Girls, Boys, & Girls

Ellie

Lilly

The thing is, every one of her friends probably sees me as a total bitch. Oh, poor Jade's boyfriend. If only she knew. He's really cute, too bad they don't remember me. I mean, no one remembers the invisible girl anyways. But there's always Ellie, Ellie, Ellie, Ellie. The biggest bitch of them all. Pathetic. Desperate. God, girls like her can fall down this hello t ichole into the great abyss. I mean for fuck's sake, I am surprised she still remembers me, airnd eshe knows exactly why I humiliated her. Fuck her.

The assembly ends, and I watch as everyone hoots and wolf whistles when Ellie passes by. Don't you love that, El? You're getting all the attention again. Just not in the way you wanted it. A sly grin spreads across my face then quickly fades. "Why the hell would you do something like that?" A disbelieving voice approaches me in the vacant hallway. I turn around to see Jade's boyfriend, and of course it's the handsome Eric White. He's developed nicely. "Excuse me?" I ask him, bashing my eyes with false innocence. "The video." He makes his voice stern and smooth. "What?" I ask him, crossing my arms and doing my best impression of offense and defense. Do you like that, White? I'm playing your game. "You know, not everyone believes your ugly little exploits behind your pretty little face." I frown, there's no one around. What do I have to hide? "Aw, babe. You flatter me, I'm glad you think I'm pretty. But honey, what happens between Ellie and I are between us. Step back before you get yourself hurt too." I warn him in my sweetest tone, it actually sickens me. I don't mean to play the bad guy, but it's how it has to be.

He's irritated, he wants to fight, but he knows he can't hit a girl. "That's adorable that you'd want to kill me so badly, but I like you. So I'm going to warn you about your little girlfriend, Jade." I watch his reaction for a second, he's actually curious and silent. "You should watch out for Ellie." I smile then wink I come closer and kiss him quick and long enough to get a good kiss and short enough to get pushed off. I quickly walk away but ignore him when he calls after me. And that's how I got my first kiss.

--

"Lilly!" I want to tell her that I'm here. I'm alive. I'm here. But I can't. I can't speak and I can't breathe, I'm drowning and smoke. She calls again, "Lilly, please... Answer me!" Shes banging hard on the door, I expect it to come down, but I know even she's too weak for that. I try to yell but it comes out in high pitched whispers. She wouldn't hear that between me, the fire cracking, and the door. The wood in this house is burning with rage, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I can hear her running trying to slam her body weight on the door, but a 80 pound 10 year old can't break a door down. I smile at the thought of her trying as hard as she can, but it's no use. Eventually, it just stops. "Is she in there?" I woke up to hear another voice start, I had somehow fell unconscious. "Hey, wake up! Is she in there?!" It's my dad, his voice is so desperate to find me. "Daddy." I barely make out, but neither of them can hear me.

"I don't know, I don't know." She's crying. Don't cry. I try to tell her in my head, but she would never listen, because how could she even hear me? I can feel my skin boiling as the fire makes its way closer to me. The heat on my skin is enough to know I'm still alive, and the first time to regret my living. I can't even move, I know what I learned in the fire truck of elementary school of going through drills of house fires, but how can I stop drop and roll if I can't even drop? I do the stop part pretty well though. I hear a louder pressure beating against the door, my dad is trying his hardest to break the door down and he does. Except he can't save me, he just made everything worse. Burning woods comes crashing down onto him, and he's dying now. Where's my mom? I want to ask, what a sick thing to ask when my dad is dying right before my eyes. "Daddy!" I yelp, the wood starts to move and I see his arm trying to struggle to get everything off of him, he only makes it worse but manages to clear the wood off of his head. He's already paralyzed by now with the wood, he's burning slowly but surely but he endures the pain because he knows I'm watching. "I-I couldn't save her." He's crying, this is the first time I've ever seen him cry. I try to crawl to him but he shouts. "DON'T!" I stop. "The firefighters" he tries to speak with his body crushed. I start crawling again and reach my hand out to grab his. I can hear distant sirens, but I'm lying there in the floor that's falling apart, and I close my eyes and everything stops. Everything in my life stopped there.

--

I open my eyes, and I wake up on the desk, realizing where I am. My face feels... Wet. I wipe my eyes and find tears, God, not this again. I shake it off, and take deep breaths. "You okay?" Eric's voice makes its way to me from the right side of the classroom. "I was asleep?" I ask him, not fully realizing my position. "Yeah, apparently you get special treatment 'cause you're famous." He groans. "I hate that." I admit without realizing I said that out loud. He looked at me, surprised. "What?" I gained back my full self and then answered, "nothing." He made a scoff that made a tch sound. "I liked you better when you were sleeping." I liked me better when I was sleeping too, but sadly most of us have to wake up sometime. I tell him off in my mind. "You were watching me sleep?!" I looked at him, very creeped out. He widened his eyes when he realized what he did was actually a creepy thing. "I was waiting for you so I could try and confront you about the Ellie thing and the-" he didn't finish, his ears went a little red. Are you kidding me, he's embarrassed? "So you were here but you still left me here to sleep so you could watch?" I questioned him. "No-no-no I didn't want to be rude." He was a little panicked but tried his hardest to stay casual. "Yeah, right okay." I roll my eyes, then get up to leave. "At first, I thought you were just spiteful. But now, maybe you're just as hurt as everyone else. Maybe you're normal." I laugh at him. "Nobody's normal, darling. We're all just pretending."