Chapter Three
For a month and a half, no one had heard from Robbie Shapiro.
It took a while for the students of Hollywood Arts to even realise that the boy had disappeared. After all, that boy was such a wallflower; he could blend into any background purely because he was that insignificant to the general population at his school. They were glad to see the strange boy with the puppet had evaporated into thin air.
Only one girl noticed his disappearance immediately, because he knew that when she pulled her floral-printed curtain over on the day of his mysterious disappearance, she would be surprised to her front lawn empty. For that day, there would be no boy sitting on the grass, waiting faithfully for her like she had grown accustom too, like she always expected.
It didn't cause her immediate concern, she had seen her friend just yesterday, and from what she could tell he was completely fine… happy even, because Robbie always smiled when she was around him. She assumed as she left for school by herself, that when she bounced through the doors of Hollywood Arts, that he would be there, waiting by her locker with some sort of delicious treat to apologise for his absence this morning.
She froze on the spot when she saw no boy with curly black hair and rimmed glasses leaning against her locker door that was adorned with photos. Pouting her lips slightly, she sighed as she opened her locker door… maybe he was ill today. But even that made no sense to the little redhead, because Robbie was fine yesterday.
The chirp of her phone brought her out of this deep thought.
She squealed in delight as she read the short, but incredibly sweet text message. It was from the boy she and Robbie had bumped into yesterday; Liam. She would be lying if she said that she hadn't spotted him before; they went to the same school after all, he was in her singing class, and since the first time Cat spotted him, she was determined to get his attention.
And falling into him was definitely one way to get a male's attention.
A pair of hands snaked around her waist and she spun around in surprise. Smiling in delight she stepped up onto the tips of her toes to give him a swift peck. Wrapping his hand around hers, she immediately forgot about all of her previous thoughts, all about the boy that needed help.
Her mind completely transfixed by her new boyfriend.
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It wasn't until later, as she skipped down the lane towards her house that she remembered about her lost friend. It had completely slipped her mind that he had not been in that day, but how had she not noticed his absence in all of her classes, how had she missed that he wasn't at lunch at her.
But the answer was simple; she had simply not cared.
She felt like a terrible friend as she spun around on her heel and rushed back a few houses until she landed at the doorstep of number 50. As she gave the door a light tap, she peered up to his window; she could see no silhouette rising to let her in, and it made her wonder if something wasn't at all right in the Shapiro household.
Pulling out her pearphone, she clicked his name and placed the phone to her ear, biting her lip as she listened to the monotonous ring until finally the call went to voicemail. This time she banged on the door, suddenly worried… because Robbie Shapiro never ignored her, not once had he never picked up her call, he would always answer on the first ring. So the only plausible conclusion she could draw was that he was unconscious in there.
Finally the door swung open, revealing Robbie's sister Maddie, who eyes were red and blotched. She regarded Cat with a look of indignation, which completely bewildered the young girl, because Maddie Shapiro was always pleasant to her.
What was happening with the Shapiro's today?
"Robbie's not here."
Perplexed, Cat peered behind Maddie, to ensure that he wasn't hiding in the hall, or playing some kind of strange trick on her, because if Robbie wasn't with her, where else would he be?
Maddie rolled her eyes as she grabbed a sealed envelope from the small table beside the door; she passed it Cat, who instantly recognised Robbie's messy penmanship. She took it from the older girl and peered at it for a moment, not fully understanding what it was.
"He left this for you." Maddie said as she grabbed the door, "I told him not too."
"Why?" she asked, as she began to rip open the letter.
"Because Cat," she said scathingly, "It's more than you deserve."
Then she slammed the door in her face.
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I can't do this anymore.
I'm going away for a while and I don't want you to contact me, don't bother trying to ring me because I won't answer, not to you anyway. I need time apart, but understand it is in our best interest. You will understand someday why I had to leave, but not yet, I'm not ready to tell you. But I want you to know one thing, and I want you to think about this, for God Sake Cat, use that brain that I know you have, even though you try so hard to hide it. I want you to think about how without even meaning to, without any conscious knowledge of what you were doing…
You drove me to do this.
She lost count of how many times she had read that letter. Every morning for a month and a half she would wake up and read the letter. She hadn't told anyone about the letter, but she would carry it with her always; she would take it to school and peak at it every so often when no one was around, she even brought it on her dates with Liam, whenever he excused himself to go to the restroom, she would frantically dig into her bag and pull out the now worn and crumpled letter, just in case she would finally crack it's cryptic message. It just that so many questions racked her brain that she made her a muddled mess; why had Robbie been so cold in his letter, where had he gone, why had he left?
