So, I think I'm getting the hang of this and being able to see if people go to look at this story, and I think it's been getting a good amount of publicity and reading and such things. However, not many reviews! I would appreciate any and all reviews I would get, it makes me feel special and would help in making the story better in maybe some areas that aren't my strongest in writing about. So please, read, review, go eat some hummus, all that jazz!
The next day I awoke, my pillow a little wet from a slight cry I had as I went to bed. Even thinking about it now was sad and painful from my point of view. However, I vowed today I would not show it. Gill would not get the best of me, no matter how hurt I was and all. He, he was just a heartless jerk, and would rue the day he rejected the only decent friend he had.
So it was on that Thursday I put on make-up, contacts, a cute paisley skirt, and slimming black shirt. Since I was still so new, my 'style' had not been established yet, and in layman's terms, I could wear whatever I wanted and not be defined by it. At my old school I had gone into my comfy t-shirts phase, that although were much more comfy than outfits I wore such as today, they were nonetheless not as exciting to the male population. For some strange reason, guys just reacted to an over-exposed flash of leg instead of frumpy shirts that hid a girl's frame. Who would have guessed?
Luke did not seem to mind my outfit that day, as he chatted idly with me, taking me to each class and lingering until the last minute he had to go. I didn't mind though; I honestly truly did enjoy talking to Luke very much since he was such a funny guy. However, the fact that he made a certain platinum blonde guy completely infuriated was also not a bad thing. And boy, when Gill spotted me talking to Luke outside our chemistry class later that day, man was he livid.
All during chemistry, Gill would look at me as if to maybe apologize for last night, but would stop and not say anything. No doubt his ego got the better of him or some other excuse he'd use to cover up the fact that he was very rude to me. Not that it mattered to me at all as I turned to point blank ignoring him in class, foreshadowing a very long and quiet year.
After that class, I was able to escape to my house, away from all the drama high school brought. Who knew such a town could be so stressful! I knew, though, if I tried to ignore pettiness I could accept it all better, which I knew was true. Even me, who was mad at Gill, would forget about it the next day. I just wasn't a very good grudge holder at all.
Friday was equally uneventful, minus the obvious hinting Luke gave about the flower festival dance. Whenever he brought it up all I could do was smile though, not really giving any definite answer. However, I decided as I headed home that Friday afternoon, that if he asked me, I would say yes to him. After all, he was one of the few people who actually made me happy and could make me laugh. And in my book, that was all that counted. These thoughts made me smile in my mind as I rounded a corner and froze.
Gill was walking next to and very close to the same girl from the bar the other night, the one with pink pigtails. She was laughing, but strangely enough was the fact that he was laughing too. He was using his hands to expressively say something I caught as mockery of someone. Quietly, I started walking to be close enough behind them to hear, but not close enough to be noticed.
"I can't believe she's such a ditz! I mean, anyone can balance a chemistry equation. Why, even Luke could do it, it's so easy," the girl sneered rather unattractively. I frowned as I kept their pace, but continued listening, eager to hear who this 'ditz' was.
"No, she definitely possesses more intelligence than that imbecile could muster in a lifetime. She does seem to be fairly intelligent, minus the chemistry part," Gill continued.
"Even so, I do think that Lizzy Pilgrim and Luke Dolt are just made for each other!" she laughed, throwing a seductive and flirty expression to Gill. I thought I would be sick right then and there.
"Well, I do think that he was going with her to spring fling…." Gill trailed off, obviously leaving room to start a conversation with the other girl. His results didn't take long to happen.
"Now about that," she turned to him as I scurried behind a nearby tree to not be seen. I started tearing up about their mockery of me, and hoped my sniffles wouldn't be too loud so that they heard me.
"Gilly," she continued, "when are you asking me to this thing? I didn't make a dress for nothing!"
He blushed adorably at her, making my heart and stomach slightly contract, but I ignored it. "Well, Luna, if you want to go together…."
She squealed with girly charm and flung into his arms. "Obvi!" she squealed, giving him a peck on the cheek. She released him and ran down the road, giving the excuse of helping her grandma at the shop.
