DIFFERENT (Different Series Book 1) (3 page)

              ‘You’re so messy, like an animal or something.’

              ‘You’re just jealous because you went for boring chips and I have an awesome burger.’

              ‘Yeah, so jealous.’ I rolled my eyes.

              When Leo had finished his burger he reached over and grabbed a few chips off my plate.

              ‘Hey, I thought chips were boring.’

              ‘They are,’ he said, in between chewing.

              ‘Go get your own and stop stealing mine.’

              ‘All right, all right, I will,’ he grinned, as he pushed his chair back. ‘You want anything?’

              ‘No thanks.’

              I found myself daydreaming as I picked at my chips. The lunch hall was packed full of students, yet I felt like I was in my own world, as if I were wrapped in bubble wrap.

              Leo returned a few minutes later with another burger and a bowl full of chocolate cake.

              ‘I thought you wanted chips?’

              ‘They’re boring,’ he smiled as he wasted no time into biting into his burger.

              When I was around Leo, I felt pretty normal. When I was around Leo, things seemed good. I couldn’t keep trying to hide away from the world. I had to face it, and as long as I had Leo by my side, then surely I’d be just fine. Well, I hoped that I would be.

              ‘Anyway, it’s Megan’s party tonight, and I’m going to meet you there at seven,’ he said.

              ‘News flash: I haven’t even been invited. And I thought you didn’t like her anymore?’

              ‘I’m keeping my options open, and you can be my plus one,’ he grinned.

              ‘I don’t know,’ I sighed.

              ‘So you’ve been invited to the party of the year, and you’re actually considering staying in all night instead? ‘

              ‘Well, the Prestons might not let me go.’

              ‘It’s Friday night, and you’re a teenager. It’s a harmless party. Come on, if they don’t let you go then they are seriously not as cool as you keep telling me they are.’

              ‘Okay, okay, I’ll go, but you have to meet me outside, okay?’

              ‘Sure, see ya at half seven,’ he said, before starting on his chocolate cake.

              I’d been invited to a party. Well, sorta, anyway. So why was I acting weird about going? I never got invited anywhere at my old schools. I was the kid who had to sit in class and listen to Fay Adams go on about how amazing her Disney themed eighth birthday party had been. She’d had a Belle off
Beauty and the Beast
dress made, and the cake had been a strawberry frosted fairytale castle.

              I’d missed out on so many parties as a kid. I wasn’t missing out on this one. Besides, it’d be heaving full of people, so if Max turned up or anything it’d be easy to get away from him.

              It was just a party, right? So what could possibly go wrong?

***

I stood in in my room inspecting myself in the full length mirror. I was wearing a strappy dark purple satin dress which was lined with a pink netting that skimmed just above my knees. I’d borrowed it off Louisa because I seemed short on party clothes. Most of Louisa’s clothes weren’t my style, but this dress was kinda cool, and I liked how soft the material felt against my skin.

              I’d teamed it with a pair of black tights and my black pumps. Looking in the mirror, I guessed that I looked okay. I’d also managed to get out of Louisa doing my make up, so at least I wasn’t covered in glitter eye shadow and lip gloss.

              I put my black quilted jacket on and tugged my brush through my hair one last time before I closed the door on my bedroom and walked down the stairs.

              ‘You look really good,’ Louisa said as I walked into the living room to tell them that I was leaving.

              They were all seated on the black leather sofas watching some programme on the TV.

              ‘You look lovely, sweetheart. Now, make sure that you have a good time, and please don’t be too late home,’ Gloria said.

              ‘Thanks,’ I blushed.

              She’d said the ‘home’ word, and I’d felt my stomach lunge. This family was too good for me; this family was perfect.

              ‘Bye.’ I gave them all a wave as I left the room.

              As I stepped outside, the cold greeted me with an intense jolt. I watched my breath briefly mark the air as I quickened my pace. I kept looking over my shoulder at every sound that I heard, and I was annoying myself with my nervy behaviour. If Leo didn’t live the opposite end of town to me, then I so would have made him come and walk with me.

