Like Chocolate Stars and the Sun

Why, oh why did I just agree to her little blackmail scheme?

The blonde smiled and brushed past me. A few moments later I turned on my heels and walked quite quickly to my music class. I made it just in time, the late bell sounded just as I stepped inside the classroom.

“Just in time Francesca.” My music teacher smiled and motioned to my seat. “Would you like to sit down.”

I nodded and walked over to my seat. After setting my bag down and sitting on the uncomfortable wooden stools that you would usually find in a science block I let out a huge sigh. I was just about ready to bang my head against a brick wall. Why had I agreed to Stacey’s suggestion. Sure I didn’t want to hurt Tyler, but in the process I would be hurting myself and possibly Jesse. I put my head in my hands and mentally groaned.

The whole lesson was a blur, I tried attempting composing anything remotely decent, but my mind was elsewhere. I was glad to get out of the classroom, just so I could have some sort of five minutes of freedom. As I walked to IT, Charlotte caught up with me and put her arm round my shoulders – and easy task seen as though she is, like everyone else, taller then me.

Random mental thought, make myself taller.

“Where did you disappear to earlier Amiga?” Charlotte asked with a smile on her face.

“First of all, what’s with the Spanish?” Charlotte chuckled at my comment and shrugged, “And second I went to music.”

“Yeah but one minute you were walking with me, and the next you disappeared.” Charlotte informed me. Yes I already knew that.

“I forgot something from my locker.” I lied.

“You’re contradicting yourself.” Charlotte folded her arms as we both sat down at our computers.

“No I'm not,” I quickly improvised. “I forgot something from my locker, then I went to music.” I stared blankly at my computer screen, purposely as my brother always told me my eyes go really wide when I lie, which is always a bit of a giveaway.

“Come on, it’s not like I'm going to tell everyone where you were.” Charlotte sighed.

“I wasn’t even doing anything worth telling people.” Lie, such a big lie.

“You can tell me what you were doing then.” Charlotte pestered.

“I would prefer not to.” I mumbled. “Not here anyway.”

“Tell me after the lesson then!” Charlotte grinned. There was no way she was going to go down without a fight.

“Fine” I sighed and tucked my hair behind my ear and bit my lip. How the hell was I going to explain this one. By the time the lesson was out Charlotte was buzzing, and I mean buzzing. She was desperate to know. You would think she was getting a present or something, not finding out how I just single handedly could have ruined a great friendship.

“Come on then, spill.” Charlotte grinned.

“Look your going to hate me.” I sighed, stressing the word hate. Charlotte shook her head, but she didn’t know what was coming. I pulled her into a gap between some lockers which, thankfully, were not surrounded by people at this point in time.

“Something happened last night, with me and Jesse.” I began. Charlotte’s eyes went wider then usual and her eyebrows raised. I don’t think I needed to go into much detail about exactly what happened. It was more the obvious. “Anyway, I was reading my emails last night and I got one from someone who’s email I didn’t recognise saying they knew what happened and if I wanted them to keep quiet then I had to meet them this morning.”

“So what did you do?” Charlotte asked.

“That’s where I disappeared to this morning. Turns out it was Miss Teen Queen Bitch who had seen us, who was may I just add surprisingly calm to say her boyfriend had cheated on her.” I stopped for breath and looked down at my shoes. “She said she wouldn’t tell Tyler on one condition that I stay away from Jesse. By that she means no talking to him, no getting lifts home. Nothing.”

“You didn’t agree did you?” Charlotte asked. I continued staring down at my shoes, and Charlotte seemed to get why. “Oh, Francesca...”

“I didn’t have much of a choice.” I looked back up at Charlotte who was now looking down at the floor. “Look I'm going to go to my locker.” I started to walk away, but Charlotte soon caught up with me.

“You realise she is blackmailing you right?” Charlotte asked as I reached my locker.

“Yes, I did realise that. Thank you very much.” I turned the dial on my locker door till it opened. “But what can I do about it?”

“If you tell Tyler the truth straight away, maybe he wont be as mad.” Charlotte shrugged.

“Yeah, not likely.” I sighed. Then I added, in a hushed tone might I just add, “I made out with his cousin. They are blood related.”

“Well when you put it like that.” Charlotte sighed and averted her eyes away from me. She seemed to be watching someone or something.

