look in my eye sends her out of the room.

Still breathing heavily, I pace back and forth across the room, trying to rid the thought of my father's disappointed frown from my mind. I hear the sound of a voice and the thoughts in my mind pause for a moment. I walk over to the window, looking out and seeing Elizabeth's red coat sticking out against the greenery like a sore thumb. She ambles along a footpath alone, singing quietly to herself. I stand and listen to her, whilst my eyes follow her like a hawk. How can it be that she's out there alone, but I'm the lonely one? How can it be that I'm the lost one?