The Fairest Stars

Chapter Seven: 'A Troubled Mind.'

Perhaps her comment about him quoting Alice In Wonderland had pissed him off. But she didn’t mean it like that, and- well, she was just rather confused.

Sighing, she returned to her script. She had no idea what to think of Kael, and no idea what he thought of her, but he seemed to be bipolar, from what she knew of him so far. Swinging from friendliness to thirteen year old boy struggling through puberty in mere seconds, she wondered which side was really him. She hoped it wasn’t the grouchy side.

‘Isis!’ Snapping her head up, Isis smiled as she saw Lydia there, grinning happily. ‘Gorgeous, you can’t sit there alone on such a beautiful day!’

Isis looked dubiously out of the window. The sky was dark and grey, rain threatening to pour from the looming clouds. ‘Beautiful?’ she repeated uncertainly. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course it’s a beautiful day!’ Lydia trilled, sitting down with enthusiasm. ‘It’s beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.’

Isis couldn’t help but smile. ‘Is there a reason for this happiness, Lyds?’ she asked. Though only having known Lydia for an extremely short amount of time, she felt as if she’d known her forever. There was something extremely lovable about the girl, and the way that she positively bounced through life with a permanent spring in her step.

‘Oh, nothing much,’ Lydia said, casually. ‘Except from that I’m playing the Nurse and my boyfriend dumped me!’

Silence. Isis regarded the girl before her with a frown. Either she’d heard her wrong, or something was quite wrong with her new friend. ‘Uh, sorry?’

‘My boyfriend broke up with me!’ Lydia repeated joyously. ‘Oh happy day!’

Nope, Isis had definitely heard her correctly. ‘Right. And you’re happy because…?’

‘Oh Is, I’ve been trying to man up enough to dump him for weeks now!’ Lydia sat up straighter in her chair, flicking her dark hair behind one shoulder. ‘He’s saved me the hassle, thank goodness.’

‘You wanted him to dump you?’

‘Yes! Oh yes, yes, yes! I thought perhaps dodging out of the way every time he moved to kiss me might give him the signal, and it looks like that worked.’ Lydia sighed contentedly. ‘Thank goodness.’

‘Why?’

‘Isis, that boy is actually barely more interesting than a paperclip. In fact, he might well be less interesting than a paperclip- at least you can get paperclips in various colours, and you can always attach them together to make a little chain of paperclips if you want to, and-’ She paused. ‘What was I talking about, again?’

‘Your boyfriend,’ Isis reminded her, helpful as always.

‘Oh. Yes.’ Lydia smiled. ‘I’m a coward, you see,’ she continued. ‘I don’t ask people out, I don’t break up with people. So I’ve ended up being with him for the past four months, and I just don’t have a clue how I put up with it!’ She stretched out her arms, and slumped in her chair. ‘Finally, I’m free!’

Isis didn’t really know what to say. ‘Well. Congratulations, I suppose.’

Lydia laughed. ‘Well, thank you, I suppose back!’ She turned to look at her intently, all of a sudden. ‘What happened with Kael, by the way?’ she asked. ‘He looked rather bedazzled by you.’

‘Bedazzled?!’ Isis choked. ‘What on earth do you mean?’

‘The way he was looking at you!’ Lydia clarified. ‘Did you not see the lust in his eyes, woman?’