Belle's POV
I entered my room, slamming the door behind me. Right now there was only one person in the world I wanted to talk to and that was Lilly. I picked up my phone, dialled Lilly, hit the speaker phone button and chucked it down. As I listened to the dial tone, I pulled a singlet and some shorts out of my suitcase and put them on. I collapsed onto my bed and picked my phone back up.
"Pick up, you silly bitch." I muttered under my breath. It was about nine thirty in New Zealand I guessed, and by now she was usually up.
"What?" I heard through the earpiece a few seconds later. "I was fucking asleep." Lilly seemed happy as ever.
"I really need to tell you something." I stated.
"Can't it wait an hour or so?"
"Well if you don't want to know what happened to me last night, then I may just go." I teased. I knew she wouldn't be able to resist that. Lilly was always up for some gossip.
"Fine, what?"
"Well I'm not a virgin anymore." I say.
"You slut!" I had to hold the phone away for a second so her screams didn't deafen me. I chuckle slightly at Lilly's reaction, despite the fact that this whole situation left me feeling rather sick.
"Before you jump to any conclusions, I was wasted and can't be held accountable for my actions."
"Wait, who did you fuck?" Lilly questions, ignoring my last statement.
"Andy." I mutter, embarrassed.
"Holy shit girl! Did you at least use protection?"
"I actually have no idea." I realise. "I guess I'll need to ask him about that."
"Well make sure you do. Trust me when I say that there is nothing worse than waking up next to some random, realising that you forgot about protection and being worried sick until your next period." I should have known Lilly had been in this kind of situation before. The best to way to describe her was the female version of Andy. But even though she could be a slut, I admired the way she didn't care what people thought and just did what made her happy.
"Well, I am on the pill." I offered.
"Still, just to be safe."
"Okay." I sighed. There was something else I wanted to talk to her about too, but I wasn't sure if I even wanted to discuss it.
"What else is wrong?" Lilly demanded.
"Well, it's just… Actually, don't worry about it."
"No, tell me."
"When I woke up, I kind of freaked out a bit. While I was trying to find my dress, he woke up and was all like 'hey baby what's wrong' and I basically told him to rack off. But the thing is, when I did he seemed kind of hurt, like he thought last night was something more." I buried my head in my hands, thinking over what I'd just said. "But I could just be imagining it."
"How has he been acting around you in the past few days?"
"He comes and sits with me while I'm working a lot. Sometimes he flirts a little, but I don't think I've given him any reason to think I felt anything like that for him."
"Perhaps it's best if you just pretend that you know nothing of his possible feelings for you and that you're just friends." Lilly suggested.
"Yeah, I think I'll do that. It'd be easier for everyone. Anyway, I'm going to go. I think I'll do some dance practice to get my mind off things."
"Okay, cool. And just so you know, I'm going to tell all this to Ellie." She told me cheekily. "Okay, see you tomorrow!" She yelled down the phone before I had time to protest. She could be such a little shit sometimes.
I put my phone down and walked over to my suitcase. Whenever I was having a shit day, I had a tendency to dress more extravagantly, and today was definitely one of those days. I search for a pair of fishnet tights that weren't ripped and put them on. Next came my Atsuko Kudo semi transparent black leopard print leotard and Pink Cobra boots. I finished off the look by putting on my old leather jacket that I had scored for three dollars at a hospice shop. I looked myself up and down in the mirror and walked out of my room, satisfied with how I looked.
Before heading downstairs to the gym, I headed into the kitchen for a glass of water and some pain killers. I opened the fridge to find the water bottle I had put in there the day before, but as I did, my hand collided with some leftover food and it went tumbling to the floor. As I bent down to retrieve it, I heard someone clear their throat behind me. I turned and saw a short blonde girl standing on the other side of the kitchen. The first thing I noticed was how pretty she was. She had long wavy blonde, huge green eyes and had a very sweet and innocent look about her. The second thing I noticed was how thin she was. I couldn't remember a time in my life where I'd been confident with my body, but I'd gotten over it a bit because of what I loved to wear. Looking at this girl made me instantly self conscious. With all this running through my head, I nearly missed the horrible, sour look on her face.
"So are you another one of Andy's whores?" She spat at me.
"Um, no. Are you?" I asked. I had always been a smart ass and there was no way she knew about Andy and I.
