Chapter One
"Didn't he have blonde hair?
"No! He dyed it silly!"
"Wasn't his nose..."
The flicker in her eye meant she'd seen it too. It meant I didn't have to say anything more. It also meant that she was still determined to believe in this guy even if his hair changed dramatcally from blonde to purple and brown and somehow his nose got thinner and Freecklier over night.
Jose shoved the photos back in her bag, flicking her orange fringe with an exaggerated sigh. She rolled her same-shade-as-lime-jellybeans eyes and then shot me a look that the Queen would give her corgi when it had just up-chucked what was probably the missing roast turkey on her shoe.
"Izzie, he's not a fraud, okay? I know. Just quit being mother hen for like... I don't know... 3 seconds?"
I watched her heave out of the chair, swinging her bag over her shoulder and tossing her head again as her fringe flopped and obscured her vision.
"Im just...they could be anyone's photo... I mean Jose, you don't even-"
"Just shut up Iz! it's fine!"
She snapped her bag shut, her voice as thin and crackling with tension as bubble wrap.
I leant back slightly.
"No your not." I muttered quietly.
I said it loud enough for her to hear, but quiet enough for her to think I didn't want her to hear those three words.
The effect wasn't quite what I was going for.
"For God's sake! You sound like my dad! Your my friend! Your meant to be on my side! For once in your life, would you just trust me, listen to me, just actually take in what I think and acknowledge that your not the only one who cares about me! I care about myself too you know!"
I could tell she was just flustered and loosing the grip of what she was trying to say. I wasn't.
"Please Isabel, I need you on my side. I need you to believe me right now."
Darn it. She'd used the voice. The little, innocent, deprived, hopeless voice that she always used on me which always worked. I bit my lip and willed myself not to look up.
Jose has been my friend since year 2 when she'd decided to use me in an experiment to see whether our teacher Mrs Pink actually liked the colour pink or not. I'd been the guard-standing by the door to see if any teachers were coming. Jose had been the one with the bottle of pink paint standing in Mrs Pink's office and adding splashes of colour to the walls, floor, desk, ceiling and all her teacherly possessions.
I remember it as clearly as it was yesterday. That teacher, coming down the hall, pausing to ask me if I was alright. Me, bursting into tears when I recalled Jose telling me that if I didn't do the job properly she would send the broccoli monster to eat me. I was terrified of the broccoli monster back then, and to be honest, 9 years later, nothing had changed. Then, after I'd bawled out my eyes and explained in 6-year-old language that the broccoli monster was going to eat me, the teacher told me that I could come and sit with them in the staff room for a bit, and that was when Jose, after finishing off the interior design, burst in and started sobbing about how the carrot zombie wanted to kidnap her.
After that, well, Jose thought the crying was me acting it out to distract the teacher and so she appointed me 'Assistant Head Deceivest."'
It turned out Mrs Pink didn't even like the colour pink after all of that.
So Jose and I had stuck together through thick and thin, but ever since she'd got a laptop for her birthday and joined all these random sites, I didn't really know whether to trust her or not. The way she spoke and dressed and acted was so different and now all she would talk about was her online boyfriends.
Yes, boyfriends. About 6.
I doubted any of them were under 25 let alone had six-packs and Hawaii add. hair, not to mention 'lips to die for' according to Jose.
I'd tried telling her this but she just acted all betrayed and sad like I was somehow insulting her and practically slapping her in the face.
Like now.
"Please Izzie. You know I'm lost without you! Your the brains in our little click! Izzie come on! Stop being like this! Trust for once in your life."
"I have Jose. And guess what happened? It ended in tears. Don't you remember the party? I trusted you then."
Finally, she had the decency to blush.
" I was really sorry about that Iz, you know I was but I really didn't know. And that's the past! Live a little!"
I gaped at her. Honestly. What was she thinking?
"You don't know now either Jose."
I got up and just walked out the class room door. I sidestepped as she tried to grab my school jersey.
"Izzie please! Dave is real! I know he is! So is Aaron! And Blake!"
I ignored her feeble pleads and just carried on down the hall.
I didn't care. I didn't care, but I still did no matter how many times I would tell myself I didn't.
Those photos that one of her Internet guys had given her, they would have been photo-shopped. I could tell. And the guy was probably 88 or something ridiculous like that anyway. Why couldn't she see it? Why did she have to be so trusting and stubborn. No, not trusting, just gullible and foolish.
I wouldn't ever fall for any of that.
I felt my cellphone bleep forlornly from inside my jacket. I ignored it. As I was striding out the gates it beeped indignantly at me again. I groaned and stamped my left foot hard on the pavement as I kept on walking.
Oh go do something useful Jose!
For goodness sake girl!
My phone jittered in my pocket, probably as frustrated as I was. It wanted me to read the texts. I didn't. I had had enough of Jose today. I was sick of Anthony...? Andy...?Andrew...? That guy's abdominal muscles and his funny jokes which had been going nonstop like he had a record spinning around and around in my friend's head or something.
I was sick of it. Jose needed to wake up, and somehow, I knew it was going to take more than just me to do it.
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I'm sorry it's short!
It's possibly a story I'm going to write!
A romance sort of thing!
Please vote a comment!
If you've got any ideas for the story it would be greatly apreciated!
Thank you
<3 Ruby