I was shocked and couldn't move, ready to leave to go home and cry for the next hour as soon as Gill moved. However, like the annoying teenage boy he was growing to be, he just stood there, holding his cheek. After a couple of minutes (or hours at this point, I really could not tell), he sighed a "Wow," and started humming to himself as he walked down the road, grinning from ear to ear like a lovestruck teenager.
As soon as he rounded the corner into town though, I could not move as I had wanted to do. I clutched the tree for support as the tears came steadily out. I couldn't believe the very mean things that both had said about me, particularly the girl who I had never met before. And Gill… he didn't even stick up for me, defend my honor like any reasonable guy would, but instead contributed to my open mockery, which just made it worse. My feelings for him, whatever they had been, were so confused and mainly hurt. I had thought we were friends, but obviously, we weren't even that…
I eventually began my trek to my house, but I walked right past it to sit on the bridge near it. I sat down, letting my feet dangle and my tears wash into the rushing river. This would all pass eventually, but right now it sucked. Numerous ways were thought of in order to make Gill pay for his horrible actions, but each seemed as unreasonable as the one before. One thing was for sure though. I just had to go to this dance. Maybe with Luke or someone else, I didn't care. I just needed to be with someone who not only made the pompous one green with envy, but who would also mend the whole in my heart. I sighed, dipping my toes into the stream as I leaned against the posts of the bridge. However my very necessary angsty moment was cut short by the interruption of someone's foot kicking my back. I looked up and for one of the first times in my life, I was speechless.
He was tall and had dark curly hair that made me want to run my fingers throughout it. Thin wire glasses were at the tip of a perfectly straight nose, and they hid a set of stunning green eyes. Cute little freckles danced along his face that was scrunched up reading what appeared to be a map. However, I could not I could not stop staring because that hands down he was the most attractive looking guy I had ever seen. I admired from my seat, open mouthed and speechless.
He mumbled a quick "sorry" down to me as he continued walking a reading his paper thing, but I was of course rendered unable to respond. He turned then and looked down at me with a curious look. "Well what are you doing down there?"
I gulped and stood immediately, my foot a little wet from the stream. I tried air drying them, making myself no doubt look stupid, but he didn't seem to mind or pay attention to. Instead, he had pulled out a camera and had begun taking pictures of the scenery.
"Sitting on a bridge is a perfect normal way to spend a Friday afternoon," I said with a small polite smile, as I was still unable to do much else in my current state. Once again I noticed I was the farthest thing from his mind as he avidly took some shots of blue bird with long feathers that had flown by. As soon as the bird had flown by, the guy turned back to me.
"Hello, you were saying?" he asked politely with a hint of a foreign accent. I blinked a couple times at his sudden change in focus subject, and shook my head.
"Nothing, it's, well it is irrelevant now," I said simply, using a more dignified tone than normal. I don't know what it is, but talking to someone with an accent automatically made me want to talk fancier than my normal day to day verbatim.
"I'm sorry," he apologized, "it was… I have a bird fascination. But not paying attention to a lady is not how I was brought up, so I apologize." He smiled at me with boyish charm making me laugh a little in spite of myself.
"It really is fine. I'd pay more attention to a bird then me too. I'm not all as exciting as you may think," I slightly chuckled as I pushed my hair back. "But, really it's no big deal. I actually kind of thank you; you've made me feel a lot better and got me out of my pity-party rut."
He smiled. "Well anytime for you." He offered me his hand which I shook as his face turned an interesting expression. "This may be random, but, you do live here, yes?"
"Well, I do. I haven't lived here very long, but I know the location of most things. Why?"
"As payback for almost kicking you into the river, I would like to take you somewhere to eat, or something. I actually don't know where places are, which is why I would need your help," he smiled hesitantly and a little bashfully even.
I looked to him with a little shock and bit my lip. On one hand, I had been majorly depressed about five minutes ago from a very disturbing scene I had just witnessed. On the other hand, what did I really have to lose? Plus, whoever this was made me laugh, so that was always a plus. "Sure, I'd love to," I smiled as we started walking.
