Breaking Through

Chapter 9

***

The next day Emily was distant from the moment she saw me. I kept trying to reassure her that she would always be my best friend and that nothing could ever change that, but she insisted she was okay, even though I knew she wasn't, and I dropped the subject for now. I got to my locker and found Tim waiting there for me already. He was leaning casually against my locker with a cute crooked smile playing on his lips. How I didn't see how he was this hot before, I don't even know.

"Miss Marioni." He said seriously.

"Mr Tam." I inclined my head. Oh course Tam wasn't his real last name, Stevens was.

He laughed. "You're so funny."

He squeezed me tight and said he had to head off to class. I was so lucky to have him. But the only thing was, it didn't really feel right. He felt a little too good for me. With this playing through my mind I wasn't watching where I was going and I bumped into someone, my books and papers spilling onto the floor in a massive pile.

"Oh, I'm so sorry-" I started looking down.

I looked up.

"Oh Alice!" She smiled and picked up my books for me.

"Here," I muttered thanks, "Come on then missy we have a class to go to!" So Alice put her hand on the small of my back and led me to class. The good thing about Alice was that we had most classes together, and up till now I thought I didn't have any friends in those classes because we weren't friends. But now we were.

We walked into textiles class and sat at our usually seats in the back left corner. The teacher came in and marked the role and we got our half-made dresses out while she started on her own project. Alice and I chatted contently all through the lesson, and then we made plans to meet up after school again. Something I knew that if Emily found out about, she would be more than upset. But I was determined to keep it from her this time. We needed to get this project done and I didn't need a jealous friend to distract me from my goals.

The rest of the day dragged by, and although school is meant to be the best time of your life, I found it unbearably boring at times.

So when the bell rang, for end of school, I waited for Alice to meet me by my locker, but hid when Emily walked past. The plan was to ride to my house, as it wasn't that far away. When we got to my house we had a snack and then, surprisingly, we worked for 3 hours straight, completing our assignment. Afterwards we just had some girly time, talking and just sitting. Somehow Emily cropped up into our conversation and made it somewhat uncomfortable.

"So what's with Emily at the moment? Have I done something to offend her or something? She seems kind of tense around me." Alice enquired.

"Hmm. Well she kinda thinks you are going to 'steal' me as your best friend."

"Hmm," She said a little downheartedly.

"Don't worry, things will sort themselves out, I'm sure."

About an hour later she rode home and I was left sitting on my bed contemplating my whole situation. I was in a pickle. If it was a boy, it was my friend and if it wasn't my friend it was school or family. I never seemed to have everything be okay. I just wanted to sleep. So that's what I did.

***

When Saturday finally rolled around I was in no mood to see or talk to anyone. I wanted to lounge around, watch movies and just 'blob' in general. It was tiring being a teenager. I invited my mum to join me but she said she had things to do. So I was left to my own devices, watching movies and reading all day, which was fine by me.