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Elise peered at Eva's somehow clean and unscathed face, checking again for any marks caused by Iben's fists. The pair were sitting on the sink of the school bathroom, having managed to escape the tight clutches of Iben and her friends. It happened unexpectedly. One minute, Eva was talking with her russ buss group, and the next she was being jumped by an angry, scorned teenage girl and her friends.
They sat in silence, Eva's eyes trained on the checkered tiles of the floor. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips nervously and her jaw clenched angrily. "So," she suddenly spoke up, her voice hoarse and scratchy, "why'd you do it?"
Elise jerked her head back in disbelief, her dark eyebrows furrowing in confusion at the accusation. "What?" She leaned closer to Eva, becoming aggravated as she caught on to what she was insinuating. "I didn't rat you out for swapping spit with Iben's boyfriend, if that's what you're asking."
Eva hastily turned to look at her, her features twisting acrimoniously. "If you didn't, then who did?"
Elise shrugged her shoulders. "Did you tell anyone else?"
Averting her eyes, the auburn haired girl gazed at the floor, her eyebrows scrunching together in deep thought. Hesitantly, she said, "Yeah, I told Isak."
Elise jumped up, moving to stand in front of her friend. "Then it was him!" She watched as Eva shook her head doubtfully. "I swear, Eva, it's always the cute, harmless, angel-looking ones who are evil."
Eva huffed exasperatedly, dropping her head into her hands. "I don't know what to believe anymore, or what to do."
Elise pitied her. Eva was a good person who meant well, but she never seemed to know what she wanted which always got her caught in some mess.
"Maybe you should start by talking to Iben. I know it's scary, but you need to sort things out with her; apologize," Elise said.
Thinking about it, she realized that although Eva should apologize, it was Chris who really needed to speak to his girlfriend. Iben had given him her heart, trusting him to not break it.
And what did he do? He crushed it. Stepped all over it until it was scattered into pieces.
Elise turned her attention back to her friend, watching as her head slowly nodded in a silent agreement. Scooting closer, she wrapped her pale arms around Eva's shoulder, trying to comfort her as best as she could.
...
Elise scrolledthrough Instagram, pausing every now and then to tap her fingers two times against the screen. Eva had left the bathroom only minuets earlier, but Elise stayed. She had a free period and felt like wasting her time on her phone alone in the bathroom.
A large amount of her feed was filled with posts of thin and slim girls with, in her and society's opinion, perfect bodies. Their toned stomachs, nice butts, and big boobs sparked the familiar feeling of jealousy and desire in Elise's stomach. She stared at a particular picture of models Gigi Hadid and Adriana Lima, gritting her teeth in frustration.
Swiping left, she reverted to the search page and was about to look up some fitness account when she noticed her recent searches.
Amongst the few, one caught her eye; chrisschistad.
Elise couldn't deny it, she'd creeped on his Instagram many times throughout the week. She just couldn't help it.
Scrolling down a bit, she noticed a picture of him and now ex-girlfriend, Iben, still on his page. Tapping on it, she saw it was from the Halloween party. His arm was wrapped around her, curling her body into his. His tongue was sticking out from between his teeth, his fingers forming the peace sign. And Iben looked happy.
It was crazy to know that seconds, minutes, or mere hours after that photo was taken, he was being unfaithful.
The door suddenly opened, alarming Elise and as she glanced up quickly. Iben walked in casually, noticing her standing by the sinks. She gazed at her unsurely. "Hey, you're Elise, right? You were the one who started puking at the party?"
Elise nodded sheepishly. "That would be me."
Iben walked over to stand next to her, her happy semblance fading. "So, that night of the party, before I walked in, did you see them hooking up?"
Elise sighed, her sympathy growing for the girl in front of her. "Yeah, I did."
The dark haired girl nodded solemnly, her chest rising and falling heavily. Elise pursed her lips together, but allowed the words to come tumbling out. "I'm so sorry, Iben. But, you shouldn't waste your time crying over him. Chris is a dick. He's a douchebag who doesn't care about others' feelings. You deserve so much better. Anyone deserves better than that."
Iben's lips parted slightly, her brown eyes shining in the dull bathroom. Gulping, she nodded her head slowly. "Thank you. I just, I thought that — that I could—"
"That you could change him?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
"Don't we all? For some reason, we're so focused and so sure that we can change bad guys just by loving them. But it doesn't work that way. Bad guys don't change overnight. And even if they do, it'll take a lot more than the love of a woman to do it."
Iben nodded again, biting her lip absentmindedly as she took everything in. "Thank you, Elise. I didn't realize how badly I needed to hear this until now."
She reached out to rub the teary eyed girl's arm soothingly. "Of course. I really am sorry about this."
Iben smiled weakly. "I'm not gonna lie, but I'm a bit surprised that you're being so nice to me since I beat up your friend, like, an hour ago."
Elise chuckled lightly, her lips tugging upward into a warm grin. "Honestly, I'd probably do the same in your situation, but not to her."
"You're right. If anything, I should've knocked Chris out instead," said Iben, giggling a bit at the thought.
"I know we don't talk much, but if you ever want to, I'm free," Elise suggested.
Iben smiled gratefully. "Thank you. You're really at good at this, ya know? Helping people."
"Well, I tend to like solving other people's problems rather than my own," Elise replied jokingly, but of course, it wasn't a joke.
As Iben walked out of the bathroom, Elise felt a sense of calm. She felt good, happy to have convinced the girl that she deserved better than Christoffer Schistad.
