LIA'S STALKER

Confronting Brittney

It was awkward seeing Brittney. Really, really awkward. Lia tried hard to avoid her… Lia wasn’t even sure what to call Brittney any more. Because Brittney wasn’t her best friend anymore. Lia could never forgive her for what she had done.

Lia managed to avoid Brittney until recess when Brittney found her curled up in the library, between the aisles of horror stories. She was clutching the book Rose Madder to her, trying to lose herself in Rosie’s world.

“Lia?” she heard Brittney ask her, and Lia looked up. There was Brittney in all her glory. Her long blond hair was in a careless ponytail that bobbed as she walked, and her blue eyes were carefully made up with colorful eye shadows.

“Hello Brittney.” Lia said, in a quiet voice, looking back down at the text. She was gripping the book so tightly that her knuckles had gone bone-white and she realized that she was biting the inside of her cheek so hard that it was bleeding.

“What’s the matter, Lia?” asked Brittney, plopping down on the floor beside Lia, stretching out her long legs. Lia just looked down at the words, silently. “Li-Li, what have I done?” pleaded Brittney, and Lia looked up into Brittney’s blue eyes.

“Evan.” She whispered, her voice a little hoarse.

Brittney’s eyes widened in horror. “You… you found out.” She said, weakly. Lia glared at her,

“Of course I found out!” she hissed, “did you really think that it would be a secret forever?”

Brittney sighed, and buried her head in her hands. “Please believe me, I was so fucking drunk I barely remembered it. We both felt so awful about it, because it was his first time and I knew how you felt. Please forgive me Li-Li!” begged Brittney, using the nickname she had created for Lia when they were four years old.

“Maybe I could,” Lia whispered, “but you… you slept with Linc…” she choked out, squeezing her eyes shut at the thought of Brittney sleeping with her brother. Brittney looked even more horrified then before.

“How did you find out about that?” she cried out, her body shaking like a leaf.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lia told her, tears beginning to slide down her cheeks, fogging her vision, “you slept with two of the people I really, really care about and didn’t even have the guts to tell me!”

“Please Li-Li, Linc and I regretted that so much! We were stupid! I came over to see you with tickets for a concert, but you were sick and I offered the other ticket to Linc. We… we kind of bonded and I thought for a little while that I really, really liked him! We’d been seeing each other for months, secretly, then we slept together!”

Brittney was sobbing heavily too, know, but Lia hardened her heart against her ex-best friend’s tears.

“It was just so stupid and I hated myself for it so, so much! I told Linc that I just couldn’t do it anymore to you and we stopped seeing each other… please believe me Li-Li, we were just in love. We were really, really in love!”

“How could you be in love with my little brother?” demanded Lia, “he’s my fucking little brother! He’s three years younger then you! It’s fucking illegal!” Brittney just sat there, silently. “You know about the baby, don’t you?” she asked, dully. Lia stood up.

“You could have talked to me, you know! You could have actually talked to me! You know what- I don’t give a fuck! You’re dead to me Brittney Geller!”

Lia shoved Rose Madder back onto the shelf and almost ran from the library in her haste to get away from Brittney. Brittney didn’t move. She just sat there, slumped, crying. Lia ran to the toilets, and locked herself in, allowing the tears to flow.

She couldn’t believe Brittney had betrayed her. Some desperate little part of her had been hoping that X had been lying but no… no they hadn’t.

The bell rang, and Lia wiped her eyes dry and went to her locker to get her books for her next lesson. English. Lia loved English with a passion. She was easily the best student in the class and she often exasperated the teachers when she pointed out their mistakes.

Lia wasn’t surprised to find a white folded piece of paper in her locker and she didn't even look at it, just scrunched it up and threw it in the bin. “Fuck off X!” she snarled into the air, quietly.

She walked quickly to her lesson, but was stopped by the teacher outside the door. “Look Lia… you’re too advanced for this class.” The teacher, Mrs. Carmody, told her. Lia blinked, clutching her books to her chest.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Lia, the last test I gave you was an end of year exam, not the test I gave everyone else. You got full marks. There’s nothing else I can teach you. Why don’t you do something else… like write a book.” she suggested.

Lia blinked a couple of times, then nodded. “I… I guess so.” She mumbled. Mrs. Carmody smiled, relieved.

“Great. I’ve already talked to the principal and your parents, and they’re happy for you to work on your own project this year. Check in with me next week some time, and we’ll make sure you’re on track.”

“Okay.” Lia nodded, then Mrs. Carmody walked back into the class, leaving Lia to stare at the closed door.

Turning around stiffly, Lia walked back to her locker and dumped her books, picking up a pencil and a spiral notebook. She then walked back to her favorite place in the entire school- the library.

Writing a book wasn’t a whole new concept for her. She’d written a few books for herself over the years, but one for her teacher was a whole other story. Lia sat down on one of the tables and frowned at the blank page in her notebook. What could she write about?

Then inspiration struck her and she wrote the first few lines with shaky handwriting.

Stalker on the Loose

 Alison Pierce is an ordinary girl, with an ordinary life. However, her ‘ordinary’ gets turned upside down when she discovers the first note on her pillow. A note from a mysterious person called Adam. Many more notes follow and Ally realizes that she has a stalker- a stalker who is threatening to kill her.

Lia finished writing the first paragraph that she could use as a rough copy of the blurb and couldn’t help but smile, a little. To truly be able to write a good book, you had to step in your character’s shoes, and although she’d only been stalked for a few days, she was already terrified and felt more alone then she had ever felt before in her life. Maybe make-believe Ally could help save her from her loneliness.

Because someone she made up would never be able to betray her. Someone she made up would understand exactly what she was going through. Ally would stop her from going absolutely crazy... wouldn't she?