Fake Tales

Chapter 22- Two Steps,Twice

Chapter 22- Two Steps, Twice

Flashback:

"I'm seriously worried about him Mad, he's hardly ever home and when he is he's quiet, just not like himself" Mel frowned, the skin wrinkling in her tanned forehead. She had gone to Paris last week with Linda and had come back bright eyed and bubbly, telling me about it nonstop. Where they'd been, how good the food was, how annoying the other tourists were... Etcetera etcetera.

It had been a relief that Mel had been away for a week, she was too perceptive when I was upset. She would have immediately recognised my red rimmed eyes and dead, blank stare. I felt like an idiot for crying over him, but I couldn't help it- I missed him. I was around him all the time, but that side of him was closed off to me. Leave it to me to fall someone utterly and completely unavailable.

"I know: I've noticed it too. Have you asked him about it?" I asked gently and I can tell by the way her face falls slightly that she already has.

"I have, but he's being all evasive and shifty. I wish it was down to a girl, but everybody knows Greg doesn't do girlfriends" she pondered thoughtfully and a shard of ice pierced through me.

"I know it's something serious, but he normally tells me things." She said sadly.

I was worried too, I didn't have to speak to him to notice the change she was talking about. He smiled less, looking more tired and drawn every time I saw him. I wished I knew what the problem was. Though it wasn't like we were even on speaking terms.

He would give me a polite greeting if I was around Mel's, but that was as far as it went. I had hopes that eventually, we might get back to how we were before. The not-quite-friends teasing sort of relationship, but it was worse than before. He didn't look joke or tease with me anymore.

At school, we would walk past each other like strangers. Everyday I would walk past the place we used to meet and it was like a fist was squeezing my heart, twisting and pulling relentlessly. I needed to move on, meet someone else, like he had done so quickly. I tried to tell myself it didn't matter, that if he didn't care then I wouldn't either. But no matter how many times I repeated it to myself when a new girl was on Greg's arm, I never for a moment believed it.

I tried hard at school to pretend I was fine, but it was difficult when I kept coming face to face with him wherever I went. I had started walking to lesson much faster than I used to, just in case I ran into him. I turned a corner and was dismayed to see the familiar wavy copper haired boy in the distance. I swear the universe hates me.

I swallowed and exhaled deeply to compose myself. I could do this. I continued walking, determinedly not looking towards him as our paths were about to cross.

"Hey" I smiled at him as he walked by. Greg's eyes narrowed slightly and he just nodded. I closed my eyes as I kept on walking, running a hand through the crazed mane that was my hair. Great, I couldn't even manage to look good when he ignored me.

I watched his silhouette fade into the distance, wondering if he would glance back. Basically, I was looking for a sign that he cared, even a little. He didn't look back and not for the first time did I wonder, why him? My heart has never given itself to any previous guys, to the nicer ones. Greg was selfish, impulsive and everlastingly overconfident, but the problem was: I loved those flawed parts of him more than how funny he was, how perpetually loyal and ultimately good hearted he was. It was those parts that made him like everyone else, that made him human.

When I realised this I knew I was in some serious trouble because not for one minute of the lifetime I had known him would I ever had said, that I wouldn't change him if you payed me.