"What, no!" She looked as if I had just told her she was wearing ugly extensions or something, as if I had insulted her in the worst possible way. Just as she looked like she was about to slap me, Shaun rounded the corner into the kitchen.
"Hey Belle! I see you've met Sam." He grinned at us. Sam glare turned into a smile as she threaded her arm around Shaun's waist and pulled him into her. She looked at me almost victoriously, as if he were her possession. Shaun didn't really seem to notice though; I think he was trying to figure out what I was wearing.
"Oh so you're Sam!" I said in the fakest way I could. "I'm Belle, the person directing the Jack the Ripper video." I also like to wear leotards around the boyfriend you hardly see, I mentally added.
"Nice to meet you." She said, barely looking at me. "Shaun, can I talk to you outside?" Shaun looked kind of confused as she dragged him out to the balcony and slammed the glass door shut behind her. I couldn't hear what they were saying but it didn't look pretty. Sam looked like she was yelling something as she gestured towards me. Shaun pulled her into his arm and said something comforting that seemed to calm her down. I sipped my water as I tried to figure out what the fuck I'd done.
"What are you staring at?" Andy said, snapping me out of my daydream.
"I don't think Sam likes me."
"Yeah, probably not." He replied casually.
"Why do you say that?"
"She's quite over protective for Shaun. It isn't hard to guess why."
"I can understand that, but why does she assume that I want to go after him or something?"
"I don't know, ask her."
"No thanks, I want to live." I turned around to look at him for the first time. "Put a fucking shirt on, bro."
"I thought you liked me with my shirt off?" He teased.
"Please don't remind me!" I said, wanting to punch him. A look of hurt returned to his eyes for a split second, just as it had this morning before disappearing again.
"I need to ask you something serious." I said, setting my glass down. "Did we use protection last night?"
"Yes we did no need to worry about that." He said, finally taking something seriously.
"Are you sure? Because I don't want to think we did and then nine months from now, a baby comes out of me."
"I'm completely sure. Trust me." He looked me dead in the eye, as if to reassure me that everything was going to be fine.
I broke away from his intense stare and left the room without a word. The way he looked at me sometimes scared me a little. It was if there was something he really wanted to tell me but just couldn't.
I walked out into the hall and headed for the elevator, pushing the bottom for the ground level. I flicked through my iPod as the elevator arrived at the ground floor and slide through the doors. As I came to the gym door, I peeked through the door to see if it was occupied.
"Yes, empty." I muttered to myself. I preferred the gym to be empty when I danced. I meant I had the music up so loud that doing it while other people were there would just be inconsiderate.
I plugged my iPod into the speaker, pulled of my jacket and hit play. The studio came to life as the music filled every corner of the room.
Chimpanzee's is hatin' but I take it all in stride, put her in a jungle with bananas on the side, told you they'd revive your career but somebody lied, I aint talking poultry when I say this chicken's fried
As Nicki Minaj rapped her piece, I just stood and listened to the beat. When Ke$ha's chorus kicked in, I let the choreography overtake my body. I danced for what must have been about two solid hours before finally collapsing in a heap on the floor. I was so exhausted I probably could have taken a nap right there, but I was interrupted by the hollow sound of a single person clapping at my performance. I blushed and pulled myself up off the floor to see Shaun standing at the door looking pretty impressed.
"I didn't know you could dance like that." He said, folding his arms across his chest.
"Well that's because I don't like dancing in front of people." I replied, picking up my water bottle.
"Oh sorry, I didn't realise you'd mind. I was walking Sam out and I heard the music so I thought I'd come see where you disappear to every morning."
"Don't worry about it." I looked him up and down before deciding to relax slightly. I mean, it wasn't too big a deal if someone saw me dance. "So what's up with Sam?"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh come on, you know dam well what I mean. When we met it was like ice! Did I offend her in some way? Because if I did, I really didn't mean to."
Shaun just sighed and tilted his head to the side slightly. "She always been a bit overprotective, you see. I don't mind it too much sometime if it makes her feel better, but lately…" He trailed off, staring into space. "Lately it's gotten worse. Anyway, can we not talk about it? It's kind of a downer."
"Uh, sure. Come on, let's head upstairs." I pulled my iPod off the dock lead him out of the gym. He followed, but the absent look never left his face. He seemed like he was so lost in his head and he just couldn't find his way out.