Through Adversity To The Stars

Chapter 5 - Friends Were Liars With Pretty Masks

Mother especially wanted my room to be comfortable and pleasing to me, she wanted to make me feel as though I was welcome in it, welcome into the atmosphere, welcome into France. She had always been mesmerised by the whole of it, everything that met her eyes she seemed to fall in love with. Mother had always been like this, even in her old diaries as a child, she adored all. Mother being french, I hardly understood anything she once wrote, only making out a few words but I knew her.
The bedroom that had white covers, sheets, dainty curtains belonged to me; soft and simple, that was how our family was presented to everyone. I kept my various music tastes to myself, however still loving the piano music played by Mother.

Footsteps trembled outside, feet kicking against the small stones and sand. I slipped on a flimsy dress that fit at my waist, trying to make it look as though it existed a little. My hair was undoable, ever possible thing I could of done to it would of made it already worse than it already was. The art pieces around the house did not reflect upon the state of one of the individuals that lived in it.
A knock occurred at the door before I could open in. Father, I assumed, in need of me to be present and lovely to the Saunders. My hand reached for a small battered book on my unmade bed I was sure to come back to Mother complaining about. "Elizabeth?" However, the voice I was expecting didn't echo to the other side of my door, "your mother said you'd be up here?" My stomach suddenly dropped, taking all vital organs with it.

I turn the knob on the door revealing Saunders a little closer than I had anticipated. "Good morning," I gave a small smile, far smaller than his.

"And as you to you too," he had been practising his lines already, the tone of sorts embedded into his ways of speech. "I had been wondering if you could take me to town? I wanted to explore a little, talk to someone other than myself and my mother?" The energy Saunders seemed to give off was like he had been an open book all his life but retained with a locket around it. He seemed to be happy with everything, why wouldn't he be?

"If you want to," I somehow felt as though I was pressuring Saunders into going into town with me, even if he was the one to ask me. His look was soft. Not a look that could overrule you, it just was soft. His face, his hair, his lips all playing a part into how he was presented.

He pulled a silly smile as he cocked his head back, "of course. I mean, we are spending the summer next door and I'm working with your father," until you decide you don't want to or something goes terribly wrong, "we might as well not avoid the company of one another." His open book side shone through the mysterious one. As much as I did want to keep away from Saunders, I also wanted to be close enough to look at him.

"I guess," I licked my bottom lip a little, forgetting that they decide to dry up at every single moment they could possibly get. I let myself out of my room completely, trying to shut the door behind me as me and Saunders were 1 foot apart. A foot that could be taken away at any given moment. It didn't. He slipped away towards the stairs where he came from.
I let my body flop, following him. None of the muscles in my body seemed as energetic as Saunders. Even if I wished for myself to be happier like him, Summer always seemed to rule me to make me think nothing mattered, especially the Summer of 2003. Friends were liars with pretty masks and the boy was ignoring my being even if my eyes lingered on him every second he smiled.

Mother was in the kitchen, expecting me to of agreed to Saunders offer. She leant against the counter with a glass of white wine she had gone into town and got with Father the day before. "Where are you two off to?" Even though she fully well knew. A smile smeared across her face because I was finally interacting with someone other than Remy.

"Town," I replied, trying to keep it short and simple so we could at least get out of the house. We took it to the back garden, passing Father and his work sheets, soft songs yet again playing. I was somehow jealous of how he could be so indulged in one kind of piece of music.

Our feet didn't match as we walked. Not even after a short period of time, they were left out of time with one another. As I peered down, I noticed he wore his swimming bottoms, fairly dry and pink. The colour suited him. However, I guess that every colour suited him.
"Tell me about you, Elizabeth," he started.

Startled - I paused. When you don't know who you are, how could you tell someone about yourself; the biggest mystery in life. Because the crush I thought I had over a character was walking along side me, even if that character wasn't him. "What do you want to know?"

I let my eyes look at him. His eyes, his chin, his jaw, his cheekbone, his nose, his eyelashes; everything contrasting with the sun ahead of us. "Like, the basics and then... more."

I cleared my throat, "well, I'm 17. I'm an only child. My middle name is Margret -,"

He sniggered, "you're joking?" His blue eyes met mine, a small smirk across his face - a true one.

I give one back because I want to and because I couldn't take it to not, "if only." I could feel the dust being kicked up my leg as we continued down the hill. "The more stuff?"

"Yeah like, do you find it weird that I'm here?" The question resonated throughout my mind. I had been questioning myself that.

I fiddled with a leaf I picked off a bush, "well, you do play Andrew. I don't really know, I don't really know you as a person."

He nodded, hair bouncing, "then let's. What do you want to know?"

"Free range?"

"Free range," he confirmed.

I bit the inside of my cheek. "What does it feel like to be you? To be in your situation where people watch you constantly?" I let my eyes linger on him, just this once. This time, I didn't mind if he caught me.

His eyebrows furrowed a little, "a bit shit. Nothing I can't handle. The thing is - this is my life now, it makes people happy, what I do."

I nodded, agreeing with him but only slightly, "but does it make you happy?"

He looked at me. It felt all different types of different and I wanted to experience them all; the good, the bad. "Y-yeah," the same smile continues to make an appearance.
The sound of people and laughing started to creep into the conversation; town neared and our talking was to end.