              No one was following me. Why would anyone want to follow me, anyway? Yeah, okay, so I’d messed up in the past, but things had changed now. I’d changed.  I just wanted to go to this party and be normal.

              As I walked onto Megan’s street, I felt my nerves intensifying.  I didn’t go to parties because I wasn’t like other people. I did weird things and freaked people out. I was better off in my bedroom alone as I attempted to do my homework.

              I heard the faint sounds of music that seemed to vibrate under my feet, and that was when I looked up and saw Leo.

              ‘Hey, Celeste,’ he shouted over to me. He was stood by the large gravelled driveway of a large detached house.

              ‘Hey,’ I replied, wrapping my arms around myself as I walked over to him.

              ‘I stuck to my word, unlike you. Ten minutes I’ve been standing out in the freezing cold. Toad must have offered me a fag at least four times.’

              ‘Oh, sorry,’ I muttered as I followed him up the driveway.

              ‘I will attempt to forgive you, but it may take time,’ he grinned.

              ‘Gee, thanks. So I take it that you didn’t take Toad up on his offer?’

              ‘’Er no,’ he chuckled as we walked past Toad and another boy smoking by the front door.

              ‘So she came then,’ Toad smirked, as he pulled on his cigarette. ‘You sure you don’t want a fag?’

              ‘Yeah, she did, and nah, you’re all right, mate.’ Leo grabbed my arm and led me past them.

              When I’d first met Toad, I hadn’t understood why he was called that. So, okay, he was scrawny and used far too much wax in his hair, but the nickname seemed a bit harsh. In the end I’d asked Leo why Toad was called that, and he said that it was because when they were about seven or eight he’d caught a toad and placed it on the teacher’s desk. He’d ended up missing playtime for a week and also acquired a new nickname that seemed to have stuck.

              Leo opened the door and led me through a hallway that was covered in pictures of a perfect-looking family. I looked at one of a little girl with her hair in bunches wearing a white floral dress. Next to her was a blonde haired boy, a year or two older. He was wearing jeans and a short-sleeved shirt, and he had his arm around the girl. They were both smiling, the kind which was verging on laughter.

              Leo tugged at my arm and dragged me into the huge living room that was packed full of people, some of whom I recognised from school. The only light was coming from the DJ booth in the corner, which a boy from my year called Dunc Taylor appeared to be in charge of.

              As Leo let go of my arm I felt like I’d lost my support, and I instantly felt sweaty and uncomfortable, so I took my jacket off as I switched my weight from one foot to another.

              ‘Leo, so glad you could make it,’ Megan said, as she appeared out of the crowd and wrapped her arms around Leo.

              She’d straightened her normally wavy chestnut coloured hair so that it fell effortlessly down her tartan dress, and as she stood close to me I got the overwhelming scent of berries. Great, not only did she look amazing, but she also smelt great too. Suddenly I didn’t feel so pretty in Louisa’s dress.

              ‘As if I was gonna miss this,’ he grinned.

              ‘Well, I’m glad that you could make it,’ she said, as she twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

              I rolled my eyes. I really didn’t want to be standing here watching her flirt with my best friend. Talk about awkward.

              ‘I’m going to go get a drink,’ I said to Leo.

‘Oh, Celeste, it’s so nice to see you, and I love your dress,’ Megan said, as she gave me an exaggerated smile.

              ‘Thanks, yours too,’ I fake smiled back at her. ‘Leo, you want one?’

              ‘Huh?’ he replied, clearly distracted by Megan.

              ‘Do you want a drink?’

              ‘Nah, I’m good. Thanks, Cel,’ he said, unable to divert his eyes away from Megan.

              I weaved my way through the sweaty, dancing bodies and past the DJ booth, where there was a door that I kept seeing people come in and out of with plastic cups in their hands, so I hoped that it’d take me into the kitchen.

