?Pretty’s On The Inside?
[The World thinks She’s ugly but He sees her Beauty?]
By Authoress Kamara
Episode 24
?Paris Myers?
“So I heard what Jeremy did for you back in class”. Elaine started talking. “He stood up for you, right? It sounds sweet of him “.
I look at her surprised. “How did you know that he did that?”.
“The school blog”. She answered in a ‘duh’ tone. “Tamika posted it like hours ago and I’m sure by now, the school knows about it “.
“What? The whole school? How is that possible?”.
“Its Tamika. And besides, news fly around very fast, thats how it is in Berkeley High”.
I sighed exhaling deeply. “Oh My God!”.
“You are pretty dmn lucky that Tiffany hasn’t walked over here to rip your hair out”.
“Rip my hair out? Why will she do that?”.
“Number one, Jeremy is her boyfriend and according to her, no girl is allowed to steal him away from her”.
“Yeah! I expected that from her”. I mutter lowly.
“And she doesn’t take it easy with any girl who tries to seduce him. Even if its Jeremy who approaches the girl, Tiffany makes her life a living h.ell”.
I breathed out. “Wow!”.
“Yeah! Wow! And thats why I’m surprised that she hasn’t come over to spit rubbish, she usually does that incase you don’t know”.
“Tell me about it”.
“It actually looks like she’s not going to confront you in person though”. Elaine continued. “But she has been giving you death glares since we stepped into this cafeteria minutes ago”.
I pause hearing that. “What? She’s glaring at me?”.
“Yep! She’s still doing it right now. Turn around and you are gonna see the btch”.
I ignore her choice of words and looked back. Truly, there was Tiffany whose eyes were on me.
She noticed me looking at her so she rolled her eyes looking away continuing talking to her friends, Tamika and Tania.
“See?”. Elaine turned back to me. “Told you the bitch was staring at you”.
I sighed. “Don’t call her that”.
“Why shouldn’t I? She is one. Do you know that underneath that fake smile she always put up around Jeremy, she’s evil”.
I arched my eyebrows. “Evil? Fake smile? “.
“First of all, Tiffany acts sweet around people she’s close with but people who are not in her class, as she puts it, she acts so mean towards them”.
Ohhh.
Now I get her …
She’s sweet and friendly to her friends and Mom.
But to other people who she don’t interact with normally, she doesn’t act nice towards them.
“And thats why I called her a btch. Its so awful that someone as sweet as Jeremy gets stuck with a girl like her”.
“I understand your reasons for hating on her but please, don’t call her that around me”.
Elaine scoffed. “Why? ‘Cause she hasn’t picked on you yet?”.
“Trust me, she has. But I always let it slide sometimes because she’s my cousin and we are family”.
“What?”. Elaine gaped surprised. “You mean, Tiffany over there is your cousin?”.
“Yeah! I thought I mentioned it before?”.
“Well you didn’t. I should have known, you two have the same oceanic blue eyes, I’ve not really seen your face clearly but I guess the two of you might maybe look alike”.
I shrug dismissing that fact that she hasn’t actually seen all of my face yet.
Who knows if she might distance herself from me the moment she finds out?
*
*
*
?Xavier Marion?
He took his backpack slanging it over his shoulders heading towards the door.
“And where the heck are you going to?”.
“I’m out. This stuff isn’t working. I think we should just call it quits here”.
I scoffed. “What? You are joking, right? Tell me that you are kidding”.
“I can’t be kidding right now. I’m serious here, okay? Xavier, I just can’t let you use me as a distraction just because you hate females, I have a heart too”.
“I’m not using you as a distraction”.
“Yes, you are”. He replied frustratedly. “You don’t like me the way I like you and thats the truth here”.
“Samuel__”.
“Every time, I feel like I’m the only one who puts effort into this relationship and its the truth though”.
“And thats why you want to call it quits, huh? If its about that, then, we can work it out, okay?”.
“We can’t work it out “. He retorted. “This clearly can’t work out. It just can’t. You are not cut out for all this stuff so I think its best that we stop all of this, I mean, who are you kidding? Its obvious that you are not into me”.
“You don’t know that”.
“I know it so well. You don’t feel any sort of attraction towards me and I think thats my fault because I was the one who insinuated this whole thing in the first place”.
“Sam, please wait”. I stood up. “You are not thinking straight right now. Don’t do anything__”.
“That I’ll regret?”. He scoffed completing the sentence. “Sure, I might regret it but at least, it will give me the peace of mind that I’m not the second choice of someone else “.
“You can’t be serious”.
“I’m going. They probably need me on set right now”. He said opening my room door.
“But you came here to help me with my meltdown. I thought you wanted to take away the pain but you are only adding to it “.
