The Girl Next Door (Brittana Fanfic)

Chapter 13

"Porphyria worshipped me; surprise

Made my heart swell, and still it grew

While I debated what to do.

That moment she was mine, mine, fair,

Perfectly pure and good: I found

A thing to do, and all her hair

In one long yellow string I wound

Three times her little throat around,

And strangled her,"

Brittany pauses after she reads out the last few words and darts her eyes across the classroom uncomfortably. The rest of the students stare aimlessly in their sheets, completely un-phased by the gruesome imagery that was being read out.

"Please carry on, Brittany." Her English teacher, an elderly woman with white, straw-like hair and beady brown eyes croaks up from her poem book. Brittany swallows slowly before her attention falls back on the crinkled page in her hand as her eyes graze over the words.

"I... I am quite sure she felt no pain.

As a shut bud that holds a bee,

I warily oped her lids: again

Laughed the blue eyes without a stain.

And I untightened next the tress

About her neck; her cheek once more

Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss..."

Brittany stops again and scrunches the sheet tight in her grasp, causing her teacher to become impatient.

"Is there a problem, Brittany?" She sighs out as she watches Brittany through her thick-lensed glasses. The rest of the class begins to take notice of her as she stares quizzically at the sheet.

"I don't understand?" Brittany begins to fuss. "If... If he loved her so much, then why would he want to kill her?" Brittany asks, genuinely curious. A few members of the class roll their eyes and click their tongues and Brittany can feel her cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment.

"Porphyria's lover was a psycho," a voice that isn't her teacher's replies and Brittany turns her head to find Quinn facing her from the desk beside her, rolling a pen between her fingers and chewing on the top. "During that time, it was frowned up on for someone of such a higher status like Porphyria to have an affair with a no good peasant boy. So he decided if society couldn't accept them together, then no one could have her... so he killed her," Quinn replies casually, clicking the pen with her thumb and smiles at Brittany who looks away immediately while she twiddles her own fingers in confusion.

Quinn arches an eyebrow when she finds Brittany wearing red festive mittens that cuddle her hands snuggly and realises that she doesn't think she's ever seen Brittany without a pair. Even at her party Brittany was better embalmed than bubble wrap.

"Are you ready to continue, Brittany?" The teacher asks dully with as much enthusiasm as Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Brittany purses her lips and frowns down at the page without a reply. Quinn watches from the table next to her and the way Brittany's eyes re-read the words over and over before a grimace forms on her face. Brittany swallows hard and tries to decipher the words to make some sort of justification but it only hurts her head and the class begin to groan and mumble impatiently as they wait.

"Uh..." She breaths out shakily, loosening the top button of her jacket when she finds the room to become increasingly hotter. The words on the page become mangled together and it makes Brittany dizzy as she feels the pairs of eyes on her increasingly grow. "Oh!" She jerks up randomly, making the boy - with pimples the size of minstrels - next to her jolt wide awake. Her cheeks grow to become the same colour as his acne ridden face after her spontaneous outburst, which is a common occurrence for Brittany whenever she feels under pressure and she ducks behind her sheet awkwardly. She turns her head to the boy for guidance but he's already dozing off again, completely uninterested by the subject.