A/N: I TRIED. This is really poorly written ( surprise surprise hurp durp) so feel free to flame n stuff.
They think she's stupid. She's not and she'll never be. Sissi Denns is a wimp, ask anybody, but she is not a moron, and she is not a homewrecker. She would never, not in this lifetime or the next, purposely harm one of her friends, no matter what they did to her.
Her first friend was Fluffy Cassel. The cute eight year old who she had met on a bus ride home. The cute eight year old who had persuaded her to dye her hair a tamer, more natural, shade of red, revamp her wardrobe, and go on living her life and forget about the people who had wronged her in the past. She was his babysitter, and he was her friend.
Her second friend was D. The irritable redhead who had accidentally thrown a school binder into her face out of frustration. He wanted to be lawyer, in fact, it was his biggest dream, but he just didn't have the brains or patience for it. He came to live with her after his parents had kicked him out of his home, and despite his short temper, Sissi found herself welcoming him with open arms.
Her third friend was Shirley Young. A blonde wannabe teacher known for her temper and defensive nature, she and Sissi were almost polar opposites. But whereas Shirley was indeed hotheaded, even more so than D at times, she was also comforting, and she had been the one who had urged her into taking Fluffy's advice. She came over every now and again to play with Fluffy, as the eight year old was oddly infatuated with her.
Her fourth friend was Duke Macgahan. A complete stranger who had wandered into their neighbourhood one day with enough problems to burden the entire country with. No one knew much about him, but he at least tried to defend Sissi from the people who mocked her, and she found herself liking him.
They were inseperable. People would watch them and wonder - it wasn't normal for such a group to be so tightly-knit, in their minds. Sissi would've thought that they would care. But Duke, possessing the ability to bend his neck at horrifying angles, amused himself by scaring them off. Fluffy told her that there were always meanies in the world, no one wanted to offend D (Sissi would never understand why the residents of their neighbourhood treated the redhead like an escaped convict), and Shirley was apathetic to all that did not concern Fluffy's wellbeing, teaching, or food.
They were friends, and happy with it. Over time, people had stopped making jokes about Sissi bribing them to be her friends, or Shirley being a pedophile, and just went on with their own lives.
That had changed remarkably quickly.
Her fifth friend was David. Fluffy's older cousin, one of Duke's old friends, and someone who Shirley had been pressured by her friends to date when she was younger. Sissi felt out of place, until she realised that D was just as out of their small circle of friendship as she was. It didn't take her long to figure out that it was a whole lot more awkward for D.
She saw. Despite what they all thought, she saw. At first, she had felt ashamed at herself, watching David and D when they were sitting together, like one of the gossip-obsessed neighbours. But it wasn't like she pointed it out, or disapproved of it.
The air was soon thick with whispers about the two. David and D had gotten along strangely well, going to each other as sources of comfort in times of need, and no one could deny how close they ended up being. Occasionally, weeks later, Sissi would see them hold hands when no one else was around. She found it cute.
The townspeople did not.
Their whispers plagued her. Yes, when David had first been introduced to their little group, even though she was embarrassed to admit it, she had latched onto him like a magnet. Yes, he had found her prized jewelled box. Yes, she had kissed him on the cheek after finding said box. Yes, he had rescued her from falling into a dank basement when they had been exploring an old abandoned hotel, when the floor had suddenly collapsed.
She understood that yes, she was somewhat reliant on him. However, she just could not understand why they had somehow morphed her into the jealous, spiteful, personality-less, spoilt princess who was the antagonist in so many teen movies.
They were her friends. Not competitors. When she had made it clear that no, she wasn't going to destroy their relationship, the people had come up with a new theory:
She didn't notice, didn't understand, and that was what prevented her from becoming jealous.
It had made Fluffy cock his head in confusion, and Shirley roll her eyes. Yes, she was a wimp who ran away from her problems, but wasn't everyone else? She was a coward, a scared little mouse, whatever. But she was not an idiot.
She noticed how David and D looked at each other. She understood what those glances meant. You'd have to be an idiot to not; though unintentionally, they made it blatantly obvious.
What she did not understand, however, was the idiocy of the gossipers. They watched her, as if estimating exactly when she would snap and fling herself at David. They tried to be secretive, but she could practically feel their eyes on her. And really, what gave them the nerve to spring away from her whenever she turned around, as if she hadn't noticed them? If she had been Shirley, no doubt about it, she would've called them out eons ago. But she was Sissi, so instead, she tried to ignore them and let the rumours worm past.
Inside, it drove her insane. She had taken to fisting her hands in the skirt of her dress whenever she heard them whispering in an effort to calm herself down. After a week, there were small tears in the fabric and cuts on the palms of her hands where her fingernails had torn through and and dug into the skin, drawing blood. No matter how deep the cuts got, she didn't bother bandaging them. The gossipers would notice, and then stories of self-harm would begin to circulate. And the last thing she needed was more pity.
It was a calm summer's day, after about three and a half months of agonising torture, when Sissi had an epiphany. She had slammed the book that she was reading shut, making her friends jump, and she realised that she just didn't care.
And that was it. She was surprised at how easy it had been. She just couldn't bring herself to care, and became occupied with other things that concerned her, not the rumours. The rumours, surprisingly enough, did not stop, and Sissi wondered why. It was slightly creepy that almost an entire neighbourhood and half the town had been so interested in the personal matters of two, well, nobodies.
Now, four months later, Sissi sits at a Starbucks windowside coffee table. Shirley is gazing out the window, Fluffy seated in her lap. D and David are sitting together, and Duke is attempting to tip over his coffee by blowing on it.
She can feel Marion watching her, and she waves her over. Marion was not one of the people that lurked around the proverbial grape vine, simply because she chose to respect her friend's decisions. Sissi decides that they could've been friends if not for the other girl's pushiness at times, and her place on the social ladder.
Marion smiles and sinks rather ungracefully into the seat opposite Sissi.
"I'm glad that the whole, ahem, you know, stuff has died down." she says, adjusting the straps of her dress.
Sissi nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, so am I! Heh, I've had an epiphany, you know. Remember all the girls in middle school who used to have these little cliques following them around? Remember how we, well, mostly I hated them? What if they didn't want to be followed around? What if they were just waiting for a quick and painless death?"
Marion laughs airily. "I haven't really thought about it, but it's a possibility," she lowers her voice, "hey, not to be rude, but that stuff a while back wasn't true right?"
"No! Really! I'm serious! Please don't make me throttle you until you agree!"
"I believe you. But Paul's been making jokes about how everyone wants David's dick on and off for the last few months. Trust him to still be excited about it. But don't worry. I believe you."
"Thank you. I think it's really weird that they all thought I liked David, though-"
"Really? Sissi, you are the definition of 'damsel in distress'"
"That's mean! But still. I've been interested in someone for around... a year?"
Ah. She can feel it again. The sensation of being watched. And not just by Marion.
"Oh...that's a surprise. Well? Tell me! I'll be good, I promise!"
Sissi tries to point at Duke and shrink into her seat at the same time. Marion claps her hand to her mouth, and the collective gasp that echoes around the shop is like food for Sissi's soul (okay, that sounded a little creepy) after all that humiliation.
The kiss from Duke soon after is an added bonus.