He started the conversation going by pointing to all the different plants everywhere and some of the birds we saw. With most guys, it would have been a sign of conceitedness, but with him, it wasn't like that at all. It was as if he wanted to show off his knowledge about nature just because he really enjoyed nature, which was a nice change. I smiled whenever he talked and listened, not really contributing to the conversation much until I led him to the Sundae Inn. He held the door open for me like a true gentleman and when we got to the table held out my chair for me too.
We both ordered just some non-alcoholic drinks and as we waited, I looked over to him and smiled. "So you enjoy dendrology?"
He looked a little in awe. "I'm surprised you know what the study of trees is called! Not undermining your intelligence of course, you seem like a very educated woman," he smiled at me as I gave a slight blush, "but, most people don't know what it is called."
I kind of laughed. "I went through a time period of just learning different studies of things, such as dendrology, or entomology. I also know a lot of fears, such as lutraphobia."
"What is that?" he enquired."
"The fear of otters," I smiled as he laughed a good hearty laugh, as if I truly was witty. "I personally don't know why one would have a fear of otters, but I don't see fit to judge others of their fears."
He laughed again and we continued talking until our drinks got there. I mentally made note to ask his name soon, as the whole name thing had never come up. But, it was nice to know that we could talk about other things and names weren't very necessary. We had a lot of similar interests and ideas about life, and he played piano like me, so we could discuss music, which I wasn't going to lie was nice after such a stressful past couple of days. Music had always had the ability the make me feel at peace, and just talking about it really did de-stress me from the pettiness of Gill and that super mean pink-haired girl. Luna was it? What kind of name was that anyways I thought as the other guy, the nice guy, was explaining some scientific concept. I hadn't followed any of it and didn't have the heart to tell him science wasn't my thing, but I listened anyways. That was what I was good at and I could tell another friendship in the making.
When we finished, we insisted on paying for my drink, despite my slight protest. This all had the feel of a couple of days before with a certain unmentionable Gill, but I shook the feeling and continued smiling at him and pretending everything was A-okay. We made our way outside and continued with my portion of our outing as I showed him a couple of the building I knew, but mostly I apologized about my lack of knowledge of the town, but he didn't mind and as we rounded the corner with the hospital on it, we were laughing as we walked right in front of the tailor shop where she was standing. The girl and I locked eyes and I smiled politely.
"Hello," I waved to her as we made our way closer to talk to her.
"Elizabeth, such a pleasant surprise," she said with a totally faked smile. I smiled bigger back to her, wondering why she knew my name as she continued, "And who is this, a new male addition to the island?"
"Of course!" I laughed as I motioned to the guy. "This is… This is…" I looked to him pleadingly.
"James Dion," he laughed at me as he shook her hand. "Like the singer, but last name instead."
"Celine Dion?" Luna asked with confusion.
"I think he means Dion, like Dion and the Belmonts," I said to him as he nodded. I smiled, proud of my knowledge as Luna glared at me.
"Well, don't mind little ole me keeping you two apart!" she laughed a little as she stomped off back into the shop. We left her and made our way back to my house.
"Thanks, James Dion, for the good time," I smiled to him at the entrance of my door.
"The pleasure was all mine, Elizabeth," he grinned back.
"Lizzy," I insisted, still smiling.
"Well, Miss Lizzy, thank you for showing me around. I could tell you didn't like that one girl very much, but thank you for showing me around all the same."
"She's not my favorite, but I will live. I really didn't mind doing it. It was fun and, you're a very nice guy and, yeah…" I blushed and shook his hand. "Until some other time."
He shook my head and nodded with a strange expression. "Yes, until some other time. " He waved as I went inside my house and breathed a sigh of relief. Today was over, Gill was now at the top of my 'I ReallyDon't like You' list (which may have only included him, but that was entirely beside the point), and now James was here. He seemed very nice and amiable, but I didn't know. All that I knew right now is that there was a definitely a change in the winds for me. Maybe it was a good change, maybe it was a bad one, but it really didn't matter. Change was happening, whether I wanted it to or not.