Concrete Angel

"Guys hurry up!" I yell pulling Joey towards the mall trying to get him to walk faster.

"It won't go anywhere, we can walk." Joey says laughing at me.

"I need new clothes. And lots of them." I say hitting his arm.

"Why? Don't you have any?" Chris asks finally catching up with us since we stopped at the door for the rest of the group.

"Not alot. I've out grown a lot of my clothing. We didn't have time to shop before I came." I say shrugging at the guys as I lead them into the first store.

"Try this on." Jake says holding up a bathing suit. I do need one of those but I don't think I'm going to let Jake pick one out for me.

"Let's work on clothes before we hit up bathing suits." I say hitting his arm. He flinches and I grin at the thought of actually hurting him.

"How do you expect to pay for all of this?" Joey asks as I walk into the dressing room with an armful of clothes.

"I have credit cards. I'm not a poor girl." I yell out the door. This was honest. We were never poor. My parents sent all the cash they could with me and my aunt was paying my way through school. She also set up three credit cards under my new name.

"Duh Joey, our school isn't cheap." Chris says as I model clothes for the guys. I finally decide on a good set of outfits. Then I decide to let the guys go to the video game store while I shop for bathing suits and some under garments.

"I'm hungry." Ron whines as I walk towards them. I had bought everything except some jackets and sweatpants.

"You just want to see that hottie at the Chinese place." Chris says laughing.

"I'm hungry too." I say and we decide to go get something to eat.

"I'm sure Joey wants to see his girlfriend." Jake says nudging his arm. Girlfriend? I stop dead in my tracks with my eyes wide. He has a girlfriend; of course he does. It shouldn't bother me. I can't get attached. I don't like him.

"Leave him alone." Scotty says hitting Jake on his head. I meet Scotty's eyes and see something in them that I don't know how to describe. It was like he was trying to tell me something. Almost like, he knew how I felt. No, how I thought I felt. I don't like Joey, he's my roommate, my friend. Nothing more. I barely know the guy.

"Let's get Chinese." Ron says laughing and he pulls my arm toward the place, knowing that Joey would follow. He was very protective of me, I kind of liked it.

"Jo-Jo!" a black haired girl yells from behind the counter. Jo-jo? Really? I want to puke.

"Hey Holly." Joey mumbles avoiding my eyes.

"What can I get you guys?" Holly says twirling her hair and running her hand down Joey's arm. This is sickening.

"What do you want?" Scotty says looking down at me. I don't feel hungry anymore.

"I hate Chinese." I say squinting my eyes at Holly, who has yet to notice me.

"Chinese food or the Chinese girl?" Scotty mumbles quietly to me. I glance up at him worried and then he just laughs and wraps an arm around my shoulders.

"Scotty-boy!" The guy with Holly says hearing him laugh.

"Hey Hong." Scotty says nodding to the guy.

"Who's the hottie?" Hong says motioning to me. Joey looks up at Hong and then at me.

"Don't call her that." Joey snaps at Hong. Hong throws his arms up and chuckles. Holly didn't look happy. She glared at me before smirking grimly back up at Joey.

"Who's the girl, Jo-Jo?" Holly says rubbing her hand on his arm again.

"She's my new roommate." Joey says before turning to Hong and ordering food.

"I really don't like Chinese." I mumble to Scotty.

"Hey, chick. What's your name?" Holly snarls at me.

"Elizabeth." I say to her quietly.

"What do you want to eat, Elizabeth?" Hong asks nicely and I look at Scotty alarmed.

"I got it." Scotty says and he orders food for the both of us; promising that it would be great.

"Oh, so you and Scotty are an item?" Holly says grinning grimly at me.

"No, we're just friends." I say smiling up at her nicely.

"Well, Joey's mine. So back off whore." Holly says under her breath in a threatening voice.

"I'm just his roommate." I say my smile fading.

"Jo-Jo, I thought you went to an all boys school." Holly says as we wait for our food.

