UNEDITED VERSION
To break free of the stereotypical box that high school placed her in, Charlie must team up with Liam, the new soccer player on the team her dad coaches.
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Girls fall at Liam's feet - except Charlie. She...
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Nepenthe (noun)
- anything inducing a pleasurable sensation of forgetfulness, especially of sorrow or trouble.
~*~
People didn't apprehend that friendships could cause heartbreak too. Losing a friend was as painful as losing a loved one. It's as if they wake up one morning and concluded that you're no longer important to them. The memories were cast away and you both drifted apart.
That's exactly what happened at the start of sophomore year. Jillian was a completely new person. She had new goals, ones that didn't involve me, my brothers, Jeremy or Astrid. The girl decided to go her separate way without so much as an elaboration.
It was the one thing that plagued me all these years. To this day I still had no hint as to why Jillian cut us off. I, for one, was there for her when she was being bullied. Then abruptly she cut me off, forming her clique rule. I never understood why it was so easy for her to leave us behind. I wasn't not going to lie, it was the main reason why I harboured so much anger towards her. Our friendship clearly meant nothing if it was that easy to walk away.
Whenever I ran into her at school, I put up a front and pretended to be a wolf. I pretended that she didn't mean shit to me and I couldn't care less about her and her ridiculous rule. But deep down, I was secretly a lamb, commiserating with Jillian because I knew there was a reason behind her rule. Being bullied could change you and Jillian Rooney knew that better than anyone else.
I groaned, stopping just outside of my room. My muscles were aching because of the baseball game the cheer team just performed at. It was irritating having to watch Miles swagger his stuff on the field. I wanted so badly to seize the baseball bat from him and swing it where the sun didn't shine.
A snort left me as I favoured against the wall next to my door, envisioning myself chasing Miles around the field with a bat. The image was comical and I pressed a hand to my mouth to keep from giggling.
Uproarious voices resonated from downstairs and I queried why the boys needed to be so boisterous. It was Friday night and after soccer practice, the team elected to chill at our house. I glimpsed around the hallway and felt a rueful smile tug at my lips as I took note of the numerous pictures illuminating the plain wall.
There were photographs of us as little kids. I giggled when seeing the one taken at Tammy's ninth birthday party, Astrid's arm around my shoulders as she beamed even though there was cake all over her face. A big photograph stood out, one of me, Christian and Caleb in the tub as babies. Back then, we all looked exactly the same before my features became more feminine.
Another picture caught my attention. In this one, the entire soccer team was present. It was taken during my sophomore year when Dad had just recruited the last person. He asked me to be part of the picture too as he stood with a big smile in the middle.
