Transformed || l.h.

Chapter 24

 “You did what?!”

Georgia chuckles, “Yeah, I did. I think she finally got the hint, Liza.”

The other girl snorts from the receiver, “Oh my gosh, wow. I can’t believe somebody finally did that. Way to go, babe!” Georgia smiles, “Someone had to do it. And I’m pretty sure I had nothing else to lose. She’s only just rattling off about how she’s going to steal Luke from me, but I doubt that. He told me he would never like her, like ever.”

“Well, she did kind of sleep with your boyfriend of two years,” Aliza reminds her sarcastically, “so I don’t think that you’ve got much to lose there. I always thought he was a bit of a crummy guy anyways, love. But I’m glad you’re onto another now, Luke’s a sweetie.” Georgia’s cheeks turn a light shade of red at the mention of her half-almost-kind-of boyfriend, a little giggle spilling out of her lips as she rolls over on her side. “He is,” she responds bashfully.

Aliza coughs and Georgia can hear the movement of her on her bed, “And I doubt he’d ever go for Penelope. He pushed her away even when she was being a come-on. He’s just a nice person, I doubt he’d fall for her.” Georgia nods to reassure herself, although there’s a shred of doubt. She remembers Penelope’s words:

“He’s going to leave you. He’s going to run away screaming when he realizes how much of a prude you are. Just like your little boyfriend did sophomore year. They always run from you. Seems like you’ve got a disease or something, huh? When he can’t get your chastity belt off himself and he can’t make you pry it off…No one wants a Georgia Rosenberg in bed, sweetheart. They want a Penelope. They want someone who will please them, give them what they want—that’s not you.” 

No matter how much she wants to believe that Luke wouldn’t do that, that he wouldn’t leave her over the matter of her wanting to save her first time for her husband, Penelope’s next words come to mind: “You’re so naïve, Georgia. It’s cute, but to a point. It gets old. They’re all like that. You’re just a child in a woman’s world.” She physically cringes when she remembers what the frozen blue eyes of her ex-best friend looked like. She remembers how absolutely frigid and demeaning they were, how they made her feel as if she were about a centimeter tall.

“Grow up.”

She sits there, huddled back against her headboard with the phone cradled to her ear, feeling frozen. She hears her name in the distance, but all she can seem to see behind her closed lids is the image of Luke with Penelope tucked under his arm, her hands around his waist as he kisses all over his face.

“Georgia?”

She shakes her head, “Y-Yeah, hey Liza, I-I’m here.” Georgia swallows the growing lump in her throat and blinks her eyes a few times, not realizing she was beginning to have clouded vision.

Suddenly a beeping comes from her phone and she realizes the caller ID is one she hasn’t seen since yesterday during her fight with Penelope. “Liza? I’ve got to go, Luke is calling me.” She smiles, “Yeah, I’ll talk to you later. Bye girl.”

With a deep breath, she clicks the new call open and shakily holds the phone to her ear. “Hello?” A cough comes from the other end, “Hey Geeps.” A grin splits her mouth practically in half as her lips curl upward, her mood shifting. All thoughts of Penelope fly directly away, into some distant world she wishes never to recover. “Luke,” she breathes, rolling over onto her other side as she curls her toes. “Hey.”

She hears some shuffling around from the other end of the line, “Hey baby, what’s up?” Biting her lip, she pulls her knees further into her body to conserve warmth. She wishes she had the gumption to slip up under the sheets and curl up on herself, seeing that it is in the mid thirties outside. “Just laying in bed, what about you?” There’s a lot of noise in the back of his call and she hears it fade away as the click of a door sounds; he must’ve moved into a closet or another room or something.