"I do, Izzy's the first girl to get in." Joey says nudging me with his arm. I grin brightly at him and Holly's face grows red with anger.

"Must be because she's so boyish." Holly says glaring at me. This girl was seriously ticking me off. Elizabeth, clam down; you can't bring attention to yourself.

"Well, at least I don't have to stoop so low as to hit on guys that walk through the food court." I say giving her a big smile. She looks pissed.

"Well, at least I'm not a whore." Holly says as Hong hands our food to Chris and Ron.

"Izzy, no." Joey says grabbing my arm. I glare at Holly before pulling my arm out of Joey's grip and taking my plate. I follow Chris to a table and slam down my tray. I don't know what that chicks problem is. I'm just friends with Joey. If that's his girlfriend then she really needs to take a chill pill.

"Izzy?" Joey says quietly taking a seat beside me. I stab my chicken and don't say a word. I refuse to let him know that I was mad at the fact that he was dating her. I didn't want him to think that I like him. I don't do I? That is absurd.

"This really is good, Scotty." I say smiling at him. Scotty grins and throws his arm around the back of my chair. I laugh at Jake wags his eyebrows at Scotty and Scotty throws some rice at him.

"Grow up." Joey says laughing with me. So I throw some rice at him and he gasps like he was seriously hurt, which sent me into a fit of giggles.

"Excuse me, I have to clean that. I can have you thrown out." Holly says standing over us with her arms crossed.

"Come on, Holly. We're just playing around." Joey says looking up at her. Chris and Ron exchange worried glances before standing up quickly to throw away their trays.

"Jo-Jo, I completely understand." Holly says running her fingers through his hair.

"Yeah, Jo-jo; it's totally cool." I say hitting his arm before standing up to throw my tray away.

"You're in my way." I snap at Holly who was standing in the way of the trashcan.

"You can wait. I'm talking to my boyfriend." Holly says glaring up at me.

"I don't think I can. I have to get back to shopping, so me and jo-jo, you know my roommate, can get back home." I say smiling bitterly at her.

"Izzy." Joey groans looking up at me.

"Well, let me just move then." Holly says before running into me and knocking my tray over to spill down my shirt.

"You little slut." I say dropping my tray to the ground so I could knock this chick out. Two arms grabbed a hold of me and I was fighting to get away. Two more hands wrapped around my arms and I knew they wouldn't let me go.

"See you later, Jo-Jo." Holly says flipping her hair and waving goodbye. That little whore, slut, jerk, and whatever ugly name you could call her. I don't know what her issue is. It's not my fault I'm rooming with Joey. It's not my fault he likes me more. Who am I kidding, he might not like me more. He probably really likes Holly, since that is his girlfriend. Girlfriend? Yuck.

"Let me go. I'm not going to go after her." I yell at the guys who were holding me. Their grips loosen slowly and I yank my arms away from them.

"I would have never guessed you were so vicious." Jake says laughing as he picked up his tray and threw it away.

"For real, what got into you?" Joey says looking down at me.

"Your girlfriend is ticking me off." I snap before grabbing my bags and walking away from them. I hear all of them follow me into the next store where I buy sweatpants and some shoes. I finish the rest of my shopping and we all get back in Scotty's car to go back to school.

"What was Izzy's problem today?" Joey asks Scotty in a whisper that he thought I couldn't hear. Everyone else was asleep. I had my eyes closed but I was still livid and wide awake from earlier. My problem was that stupid chick who thinks she can just run all over me.

You're problem is that you like Joey.

Great, now I have voices in my head; like the nightmares weren't bad enough. I hear Scotty sigh and Joey shift. I knew he was checking to see if I was awake. I turned over and made it look my best to be asleep.

"Her problem was Holly. Your girlfriend was being a bitch." Scotty says and I can see him rolling his eyes at Joey.

"Girlfriend?" Joey says confused.

"That's what she thinks." Scotty says and then he turns up the radio before Joey can reply.