“Just so you know, Jesse is heading in our direction right now.” She whispered so only I could hear and gave me a look I couldn't quite decipher. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the familiar blue eyes and brown hair I had seen almost everyday for the past few weeks. I looked back in my locker and pretended to be looking for something.

“Hey, Frankie.” Jesse began and rested against the locker next to mine casually. I didn’t dare look up at him, just in case Stacey came bounding round the corner. She didn’t say I couldn’t look at him, but you never know with her. “Look I was wondering if I could talk to you.”

“Oh, sorry. I cant right now.” I lied, focusing on the back of my locker, “I need to hand in some science homework or it’s a detention.” I glanced up at him from the corner of my eye and his face was a picture of confusion. He looked quite cute when he was confused. Anyway ...

“That’s really not like you...” Jesse half laughed, “But whatever. I’ll just catch you later then.”

“Yeah whatever.” I closed my locker, grabbed Charlotte's arm and walked off down the hallway. I was going in the complete opposite direction to where I needed to be, but I continued walking never the less.

“Harsh much?” Charlotte asked once I let go of her arm.

“Just don't.” I closed my eyes and sighed.

- - -

I sat down at lunch a few hours later completely and utterly hating myself. Jesse had tried talking to me again on the way to lunch, but I just blanked him. This was really coming back to bite me.

“Please kill me.” I mumbled into my arms as I sat with my head resting on my arms, which were folded on the table. I had pushed my food tray aside, my appetite had completely gone out of the window. I felt someone pat me on the back.

“Cheer up,” Charlotte made an attempt at making me feel slightly better.

“I can’t. I'm in depression city at the moment.” I groaned and clamped my eyes shut. “This is killing me.”

“What’s wrong with Frankie?” Nick asked as he set his tray down on the table.

“My life is over.” I mumbled.

“She's having a bad day.” Charlotte told Nick. I sat up properly and rested my head on my hands.

“A very, very bad day.” I corrected Charlotte. Nick chuckled and offered me on of his chips. I shook my head and told him I wasn’t hungry, hence why there was an untouched tray in the middle of the table.

“Oh my god, have you heard?” Jake asked as he set his tray down next to Nick. Trust Jake to have some gossip about some poor unfortunate person.

“What?” I asked. Maybe if I hear about other people’s misfortune it might make me feel slightly better.

“Prepare yourselves.” Jake warned me. “Jesse and Stacey just had a massive fight in the hall. They broke up.”

My face lit up instantly. If Stacey was no longer with Jesse, that meant I could talk to him again? Right? Then, against my will, my brain started celebrating the Jesse was now single. Why do these kinds of things always happen to me? I was glad, overjoyed almost, that he was single. Yet I have a boyfriend.

“Really?” I couldn’t hide the smile from my face.

“I couldn’t help but over hear your name mentioned a couple of times though Francesca.” Jake told me, “So watch out for Stacey’s wrath.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, why would my name be mentioned?

“What do you think it means, in the fight your name came up a few times. I couldn’t really hear what was being said, I just heard your name.” Jake shrugged and dug into his chips. I was about to say something else when Jesse almost collapsed into the seat next to me.

“Oh god.” He mumbled into his hands.

“God everyone’s having a bad day today.” Nick piped up. Everyone just looked at him and then turned their attentions back to Jesse. He looked back up from his hands at everyone, his usually sparkling blue eyes now dull and not so sparkly.

“I should have done that last week.” He informed everyone. “She just pushed me over the line today.”

“Why, what did she do?” Jake asked.

“It’s a long story.” Jesse quickly glanced at me and then back at Jake.

“We do have half an hour left of lunch.” Jake grinned. He loves gossip more then anything else.

“Nah, would take longer then that. Sorry dude.” Jesse looked down at my untouched tray.

“Not eating today?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

“I lost my appetite, but I think its coming back a bit.” I pulled my tray towards me and pointed towards my chips. “Chip?” I offered.

Jesse gladly took one and ate it quickly. He smiled at me and I smiled back. Then we went back to talking to everyone else. I think Jake was on to Jesse and me, by the way he was looking at us both. He is quite a smart person. But he didn’t mention anything about it.

Lunch went pretty well actually. Everyone was relaxed and it was just fun. Well it was until Stacey entered the school dining hall. The whole room went quiet. She walked past everyone to where she usually sat, with her head held high. Her eyes were all puffy and red though, so it didn’t help her ‘tough girl’ image. She didn’t look at anyone in the hall, well anyone except me. Something was telling me she was seriously pissed off with me.