His Possession or His Princess

Two | Now I'm A Nobody

Four Months Later.

Cal

School has been in session for a month now and so far, it hasn’t been too bad.

Alexander is a jock and one of the ‘it’ crowd. He always has been one of the popular kids, he’s the star of the football team, he’s insanely attractive, and most of the time he is a nice guy. 

And I used to be the girl right by his side cheering him on.

Now, I am a nobody. I have two close girlfriends and that was all I needed. I used to have more friends- at least I thought I did, but after Alexander broke up with me then those friends stopped hanging around me. I think it’s because Alexander and his sister Haley made sure that I would lose anyone that I thought was close to me. I don’t know how they did it, but I know that they have never been able to shake my two friends: Britt and Olive. I am eternally grateful for their loyalty to me and how they have stuck by my side regardless of the circumstance.

I pull the hood on my jacket up over my head as I walk towards the entrance of the school. I walk straight to my locker with my head down trying not to be noticed. I rarely have to look up anymore to get here.

In the past month I started to notice that a lot of people run on autopilot, making the same exact steps every single day. So, at the beginning of the school year I always made sure I was at the school by 7:30 a.m. and I learned the steps people would make and I coordinated my own steps to make sure I could go anywhere I want without worries of getting picked on.

I make it to my locker, and I hear my friend Britt as she runs towards me yelling, “Hey Cal!”

I smile at Britt as she pulls the hood off my head and she begins to smooth my hair and try to braid it. I roll my eyes at her actions as she says, “I don’t understand why you always insist on hiding underneath a giant hoodie. You have gorgeous hair, and your body is great too! But no one can see it under that giant thing.”

Britt loves being the center of attention and when I was with Alex; I was a lot like Britt, but ever since Alexander and Haley started to target me, I retreated in an effort to not get picked on as much.

Britt just has a hard time understanding that things have changed. She loves attention, she’s part of the ‘it’ crowd too. She’s just not in the same group as the jocks.

Britt is gorgeous, with her fiery red locks, emerald green eyes, she was tall, almost six foot, and slender. She had some slight curves, but her being so tall and slender is what made her so fast. She is the top girl runner in track.

My other best friend, Olive, comes up on the other side of me and places the hood back on my head and I smile at her support as Olive says to Britt, “Not everyone likes to be the center of attention, B. If Cal wants to hide under her hoodie then let her.”

Britt lets out a frustrated groan, but then suddenly squeals so loud that it makes both Olive and I cringe. Britt runs across the hall grabbing a flier for the homecoming dance coming up and brings it back to them and said, “How about this? I will not bother you again for the rest of the year about changing up your look if you just let me do whatever I want for this one night. Come on! It’s a masquerade. You'll be wearing a mask so no one will know it’s you.”

I take the flier out of her hand and look at it thoughtfully. It would make Britt happy and I could feel beautiful for the night. I glance over at Olive and she gives a slight shrug as if silently saying, ‘what’s the harm? It’s one night.’ I huff, “Fine, but I get to pick out my own dress and you cannot get onto me again for the rest of the year!”

“Yay!” Britt squeals as she jumps up and down and embraces me in a huge hug. Once she lets go of me something new seems to catch her attention as she says, “Oh, gotta run! I’ll text you later about this if we don’t talk more today!”

She rushes off and I grab out the books I needed from my locker and close it as I walk with Olive to our first class. I’ve always been grateful that our schedule is identical.

As we walk to the classroom we bump into Haley- Alex’s sister. She begins to apologize and then she realized it’s me and she laughs humorlessly, “Oh Cal, it’s you. I almost didn’t recognize you with your hoodie, but even it isn’t big enough to hide your ugly face and how much you’ve let yourself go. What have you gained now? 50 pounds?”

I actually lost 20 pounds since Alex broke my heart. It’s been hard to have an appetite when all I can focus on is the storm of sadness going on inside of me.

I don’t give her a response as she walks off laughing to herself. Olive puts her arm around my shoulders and asks, “Are you okay?”

I nod as I feel numbness take over my body and I mumble, “Yeah, let’s just get to class.”

Thankfully, the rest of the day went by quickly. When I got home, I told my mom that I would need a dress for homecoming, and she told me that we would try to find one this weekend and that she would like it to be a girl’s day just the two of us if that was ok with me. That was perfectly fine with me, I think I’d be able to pick something that I want if I didn’t have the pressure of my friends.

Besides, my mom is like my best friend and up until two years ago I had been homeschooled. Unfortunately, my dad lost his job and struggled to find a new one. So, my mom got one and he did shortly after, but because I was thriving in public school, they decided to leave me in and enjoy having the double income.

I go into my room and as I take off my hoodie, I can’t help but look in the mirror and wonder if I look fat. I lift my shirt up looking at my stomach and wonder if maybe this is the reason no other guy has been interested in me. Is this the reason Alex broke up with me? I was bigger back when I dated him.

I know that Haley was just saying that to get to me, but it still bothers me.

I sigh as I shake my head trying to not let Haley’s words bother me. Haley has already hurt me so much and I will not allow this to be another thing to add to the list.

It was time for dinner and my dad is working late so it’s just my mom and me. I can’t get Haley’s words out of my head so after a few bites I tell my mom I’m full and going to lie down early.

As I lie in my bed, I try to ignore the grumbling of my stomach and think of how this will make me look even better.