Started with a Whisper

Whisper - 7

Hey readers!

Sorry, really short and sweet and simple, but it's more of a filler. Anywho, hope you like it! Comment, vote and fan! I really wanted to get the personalities of my characters across. Darcy is very proud and refuses to let people see her when she's knocked down, Levi is even more arrogant than Darcy which could be his downfall, and Dillon is all about being the good guy and doing the right thing. I think it's a cute chapter :) Anyway, rambling even though Levi isn't even in this chapter....Go ahead and read!

Love always, I promise I haven't forgotten you,

Sophia<3

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After that little run in with Levi, which I would deny in future encounters I really needed, I dried my tears and held my head high. I wasn’t going to let something my younger cousin Chelsea said get in the way of my year. I had so much going for me, and this was only a setback. Everywhere I went the whispers and rumors seemed to follow like a dark cloud, but I made my own sunshine and held the tight smile in place the best that I could.

To my satisfaction, some faltered, but not all were so easily disrupted, most just giggled when I was out of earshot to hear them whispering.

The lunch bell rang out clear and loud through the halls, and as if it were the races, everyone took off to get a good place in line. I shrugged off the day’s events and sauntered behind the usual crowd, keeping my distance and smiling at a few of my track teammates, who promptly ignored me.

I didn’t need them anyway.

It is only the third day of school and already there is a first school dance planned, I roll my eyes at the pointless poster, even desperate for company I still wouldn’t go. With each passing moment of girls dragging boyfriends far from reach, and girls calling me every profanity linked with easy girls on the market, it started feeling more and more like a bad reenactment of Easy A.

Only one person in the hallway zeroed in on me with a wide, approachable grin: Dillon.

“Darcy! Hey!” He was waving wildly with his arm that wasn’t covered in a bulky purple cast covered in hearts and signatures I couldn’t decipher. I heard snickers when I tripped over a divot in a rug in the main lobby, but ignored them, focusing only on Dillon and his awkward cast.

“I like the school spirit,” I grin, glancing down at his cast, and he nodded vigorously.

“I was going for the whole injured but still valiant look, how am I doing?” He coughed pitifully and started to limp. 

“The purple cast really adds the cherry on top,” I laugh, and it was real, a tinkling sound foreign to my own ears.

“Enough about me…look at you! Your nose looks great, that purple bruise is pretty spirited; I must compliment you on your skin’s coloring choice,” Another burst of laughter from me, and surprisingly I found myself walking side-by-side with him comfortably into the jam-packed lunchroom at full bustle. He didn’t seem to notice as people slowed to a murmuring buzz when we walked in, or at least if he did, he played it off like he hadn’t. He didn’t shrink away from me, or ignore my presence like we’d never talked, he moved closer, and I couldn’t help but notice the sour expression on Chelsea’s face. It wasn’t just sour, it was murderous.

“I feel like I might be wrong, but it seems like everyone is staring at you,” Dillon commented as we crept through the line at a snail’s pace, with the options of pizza or salad to battle our hunger away.        

I rolled my eyes, not at Dillon but at the situation, sighing heavily when I answered, “No, you’re right because they are. In case you haven’t heard, I’m quite the trollop.”

“I see,” was all that came from his normally witty mouth, and my heart and stomach both plummeted. Maybe he hadn’t heard, but as soon as he did, I’d be alone again. I didn’t let him see my encroaching disappointment; instead I just laughed it off with a wave of my hand acting like it was no big deal. Might I add that I am a creature who thrives off of company, so it is more than earth-shattering to me.

The end of the line approached and went all too fast for my liking, and as I stared at the lonesome table in the far corner of the cafeteria, I could just feel the shiver trailing down my spine already. All eyes were inconspicuously glued to me. It was so subtle, if you couldn’t personally feel it, you wouldn’t realize it, but to me it was like one thousand hot irons branding my skin. I didn’t bother with goodbyes, not to Dillon, I figured I’d save myself the trouble because it wouldn’t matter after word got to him. So I started weaving my way through tables of giggling classmates towards the isolated table that practically meant social outcast more than a sign on my forehead.

The further away from the other tables I got, the colder the room seemed to get, but I knew it was just all in my head. At least until my butt made contact with the freezing bench that didn’t feel right beneath me, then I knew the goose eggs were all too real. I picked up my fork and jabbed it into my salad a little angrily.

Lonely never tasted so bitter, because don't get me wrong, sometimes a little privacy was what we all needed, but this was forced and not at all by choice.

I could see the smug victory written all over Chelsea's face as I sat alone in the corner of exile, and I wanted to punch the look right off of her face each time we made eye contact. When the bell rang, I even gave her a tight-lipped arrogant smile of my own.

She gave me a smile reciprocal of my own, her's was genuinely pleased, she had everything she could ever want. And here I was with nothing, pretending she wasn't slowly shattering my life, but pretending is something I would do until the end. I wouldn't admit to anyone it was working, instead I would pray and hope the moment would pass, but then again what if it didn't?

I didn't dwell on these dismal thoughts any longer, contenting myself with the knowledge that it wouldn't last, and if worse came to worse I could suffer through. Getting up and cleaning the garbage off of my tray, I slipped into the hallway and headed in the direction of my next class: Physics.

This day just got better and better.