How to Steal a Happy Ending

•thirty five• The epic slow motion shootout.

"Only thing you said to me is,
The answer is yes but no."

- Wolves and Werewolves, The Pack A.D.

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It's strange, feeling something you aren't supposed to. You know it's there, those emotions, but your mind is constantly trying to convince you otherwise.

And you can't tell anyone, because saying it makes it real. That and, they might tell someone. Then it would become a secret. Which, in a way, is worse because no one can keep a secret, ever. It's just a myth made up of a false sense of security and misplaced trust.

Another myth, love. And a gym class starting on time.

With the elastic of the shorts cutting into my hips, it was just another annoyance on the ever expanding list. Nothing was going the way I wanted it to. Or even the way I'd expected it to. The cherry on the cake was that Billy and her girlfriend had decided that today of all days was the day to lose her virginity. So not only was I painfully single, I also didn't have any friends... in this class atleast.

Sighing, I got off the bench and headed back inside the locker rooms. At the very least, my phone could help me keep my mind off of the downhill slide my life was taking.

It was ridiculous, I felt like things were just happening around me and all I could do was watch; mute and incapable. I felt like...like this wasn't my life anymore. Like I was a character actor, not the lead. Because, where was James all these days- not in my story for sure. He was forever playing heart throb in another girl's feature film. And I was forever second fiddle, exit stage, girl left behind...

I paused behind the lineup of lockers to readjust my shorts, their grip becoming unbearable. I should've listened to my mom when she told me to buy a larger size, but vanity came in the way and now I had angry red lines imprinted all around my waist. Not good.

Who cares? It's not like anyone's going to see them anyway.

The truth stung. I let them snap back into place and reached for my bag instead.

In fact, everyone had somebody. Even Nate. However shaky his relationship with Katie might be, at least they knew that the end of the day they each had someone who was obligated to make out with them.

"And when I tried to tell him, he wouldn't even listen to reason." A voice rung out from the direction of the showers, the shuffling of its audience with it.

My fingers froze in mid air, I knew whose it was instantly. One only had to spend two minutes in her company to get a lifetime's worth of sample tapes burned into your memory.

Katie.

I could've just up and left. I was closer to the door than any of them. But yet again, I made the choice to do the other thing.

Leaning against the side of the locker I made sure I was properly out of sight. Out of mind I definitely was when it came to this lot of treacherous, backstabbing traitors.

"So then what happened?" I figured that was Annie.

"Well, what else. That pervert has Nate wrapped up around his little finger." Katie scoffed, probably had her hands on her hips as well.

I wondered who she was talking about, and then if they were all still in their towels. That would've been a sight, the three of them sitting around the locker room and gossiping in over sized, school-regulated maroon towels. I bit back a snigger; things are always funnier when you're not supposed to laugh.