A Liar's Tale

Chapter 3

"I like you Suzy. I really do. This has been going on for a while and I wanted to tell you earlier, but I was too scared" Al said, while the only thing I did was sit there with my mouth open.
"At school I always have to get out of your way and it might seem easy however you don't know how hard that is for me. Every day I look forward to when school ends so I can finally talk to you"

Suddenly everything around me began to move very slowly. I couldn't believe what I heard. Me? Can someone actually have feelings for someone like me? Someone who sits alone at lunch and talks to her stuffed animals because she doesn't have anyone else? "Hello? Sus are you going to say anything?"

So , In this scenario I had two options:

1. Lie and tell him that I like him back.

2. Tell him the truth and ruin the only friendship I had.

"Look Al. I like you a lot and I love spending time with you. We've been buddies for so long and we're still very close but I don't like you like that. I'm sorry. But we can still be friends right?"

Yeah, I wish I said that. Instead, it went something like this:

"Wait, is that my phone ringing? Hold on Al let me take this" I said reaching for my phone.

"I didn't hear anything" Al reacted, but I put my index finger on his lip to shush him.

"Hey mum!" I faked. "What's wrong? What? Is there a hippo in the house? Mum slow down I'm coming right now!" I turned my face back towards Al who had a face full of disbelief. Yeah, but what should I have expected form him? Seriously? A hippo? Sus couldn't you come up with anything else?

Okay, well I grabbed my bag, ran down the stairs and opened the door all as fast as I could. I ran so hard. I think this was the most exercise I had in like, forever.

"Gotta go gotta go gotta go." Yeah, Sus is back at it again with the conversations with herself. Will I ever become normal?

Anyway, when I got home I went to the kitchen to grab some food when I overheard my mum talking to Bailey, yes, Bailey my chihuahua.

"So they just called me for no reason. So I spent all this time with that customer on the phone and after twenty minutes he finds out that he called the wrong number. It seriously took him twenty minutes to find out that I wasn't his friend Dan!"

"Mum, you know that Bailey does not understand a word of what you just said, right?" I said and my mum jumped a meter in the air from my sudden appearance. "I had to tell someone and there was no one at home and .. Oh just leave me, I had a frustrating day at work, okay!"

"Anyway, oh how was it at Alex? And why are you home so early? You've only been gone for like an hour or so."

"Oh, yeah we had a great time!" I answered, trying the best I could to make it seem as if everything was normal.

"Sorry mum I really have to go to my room. I eh, have to feed my hamster." I said really quickly . I really couldn't come up with anything else.

I then ran up the stairs and heard my mum's voice from behind me screaming.

"Sus you don't even have a hamster!" Yeah. I know. I really don't know what it is with me. When I have to make up things at the top of my head, I come up with the weirdest things. It always has to do something with animals too for some weird reason. Earlier I told Alex there was a hippo in my house and now I told my mom that I have to feed my hamster. Maybe I should become a veterinarian when I'm older. Oh no wait I already decided on becoming a therapist. Yeah, weird things go through my mind.

So I got to my room and when I opened the door, I found the horror.
The horror.

All around the room I found stuffings as if someone decided to make a Build-A-Bear workshop in my room. And then I saw her. She was ripped open and tossed in the corner of my room. She had bite marks in her neck. Stella, my stuffed snake, had died.

"STELLLAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" I yelled and I fell to my knees. I grabbed her and hugged her dead body tight to my chest. "No Stella why!? You're so young, to young! I know you were done with your life, but this is not the way to do it, this is just cruel!" I wined and felt tears going down my cheeks. Then a thought came into my head: The bite marks. She couldn't have bitten herself to pieces like this. Stella didn't rip herself apart. Someone else did it!

"BAILEY!" I yelled downstairs to the dog. It sat in the corner of the kitchen, eating his food. "I KNOW YOU DID IT BOY! CONFESS NOW OR I'LL KILL YOU TOO! I WILL DO EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID TO POOR STELLA!!" I yelled. Bailey gave me a questioning look. "YOU KILLED STELLA YOU IDIOT AND YOU KNOW IT!" I yelled at his stupid face. Still no reaction. I showed him the leftovers of my Stuffed Animal. "YOU DID THIS YOU DEVIL!" I cried. The dog suddenly knew what I was talking about. He snatched the snake out of my hand and ran to the living room. "COME HERE YOU STUPID! OH, YOU ARE GOING DOWN!" I yelled. "MOTHER!!! BAILEY KILLED MY SNAKE!"

"Honey, you don't own a snake, just like you don't own a hamster. Leave the poor dog alone" My mum answered from her office. I groaned. My mum is so dumb. I'm lucky that I'm not as stupid as she is. Oh wait, I am pretty stupid too. I mean, I'm chasing my dog through the house, because he killed my stuffed animal. The damn snake isn't even alive!

I then grabbed Stella out of his mouth. Well... What was left of Stella, and took it upstairs. I then grabbed an old shoe box and wrote "RIP Stella" on it with big green letters. Hereafter I put the torn Stella into the box. Next I grabbed all the rest of my stuffed animal squad and situated them around me. We then had a small memorial and funeral for Stella.

"Hello everyone. I have an announcement to make." I said almost crying.

"I am very sorry to announce the sudden death of our friend Stella, Stella the snake." I said and imagining everyone around me looking very shocked.

"STELLA WAS KILLED, MURDERED, SLAUGHTERED! AND IT'S AL BECAUSE OF STUPID DAMN BAILEY!!!" I said and trying to stay calm and keep my feelings under control.

"So, we are all gathered here for the memorial of Stella the snake, our dearest and best friend. She has been there for us in good and bad times. We will never forget you Stella. Let's take a minute of silence"

After the minute of silence I took the box and buried it in the backyard. While burying it started thinking. What the flipping hell am I doing?! Did I really just have a funeral for my snake. A snake that is not even fricking real?! You know what, I just give up. I will never turn out normal.

I then hear my phone buzz in my back pocket. The first reaction I got was:

"I'VE GOT FRIENDS!!!"

I then grabbed my phone and looked at the text. It's from Alex. Oh sh*t. Completely forgot about that.

Al💗: Is everything okay? I mean. If you don't feel the same about me that's fine. Cool. Hopefully everything will stay cool between us.

Oh darn. Should I really break the only friendship I have? Or lie about liking him too? Ughhh, life is though!

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We translated in Dutch. So for all the Dutchies people from Belgium it is called Het Verhaal van een Leugenaar.

Xx Joella.