But the most important question, the one that Robbie wouldn't tell her when he returned, was the one he had left for her to stew over. But no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she wanted to use her brain that Robbie was convinced she owned… she just couldn't think of how she had caused Robbie to leave.
After all, she had been his best friend for three years now, ever since freshman year when he had tripped over her. They had an instant connection that Cat had never experienced with anyone else. Robbie was just so dependable, always there when she needed a shoulder to cry on, or when she forgot her lunch money he would always buy her food, he was her go to guy.
She had always been there for him, she listened to his problems. So if he was so sad why had he tried to hide it from her?
It just made no sense to her.
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"Are you sure about this?"
The boy simply nodded as he pushed opened the car door, slamming it behind him; he gave her a small wave as he hitched his bag further up his back. With a quick exhale, he made his way towards the entrance of the school he questioned for some time, if he would even come back to.
There was so much more that he had wanted to say before he left, so much more than he wanted to say to her; how much she toyed with his emotions like that old purple giraffe she always carried with her, how she held he his hand to often… how she kissed him on the cheek too much and he just couldn't take anymore mixed signals from her.
But he had chickened out, because he was inept with telling people how he really felt. So instead, he wrote he a letter that he had left to Maddie under strict instructions to not deliver the letter to Cat unless she called around the house, because that meant that she actually cared about him enough to seek him out.
So just like that, he left LA, to go to the boot camp his sister desired him to go to, and as soon as the plane took off, he immediately regretted his decision.
As soon as he reached the centre, he felt out of place, he tried to tell the staff that he had made a mistake. That he didn't belong here with all of these people, the boys and girls with eating disorders, the meek and ill. Unfortunately for him, they saw right through that, because Robbie couldn't see it himself, but the staff of the facility certainly could, because his sister had emailed them a photo of her brother just one year ago.
He couldn't see just how gaunt and ill he looked from not eating due to over-anxiety, but they could. They saw the self-harm on his hand, they witnessed the dark shadows that made his eyes look sunken and hallow.
They saw a boy with a serious illness.
They were kind; they placed Robbie in a room by himself and gave him some time alone to acclimatise himself to his new surrounds. So he began to unpack; starting with his clothes he placed them in the small oak drawers, he placed the blanket his mother insisted he take on his bed to add a bit of colour to the bland room. Finally, he removed tacked the photos he had brought from home to his wall; the one of him, his mother and sister and because he just couldn't help it…
The photo of Cat Valentine.
The first day of training was the worst; they made him run until his sides split, until blisters dotted every inch of his feet, until the harsh wind made his sensitive teeth ache, until his stomach had choked up all of its contents. Even though this was the most incredible pain he had ever experienced he made himself push on. He forced himself to swallow every single disgusting protein shake they gave him, because he had a goal, one that he had to reach no matter what the cost.
He wanted to get better, he needed to show everyone that he wasn't pathetic, to prove to every girl that had ever sneered and laughed at him that he was worthy of their attention, he was human, and he deserved to be treated like one.
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Then one morning, while the students of Hollywood Arts milled around the corridor before the first bell, some touched up their makeup using a compact mirror, while other students begged their friends for answers for last night's homework, a couple kissing beside the vending machine. They did not realise what a significant day this would be for some of the students that attended this school, because today a boy entered the school, someone new, at least… the students that stopped to stare as he passed could have sworn he was new, because they certainly would have remembered someone who looked like that.
For the first time, girls actually took the time to commit his face to their memory. But he shot straight past them, because he was searching for someone else. He wanted to test his theory; he wanted to finally know if after all this time, he was correct about the importance of beauty.
Rounding the corner, he spotted her immediately; her locker door lay ajar as she stared down at a sheet of paper in front of her. Taking a deep breath, he smoothed down his newly chemically straightened hair and headed towards her.
The crowd watched, intrigued as this new boy headed over to the school's most eccentric and dim-witted student and tapped her shoulder. They heard him softly call her name, saw her eyes pop with surprise as she turned and saw the boy standing in front of her. She was speechless, her mouth ajar.
As she let the crumpled letter slip out of her hand and float to the floor.
Hey Hey Hey!
Yeah I'm painting Cat in a bad light… but honestly I think it quite realistic! Anyhoo review my beautiful readers and I might just grace you with another chapter tomorrow!
Much love, Sweeney7760