The art block was mine once again. I was sat in my usual leisurely fashion on the high stools leaning over the table; experimenting on a bit of card of various prints and colours to incorporate into my work. I was so engrossed on the inks trickling across the page that I hardly noticed someone come in through the door, until they emitted a lightly girlish giggle.
“What! Why are you laughing?” I chided Hazel, throwing a crumbled ball of paper at her as she held up her hands in mock surrender.
“Your concentration face makes me laugh. You stick out your tongue and you scowl at the work like this-”
Hazel pulled a funny face to poke fun at my own, to which I gave an exaggerated scowled back to, before the both of us cracked up laughing. I felt bad. Yes, we saw each other in school at breaks and lunches – none of our classes were the same – but we hadn’t done anything out of school for ages! I’d been so wrapped up in Ben and Daisy and now Scott that I just didn’t have the time for my best friend and I was worried we were drifting. But here we were, joking around, no awkwardness at all...
“What are you working on?” She asked, smiling down at my doodles.
“Oh, nothing much, I was just experimenting before starting work on my canvases so I didn’t ruin them but now I’m thinking of just starting all over again.” I sighed.
I was feeling a bit deflated about my work. Nothing seemed good enough and although I seemed to be doing anything to avoid colour and make my work stand out in my usual dark fashion, I was seriously beginning to get bored of black. It had dominated me for so long I was at risk of becoming a goth.
“No! You’ve put so much effort into these ones!”
“Yes, but they’re not good enough! You know I can’t rely on my other grades to get me through, this is all I’ve got...”
“Hmm...” Hazel bit her lip.
She did this when she had something on her mind she wanted to tell me or ask me so I could tell the interest in my art work was just a conversation starter.
“Go on, spit it out?”
“Wha- How did you know...?”
“I’m your best friend. Now go.”
Hazel inhaled before starting, “Jason is having a party tonight and he asked me to go and I kind of want to go and is it alright with you if I go and do you want to come too?” She asked all of this in one breath and without looking directly at me.
Hazel had never been to a party. Ever. For starters it wasn’t her scene and when I was part of the ‘popular’ set, they had just classed her as the nerdy freak that followed me around and so never invited her; she was only popular in school by association. And now with my reputation hanging over my head like the scarlet letter, her credibility had fallen into obscurity.
Why was Jason inviting her to a party? I thought, it didn’t add up. Since I gave him the fat egg shaped bruise on his head, which had only just begun to disappear, we had avoided each other at all costs bar the few steely gazes across the room. It was like his spell over me was finally broken.
“Did he actually say I was invited too..?” I began carefully.
“Well... No... He said he’d prefer if you’re not there... But prefer and don’t want are two different things right?”
It all made sense now.
“God he’s pathetic, he’s just using you to get to me and it’s not going to work!” I laughed.
YOU ARE READING
Falling Daisies
Teen Fiction"Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys" -- Alphonse de Lamartine Lucy's past is blackened with dark memories and mistakes she'd rather forget; some that have sp...
