them.

xiii

 She was early.

She was always early.

She was one of those people. 

The early loner, who had no where else to be. No one to see, no life.

She was forty five minutes early, to be exact, and she stood there in the foyer of the grand hotel the school had hired. 

There were about fifty other people waiting with her, and they were in groups, chatting.

Jess had gone off with some of her other friends so she sat on the shiny leather couch, embellished with gold buttons, and thought.

She thought and thought and thought.

----

People started arriving. 

Group by group, exclaiming, and being happy. 

And she quickly lost track of who was there and who was not.

She didn't care about anything.

She didn't even like dressing up and being "pretty".

She didn't like attention.

----

And the Ball started.

Everyone filed into the large ballroom, decorated with balloons and colourful banners.

 She scanned the room and spotted Geoff.

"Hey, Geoff? I'll be right back, I just gotta go to the bathroom," she muttered, quietly.

"Um, sure?" Geoff replied, staring at the ground awkwardly.

--

She stared at her reflection. Her lip gloss was starting to disappear, her mascara slightly clumpy, her hair a tad messy and she sighed.

In her eyes, there were so many things wrong with her. 

No guy had ever asked her out, she'd never even gone past a hug.

And she stared at her brown eyes, her plain, brown eyes. And her hair, the non-perfect bits and bobs that stuck out. And herself in general. She wasn't good at anything. Nothing.

And as a fat, plump, mascara trailed tear rolled down her cheek, a girl entered the bathroom. She quickly wiped away the tear and pretended to be reapplying her lip gloss.

But the door was slightly ajar and she glimpsed a sneaky peek at Hannah, looking even more perfect as usual in her gorgeously expensive dress and incredible makeup.

And trailing behind Hannah was him.

She quickly exited the bathroom, rushing past crowds of people.

Geoff was probably waiting. 

As she brushed past, she almost bumped into Hannah and him. 

She cursed under her breath, and turned around, only to catch a small smile on his face as a wisp of laughter escaped his lips. 

She loved his laugh. It was so free and although she knew he did laugh an awful lot, it wasn't even the slightest bit annoying. 

His eyes crinkled at the corners, and she loved that about him. He was so good-hearted and always happy. 

Something she could never be.

She always wanted to be one of those happy-go-lucky people. And she often grilled herself for not being more, perfect. But she always tried to tell herself that no one could be flawless and by abusing herself, her self esteem would crumble.

And the sad thing was, she was the only person who knew about this. 

Her only support.

___________________

Hai guys.

OKAY I"M SO SO SO SO SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING :'( I was so tired and if any of you guys write stories, you might know what it feels like to really want to update for your followers and supporters but at the same time, feeling not in the mood for writing. 

I've already lost a fan [probably because of this] but hopefully you guys forgive me. 

This week is exam week for me and I have work 3 days a week. I will still update as often as I can! I really want to tell you the rest of the story <3

Once again, I would like to thank you all for all your support. OMG I REACHED 500 READS ARHHHHHH!!! AND I RECIEVED 100 VOTES AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

:'D I feel like jumping in the air and crying because you guys just brightened up my horribly drab day <3

ARGHHHHH! I don't think I'm ranked anymore though but whatever :-)

Thank you guys so much, ILY XOXOXOXOXO

-macey

PS. Will either update Friday, the weekend or next week <3