Well, we get to see Cassie in action. Thanks for all the feed back! It's been so wonderful to read! Every time I get a review, it's so hard for me to not publish the next chapter.
Eli
I called her name and that seemed to pique Cassie's attention. Cassie's nose and chin suddenly struck high up in the air and I could feel the smirk that was plastered on her face.
"Long time, no see." I told her, trying to sound casual. We hadn't spoken to each other in well over a year. She seemed to delete her facerange account a matter of days after we broke up and I never received a text, call, or message from her. Although I never sent her anything either. That's one of my biggest regrets. I called her almost every half hour the first week after we split, but eventually got tired when she never replied, and then I had to return to New York.
She offered a small smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah, tell me about it." She spoke quietly, turning her attention to Cassie.
Clare
"This is Cassie." Eli said nodding his head to the girl he was holding hands with after he saw me starring at her.
"It's Cas." She quickly corrected him. She was looking me up and down and smirking. It wasn't a warm smirk that Eli would always somehow manage to deliver, it was a teasing, mocking smirk. I suddenly realized they were holding hands and it finally clicked that yes, they were dating. They were only dating, right? I quickly looked to Eli's left hand that was hanging by his side while his right hand captured Cas's hand. To my relief, there was no ring on his ring finger. My eyes caught something else though. They caught what was on his middle finger. It was his engagement ring.
Why was he still wearing it?
"She's my, um, my girlfriend." My eyes quickly looked back up to Eli, his voice making his nervousness clear.
I gave them another small smile that took all my will to create. This wasn't how I should have seen him after such a long time without communication. He wasn't supposed to have moved on. I knew he had full rights to date other people, after all, I had a new boyfriend, but it felt so strange. He replaced me.
All the feelings he once had for me, he now had for her.
I was simply jealous and hurt.
"How's NYU?" I asked with a trembling voice.
"It's good. I really like it there. I think you would have liked it too." He said as he tried to meet my eyes. Looking back, I knew I would have liked it. I would have loved the culture. I would have loved staying with Eli. I would have loved moving into a small apartment my fiance until we got married. I would have loved the life I could have had if only I would have followed him to NYU.
The distance. It took its toll on us. That's one of the reasons we fell apart.
"Yeah, but UT is nice. I've meet some really cool people." I told him, trying to stop thinking of what could have been.
"UT?" I heard a scoffing voice. I looked over towards Cas and gave her a questioning look. "You go to UT? Seriously? Out of all schools, you chose that one?" She said as she laughed. Eli gave her a chastening look.
"Yeah, I chose UT. It has a decent Journalism program and it's close to home. What's the matter with that?" I asked her raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing I guess." She replied after seeing Eli shake his head at her.
"Any new friends I should meet, Clare? I have to make sure they aren't troublemakers." Eli changed the subject as he lightly chuckled. We both knew what he was hinting at. We both knew he was wondering if I had a new boyfriend. If I had replaced him.
"Yeah. There's my roommate, Natalie, she's really sarcastic, you'd like her." I told him and we both laughed. Cas stood their with her ever-present smirk. "And her best friend, Emily, who is studying international business. There's also Zach, he's... he's Zach." I giggled while talking about Zach, there was no easy way to describe him.
"Oh, Zach?" Eli questioned, hinting at me to tell him more.
Eli
"Yeah, he's kind of my, um boyfriend." She said as she slightly looked down. I gave her a fake smile.
"Ha. Okay." I heard Cassie scoff. Clare and I both turned our heads to her and starred. "What?" we both questioned her at the same time.
"Seriously. You're just saying that to make Eli jealous. Like honestly. You expect us to believe that? Hit the gym a bit and maybe we'll actually believe you." Cassie told her as our jaws fell and I let go of Cassie's hand. Clare had lost weight since the last time I had seen her, but she wasn't even overweight while we were dating. She just wasn't as skinny as Cassie, and if somebody wasn't as skinny as Cassie, she declared them as overweight. I felt my blood boiling and I turned to look at Clare. Her expression broke my heart. Her face just fell, she was always self-conscious.
"Cassie, it's time to go. I'm so sorry, Clare." I apologized with all my heart as I forcefully grabbed Cassie's arm and started dragging her smirking face away. I looked back and saw Clare just standing there, starring at us. She had a determined look on her face. She wanted to say something, I knew it, but I didn't think she actually would.
Clare
I looked at them speeding away and saw Eli look back at me. Cas's comment was indeed hurtful, but I've had my share of being teased. I've dealt with the whole caf laughing at me after I stood at the microphone, singing. That was back when I wore my uniform. I was done with the days of being laughed at and mocked. I was done with letting people get away with it.
"You know what?" I yelled towards her, catching her attention as she turned around to smirk at me. "I may not look as fake as you do, but at least I'm honest, with myself, and everybody else." I told as she just laughed.
"Fake? Please do share how I'm fake." She demanded with a humorous tone.
"Hm, well your hair is fried from being died so much and all the straightening you do it. Your face is covered in so much makeup that you probably have to chisel it all every night. Don't even think I missed your ironic T-shirt. By the way, being a hipster is so mainstream." I called out to her as she broke from Eli's grasp and started walking towards me, with Eli chasing after her.
"Well if I were you, I think applying a lot more makeup would do a favor for everybody who has to look at you. And no, I'm not a hipster. I hate hipsters." She let me know that as she inched closer.
"Oh, what a typical thing a hipster would say.' I mumbled out.
"Wow. I'm more real than you are. You act so sweet and innocent, but your comments are just proving you to be a bitch. And yeah, I know why you broke up with Eli. You thought you were too good for him, right? You thought he was inferior .Oh, how wrong you were. You aren't better than anybody. Everybody is better than you. You were probably whoring around with your step-brother while dating Eli, huh? Yeah, I heard that story. Incest? That's disgusting. You're disgusting." She yelled at me as I looked at Eli, wondering if he had told her about me and Jake.
"Look, that is definitely NOT why Eli and I broke up. That doesn't even concern you, okay? It wasn't an easy thing! And yes, I dated somebody who then turned into my step-brother. We broke up after our parents got married. What did Eli tell you?" I questioned her, looking up at Eli.
"It was Fiona..." Eli mumbled starring at me. He looked like he was about ready to cry.
Cas broke back in. "You need to get your ugly ass out of here. Can't you see he's moved on? To someone better." She told me with venom in her voice.
Eli's eyes were rimmed with tears and anger after Cas's last comment. I could tell the anger that coursed through his body, it was obvious by glancing at him. He was opening his mouth to yell something at her, but I was faster.
"Oh my God, you are so conceited! Do you really think you're better than me? Because I have news for you- you are a bitch." I told her and saw her fist clench and she looked like she was ready to hit me.
"Hit me, I dare you." I said as I straightened up and lifted my chin up, bracing for her hand to meet my cheek.
I heard her leap at me and I prepared for the impact, but it never came. There was a noise of struggling, so I opened my eyes to see that Eli had a grip on her from behind, and he was lifting her, pulling her away.
"I am so sorry, Clare. It wasn't supposed to be like this." He told me with a sad face as he kept pulling her off in the direction of his house.
"If you're so much better than me, then how come I have him and you don't ?!" She yelled at me as Eli struggled to pull her out of view.
Her remark rang in my head. Why does she have him? What does she have to offer that I didn't? Why did he fall for a girl like him? If this is what he wanted, then good thing we broke up, because I knew I was nothing like her. And thank God for that.
I turned around and started walking home as tears fell from my eyes. After the fight, I wasn't hungry for dinner anymore. Eli's words kept popping into my head and I had to agree with him.
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
