The window ledge bumped uncomfortably against her back as the bus rolled down the street. She ignored it, this was the only way she could sit without anyone seeing her drawings. She didn't know why she couldn't let anyone see them, they were very good, and she knew it. Something in her screamed that these pictures were private, important even.
"Oi, Grace!" shouted a voice from behind her chair, "Grace!"
"Angus, I am so done with your shit today" She replied.
He lent his face on her chair, with his biceps coincidentally very visible from where she was sitting, "Just wanted to say hello" he said, his head bouncing up and down as his jaw sat on the rough fabric of the chair.
She mumbled a reply, focusing on her work, as Angus reached out to grab her book. "Oi!" she snapped at him, snatching the precious pages from his grip.
"Calm the fuck down Grace, it's just a book," he said, rolling his eyes at her. She stuffed it into her bag and knelt on her chair to face him.
"Oh yeh?" She said, their faces were suddenly very close. She could smell his breath on her face, it wasn't amazing, but she knew, when it came to guys, it got a lot worse.
"Yep" he said as he pulled her head towards his, kissing her. She let him, well, she kissed back a bit, but that was kind of what was expected. As his fingers entangled themselves in her long brown hair, she couldn't help thinking of the man in her drawings. Not kissing the man of course, Grace knew he was over quite a bit over thirty and way too old for her. No, she thought of his bravery and his courage as she put the obligatory hands behind his neck as they continued to kiss. She could never be that brave.
He broke away, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear with one hand, while another was doing something slightly less innocent. "Like your dress" he said in a tone that made it very clear he did not give a fuck about the intricate floral pattern of her dress, but rather the gaping neckline and the scandalous length.
"Thanks" she replied sarcastically as he slumped back into his chair, high fiving his mates and talking about whatever guys talk about. The rest of the bus quickly averted their eyes as she turned and sat back in her seat. Of course everyone had been watching them, they were what a teen magazine would call an 'it' couple. He was the quarterback, and the entire school worshipped the ground he walked on, and she; well, she was pretty.
She was a lot of other things too, but they hardly counted when you were pretty. Grace knew she was shallow, but she also knew that that was how the world worked. No-one cared about her near-perfect GPA, or her drawing skills. She was hot though, so she mattered. And at her school, she mattered a lot.
She and her a-list boyfriend were a walking cliché, Grace knew it, but she didn't care. The boy who draped his arm so possessively around her made her royalty at North Lakes High. She liked the attention, the way she knew every guy in the school would beg on their knees do go out with her if they weren't so terrified of her bulked up boyfriend. At least, she thought she liked it. Of course she liked it. Who wouldn't love that?