Out of Your League

Chapter 6

Lying on Belle's bed, I rolled over, laughing. To many people Belle seemed uptight and unable to have a laugh, but the truth was despite her queendom, she was actually quite reserved and only felt comfortable joking with very few people. Her room's decoration was also minimal and held back. A painting hung above her desk, a few framed pictures around her bed and a cactus on her windowsill. Everything else that she owned was neatly tucked away in drawers and cupboards, she could not deal with mess – it was why she refused to come and talk to me in my room; my room was chaotic but organized, everything was thrown all over the floor in a scattered arrangement that looked like a tip, but I still knew exactly where to find everything. As well as the messiness, the walls are covered, there's not a spare space on them. Above my desk was a collage of hundreds of photographs, above my bed hung a colorful Indian mandala tapestry and any other space was filled with vintage posters and fairy-lights.

'Anyway,' she laughed, 'What happened at the Brigade's dinner last night? Tell me everything,'

'It was fine, we have nine new members. Actually, there is this one girl, you might know her,' She looked at me, intrigued and I suddenly felt like my obsession with the girl last night was a bit ridiculous, 'She wore this blue chiffon dress, um, she had blond hair and she would have looked like an empty headed blonde but she carried herself in this really confident way,' Belle sat up straight.

'Blonde? Confident? Did she happen to tell you her name?' I shook my head and Belle raised a hand to her face whilst she went through her mental catalogue of every student at Bartons. Then suddenly she sat up even straighter, if that was even possible, and took a sharp intake of breath. Looking at me intently, she said: 'I know who that is, it's Evianna Chadwick!' I sighed, shook my head and gave an outtake of breath.

'You don't mean Chadwick as in the Chadwick's do you?' She nodded at me: Evianna's father was the oldest son of the esteemed Chadwick family – they were one of the most influential families in this country, there was no family with older money than them and no family with more power. Most of their family grew up to be prominent advisors or important lawyers; no wonder she carried herself with such grace, she knew she deserved to be there, most likely her whole family has been a part of the Truth and Lie Brigade whilst they were at Barton. This didn't bother me, but Belle looked concerned as she bit her lip and shook her head in small movements.

'She's from a more important family than me, and from what you say, she clearly has bucket loads of confidence. I bet she wants to be Queen and it probably won't bother her that she only in 3rd form, and that she shouldn't draw attention to herself,' Oh. Ohhhh. The realization hit me of what she was worried about and I suddenly felt bad for bringing it up, her queendom meant everything to her, and more. Racking my brains I tried to think of anything, anything to say that would take her mind off this and so I blurted:

'I sat opposite Ed last night, and next George,' As soon as the words were out, I winced realising this topic was no better than the last and looked at Belle quick enough that she didn't have time to hide the devastated expression on her face. It had only been three weeks since they broke up and neither of them are over it, I could tell. But they were both too proud to talk to the other or admit they miss each other.

'I just, I miss him so much C. After we'd been going out for I while – I just felt it and... falling in love with him was so easy and it felt so right, but now... now it's gone and it's so hard to admit that to myself, you more than anyone know that I normally have my defences up but with him I didn't. And he walked away anyway. He walked away,' She fel into my lap and wept as I brushed her hair from her face.

I knew I'd never had a proper relationship, it had always been casual, a couple of weeks at longest. But since Belle and George broke up, it had had me thinking; I felt awful for Belle but what would it be like to have someone who was so important, that you trusted that much that when you lost them you were left feeling like an empty shell. Maybe I wanted a proper relationship, or at least to try. I didn't want random meet ups on the golf course or on the rugby pitches. Belle's sobbing gently slowed to a few silent tears rolling down her cheek and her breathing slowed as she fell into a depressed sleep. There was only one thing that would make her feel better: a night trip.