New Girl in Town

Chapter three

Elisabeth (Sat, Aug 30)

  I woke up the next morning feeling awkwardly fresh. Usually, when I wake up, I feel awful as heck. I put my slippers on and walked down the stairs. No one was home. I checked the time and it was already 11:00 am.

 'What'd I been doing till 11?! It's too late for me!' I thought and tried to make myself breakfast the fastest I could. My phone suddenly started ringing. I ran up the stairs to take it and answered the call.

  "Where had you been all morning?! I called you at least 10 times!" Katherine said in an angry tone. 

  "I was sleep-, " I tried to say but got interrupted.

  "Sleeping?! Till 11:00 am?! That's not you at all, Elisabeth!" she said and hung up. I walked down the stairs to finish my breakfast, trying to think why this happened to me. Yesterday, I passed out, and today, I woke up later than usual. What was going on with me? 

  After I finished breakfast, I went to the bathroom and then to my room to prepare myself...for the rest of the day, anyway. I chose my favorite jeans, combined with my favorite white cropped top. I was about to take my phone and keys from the table when the bell rang. I took what I needed and rushed to answer the door. 

  "Yesterday we went around the city, today we're shopping!" said Katherine in a happy tone. I locked the door and we started walking down to the mall. We went to the closest mall there and I immediately saw that Katherine was amazed by the new clothes she found. The mall wasn't exactly big, but not small either. It had stores such as Fashion Nova, Forever 21, and Primark. Katherine was obsessed with Forever 21, so we obviously went there at first. We spent almost an hour searching for something that could fit us. We ended up buying some dresses that stuck up on our bodies, and some cropped tops with shorts. The next shop we went to, was Fashion Nova. It had some really nice clothes, but most of them were the type of clothes Stephanie wears, so I just bought a short dress. Katherine, though, bought three t-shirts, five pairs of jeans, four cropped tops, and two skirts. She looked like she was going to marry the entire store, but she was so happy that she bought these clothes, so I didn't really pay attention to it.

  "I'm so excited to show them to Patrick! I'm sure he'll love them!" she said and smiled. I looked at her and smiled back. But it was a fake smile. Katherine had never been acting like that over a boy, and she never wore clothes like that. Had she started changing? I didn't really know. 

  When we returned home, outside my house's door were Patrick and Elijah. Lucie was sitting with Emily in the back and was just chatting with her. 

  "Wanna go for a walk, ladies?" Patrick asked us and Katherine happily agreed. But I decided to stay at home with Elijah because I was exhausted. 

  "Hey, Elijah," Stephanie said, but I ignored it. I wasn't in the mood to get pissed off. Elijah decided to ignore her as well and just kept on walking with me. 

  "Your sister seems interested in me," Elijah said after we closed my room's door, and then laughed. 

  "She only cares about the fact you're popular. She's seeking 'fame', you see," I said and he stared at me for a little. 

  "Isn't she friends with Danielle?" he asked and showed me a picture of my sister's best friend, to make sure I understood who he was talking about. "She's our cousin. We aren't really close, but we talk sometimes. I can tell you that the only reason your sister is friends with her is that she is popular. Unlike Anna, who has been friends with Danielle since they were 4-5," he continued and I then realized one more thing: Stephanie would do anything just to become more popular. 

  "But you aren't like that, are you?" he asked and I froze. Did I really look like that? What kind of question was that?! 

  "Of course I'm not like that! If you really thought I could be like this the-," something made me stop. Elijah looked at me and then looked through the window. 

  "There are always people that are the bad influence that could lead you to do things you actually wouldn't want to do," he said and I thought for a bit, what if there was something Stephanie never told us about? I decided to ignore it, though, and try to forget about it as well. 

  On the same night, we all had dinner at my place. Katherine was sitting with Patrick, Lucie with Emily, Stephanie was alone at first, but she had considered inviting her best friends over, despite the fact they live over an hour away from us, but in the end, they came as well. And of course, I was sitting with Elijah... I mean, who else could I sit with at this point? The atmosphere was quite relaxing, honestly. Music was blasting through Stephanie's speakers, everyone was talking and trying to get to know each other, except for Elijah and me.

  "You look beautiful today," he said and smiled at me. I really admired this compliment of his... It made me feel, good about myself, actually. I slowly started blushing, and I believe everyone noticed it, because at some point, Danielle, Elijah's cousin and Stephanie's best friend, turned to us.

  "Older cousin got a girlfriend, too, huh?" She asked Elijah and I could hear Stephanie laughing with Anna. I could see Elijah's eyes sparkling while trying not to yell. I decided to leave the table, but he grabbed my hand, making me unable to move any further.

  "I think we should both go," he whispered in my ear and so we went up to my room. I immediately jumped on my bed and lay down, while he sat beside me.

  "They're all so annoying..." I said and he looked at me.

  "That's how Danielle had always been. Well.. not exactly always. She wasn't exactly like that when she was younger," he said, and so he began telling me the entire story. "Danielle was an ordinary girl, you know. She met Anna in Kindergarten and they went to elementary together, as well. Then, when they started Middle School, Danielle started getting closer with the 'popular' girls, and that's basically how she started changing. And when they finally went to High School, your sister became part of the 'squad' and they all created an 'unbreakable bond'. I don't know a lot about the friendship between these three, but it's always looked like Stephanie was taking advantage of Danielle because she is popular, so that she could also become popular." I didn't know what to say. I was pretty sure something was going on, though, and I had to find out what exactly it was. But not yet... It wasn't the right time. 

  I could hear the music getting louder, so I walked out of my room to see what was going on. Everyone had finished eating and was now dancing... Just by looking at them, your heart could immediately melt. Elijah took my hand and offered to dance with me. I smiled, walking down the stairs with him to go to the living room, where the rest were. He grabbed me by the waist and we both stepped on the 'dance floor'. Katherine suddenly started staring and us, and laughed a bit. I glanced back at her and stick my tongue out like a little kid.

  "It's gotten late," Elijah said in a sleepy tone, after dancing for so long.

  "I'm not tired, though," I heard Lucie said, a little annoyed but also in a sleepy tone.

  "Well, we're good over here," Patrick said while still dancing with Katherine. Elijah and I were already upstairs in my room but could clearly hear the rest. 

  "I think I'll stay at yours today," he said and I smiled, then went back down to wave goodbye to everyone.

  "Hey, where's Eli?," Patrick asked confusingly as I told him that he'd stay with us for the night, as mom wasn't home. It took him a while to process what I had just said, but he just went along with it and left with Kate. Lucie and Emily left a bit later, as they'd fallen asleep and I had to wake them up. When I went back to my room, I found Elijah lying there, almost asleep. I noticed he had already made some space for me like he already knew he was going to end up sleeping before I returned... I carefully lay next to him and managed to fall asleep within a couple of seconds, after this exhausting day.