“Why don’t you ask Violet to take away your pain? She’s right downstairs. Xavier, I’m out”.
And with that, he walked out the door immediately shutting it behind him as he left.
I pause, stunned for a minute before sitting on the bed as I manage to gather my thoughts.
What just happened?
Did he just .. ?
He left.
The intercom on the door beeped as it distracted me away from my thoughts but I simply just ignored it.
I heard footsteps and instantly knew who it was just by the whiff of her perfume.
“Violet! Leave my room! I’m not in the mood to talk to you”.
“Why? Because your boyfriend dumped you or what?”.
I scoffed. “You were eavesdropping?”.
“I don’t call it eavesdropping when I’m only concerned about my best friend”. She answered while sitting on the bed close to me.
“Oh! So now I’m your best friend? What happened to ‘Xavier, I love you’?”. I asked mimicking her. “What happened to all that ?”.
She sighed. “Of course, I love you. And I’m sorry for what I did, trying to blackmail you, I was only jealous of your relationship with Sam”.
“Well you don’t need to be jealous again”.
“Why? ‘Cause he broke up with you?”.
I groan a little. “Stop saying that or I might have to kick you out”.
Yeah!
I can’t do that!
Despite her annoying attitudes, this past few weeks, she’s still the closest female to me apart from my sisters.
“Even if you two broke up. I’ll still be here for you, Xavier. I love you”. Violet said as she wrapped her arms around me.
Right! So I’m back to square one. She still loves me. Thats so awkward to hear.
I sat still for a while feeling uncomfortable with the way she held on to me. I waited for a few seconds before unentangling from her.
“So the contest?”. She asked straightening up. “Did you ask your Dad about it?”.
“You know about it already. And besides, there’s no way I’m performing a duet with a random girl just because she’s his top one”.
“Great!”. Violet giggled facing me. “So that means you’ll sing with me?”.
I faced her. “You do know that, you’ll have to compete with Samyn first, right?”.
“Pfft. Who cares about that? But you’ll sing with me, right? I’ll come on your world tour with you”.
“Well I would have done a duet with Samyn since her vocals are nice but I don’t want any problem with Jayden Roy so I guess maybe, just maybe, you’ll be my choice”.
G©sh! I can’t believe I’m saying this.
But I guess its for the best since I don’t want to sing with any random stranger.
And besides, I’ve done a lot of duets with Violet. So its only natural that I sing with her.
“So that means you’d rather choose me over anyone else, I feel so special”.
I didn’t say anything as she hugged me tightly from the back inhaling my scent.
I’m not even concerned about Violet right now.
All I’m thinking about is Sam.
*
*
*
?Paris Myers?
I had my earpiece in my ears as I stepped out onto the porch walking down towards the lawn whistling along to the beat.
I decided to lay down on the grass as I stare up at the clear sky.
Its evening already and the sun will soon set.
I came back from school like hours ago and surprisingly, Tiffany drove me home.
To say I actually became stunned , is an understatement.
Rio already said that I should just forget about it, that maybe it was Aunt Jenny who told her to drive me back home.
?I don’t look like her. She’s in the magazines
?So much prettier than me. You don’t know it hurts
?Staring at my iPhone screen, watching others live their dream
?But mama, she said to me. One day, you’ll finally see
?That Pretty’s On The Inside, look into your own eyes
?Maybe if you look a little harder, you’ll find that Pretty’s On the Inside.
I sang deeply to myself feeling the lyrics until I felt the grass ruffling making me open my eyes to see a familiar guy staring at me.
I immediately stood up removing my ear-piece as I stood next to him surprised he was actually listening to me sing.
“What?”. I finally spoke up.
“Hi, I’m Travis, I live next door. Remember me, right?”.
“Your face looks familiar, so does your name too. Wait, you are Jeremy’s best friend?”.
“And you are Jeremy’s City, too?”. He chuckled. “I recognized you from the purple hoodie over your head”.
“Oohh”.
“So that song you were singing. Never heard of it before”.
“I actually composed it myself”.
“Wow!”. He breathed out. “You actually have a nice voice and you are a song writer too? Double wow!”.
I smile a little. “Thanks”.
“So you were practicing for the contest, right ?”.
“What contest ?”.
“The supernova singing contest coming up, it was organized by only the biggest industry of all time, the same industry that signed Xavier Marion”.
My eyes brightened. “Really?”.
“Yeah! And so if you win, you get to go on a three months world tour with him”.
Wait. Three months world tour?
“So are you going for it? I’m asking ’cause your voice is a killer !!”. Travis emphasized.
“No! I’m not going”.
Just incase I win.
Three months away from Rio?
I can’t do that.
.
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