              I’d met plenty of girls like Megan throughout my life. On the outside she seemed pretty perfect: she was gorgeous, clever, and she had a loving family, yet she didn’t realise how lucky she was. Leo had told me about how she missed her dad because he worked away from home a lot and how she’d ended up with a ‘C’ last term in chemistry and she was gutted about this. To a girl like Megan, these were huge life events. Then there was the fact that people like me always seemed to unnerve girls like her. She always had an unsure look in her eyes around me, as if she wasn’t sure what I was about. The only reason that she was pleasant to me was because of Leo, but this was better than being on her bad side.

              There was a group of people already in the kitchen. They were chuckling as a boy with spiked up blonde hair poured something out of a glass bottle into one of the jugs of fruit juices. I decided that I’d be better off avoiding that, so I grabbed a plastic cup off one of the worktops and went over to the sink, where I turned the tap on and filled up my cup with water.

              ‘You don’t want to be drinking that, not when you can have some of this,’ the blonde-haired boy said as he lifted up the jug.

              ‘You’re all right,’ I replied before taking a sip of water.

              The red-haired girl he was with started giggling even louder, like one of those talking teddy bears that take ages to go off. They all knocked their cups together, which caused the liquid to splash all over the floor, and then they all downed their drinks, the girl still laughing so that she spurted most of it out of her mouth.

              ‘Refill,’ the boy said, and the others cheered as he poured them all another drink.

              Still clutching my plastic cup, I walked back into the living room, where the music seemed to have increased in volume and Dunc was now joined behind his booth by some girl, their lips joined together as if they had been glued or something.

              There were a group of girls in the centre of the room flailing their arms out as they danced to the music. The sofas that were pushed against the walls were packed full of people, and most of the floor space was taken up with groups of people standing and talking. I weaved my through the people, knowing that I could have easily moved them out if the way if I chose too.

              I got to the spot where I’d left Leo without being shoved or hit in the face, only to find that he’d gone, and so had Megan.

              ‘Great,’ I muttered under my breath, as I looked around the room.

              Leo had insisted that I come to this stupid party, and now he’d ditched me for some Barbie wannabe. I should have never come here; I should have stayed at home.

              I pushed past Veronica and a girl I didn’t know who were standing in the doorway.

‘Watch it, loser,’ Veronica snarled, which caused me to roll my eyes.

I forced my way through the now crowded hallway and held onto the banister as I pulled my way up the stairs. I wanted to find Leo so that I didn’t have to stand amongst all these people looking like a loner. I wanted to find him because he was meant to be at the party with me.

              There was a girl from a few of my classes sitting on one of the steps, shouting hysterically into her mobile phone. I dodged past her and got to the top of the stairs, where there were three girls queuing outside the door to the right.

                 ‘Have you seen Leo?’ I asked a petite girl called Naomi, who was first in the line.

              ‘Nah, sorry. He might be in one of the bedrooms. I’ve been in the bathroom queue for the last ten minutes because whoever is in there won’t quit throwing up,’ she said, as she thudded on the door.

              ‘Right,’ I replied as I walked to the end of the corridor and stood outside a door with the nameplate ‘Megan’ on it in elaborate floral font. I found myself feeling nervous at what I would find in the room, so I knocked before I pushed it open. Empty.

              The room was full of stuffed teddies and a note board stuck full of concert and attraction tickets. There was a picture on the bedside table of her hugging a woman I presumed to be her mum, and her bed had more cushions on it than the Prestons did in their entire house.

              ‘Perfect,’ I muttered under my breath before I turned around and left the room.

              Back on the landing, Naomi wasn’t queuing anymore, and I found myself wondering if she was now in the bathroom or if she’d given up. The other two girls were comparing shoes: one was in patent red stilettos that I had no idea how she was managing to walk in, and the other had on white wedges. I suddenly found myself feeing small and unnoticeable in my flat shoes.

              The next room had a poster of some band I didn’t know on the black door. I didn’t knock this time; instead I just barged into the room, hoping that Leo would be in here.

              I sighed as I half stepped, half fell into the room. That’s when I saw that I wasn’t alone in the room. The blonde-haired boy from the kitchen was also in here, lying on the bed and wearing headphones. On seeing me he took them off and sat up.