“What?” I gasped.
“Ryan, what are you doing here?” the ‘new’ Jonathan asked my ‘blackmailer’ Jonathan in anger.
“Doing what you’ve always wanted to do, Jon,” the so-called Ryan uttered coolly.
“Do?” Jonathan, the new, exclaimed incredulously. “What did you do?”
“The classic, she’s all your’s now, Jon,” Ryan grinned happily. But it looked faked. The grin looked like it was hiding a satisfied smirk.
“Um, I think I’m a little confused here…” I looked from one guy to the other, wondering how on earth two people could look so similar. Which was the real Jonathan?
Then, the ‘new’ Jonathan smiled at me, “Sorry about barging in like that. I’ll explain everything. I promise.”
As soon as I saw his smile, I knew who he was. Definitely the ‘real’ Jonathan. But then, who was the other? I turned to my blackmailer, who had been called Ryan.
“So, who are you?” I asked, then something snapped into place, “Are you guys twins?”
“Twins? No,” Jonathan confirmed, “But we are brothers. He’s two years older than me, but he wasn’t actually brought up in a a proper home before, which is the reason why he looks my size.”
“Okay…” I dragged my word out, confused, “And the whole ‘doing what you wanted to do’ thing?”
Jonathan grimaced. “Oh, that,” he replied a little uneasily, “I liked you a lot. And when Ryan found out how you had rejected me, he swore to get avenge me.”
This was a weird conversation. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t reject you. I didn’t reply. Why would he come back for revenge for that?”
“Rejection, no reply, same thing,” Ryan growled, “And why not have some revenge. It was fun.”
What the world was wrong with him? Was he mental? Revenge was fun?
I bet I looked confused. Jonathan gave me an apologetic smile, “I’ll tell you everything as soon as I can.”
I nodded.
Ryan leered at him, “This is how you talk to girls? Seriously, man, can’t believe you treat them like that.”
We all fell silent. “Like what?” Jonathan asked warningly.
“Like, god, why should they know anything bout us. Since when do they deserve our attention?” Ryan scoffed.
This guy’s brain was seriously warped. He didn’t respect girls, was the first thing that entered my mind.
Before Jonathan had had a chance to snap at him or whatever, I pulled my bag off my shoulder and hit him as hard as I could with it.
He jumped. He growled. He swore.
He came after me.
“You no brain idiot,” I said to his face angrily. How could someone like him actually exist? I mean, I knew lots of males were like that, but hearing a person say stuff like that about girls really made me mad.
I kicked him. Hard.
* * *
“So, you’re free?” Chloe asked happily.
“I guess, and I’m going to stretch this time of no-stress as long as I can,” I answered back, if possible, more cheerfully.
Sure, I knew that there would be a whole lot more of things I still had to decide, but for now, I didn’t mind just forgetting everything for a while.
My social problems could wait.
“What about the videos?” Chloe’s words broke into my thoughts.
“Oh, um…Jonathan promised to help me throw them away.”
“Okay,” Chloe shrugged, “If you still trust him…”
I sighed, “Chloe, that was Ryan, not Jonathan. Jonathan wouldn’t do anything like that!”
“Alright,” Chloe agreed, “Just checking. After all, you can never be too careful with boys, can you?”
“Don’t know…but you’re the expert on guys, aren’t you?” I smiled, “You have such an experienced history with them.”
“No! I mean, it. No joke,” Chloe looked at me seriously, “How do you know Jonathan might not do anything to you?”
“Chloe,” I tried to reassure her, “He’s Jonathan. He’s one of the sweetest guys in the school. He would never do something like that to me.”
Would he?
* * *
Taryn-gal: Danny! Haven’t talked to you in ages!
DannyDevil: Yeah…
Taryn-gal: So, how’s school?
DannyDevil: Fine. I met this new girl. She’s really nice.
Taryn-gal: Cool! What’s she like?
DannyDevil: Um…she’s about my height, really thin, has black hair. As in real black. Hot.
Taryn-gal: That’s great news! And? Spill me more info bout her!
DannyDevil: She seems pretty smart. She’s been to lots of countries. And she just transferred from this fancy school in France. Her father moves around often, so she’s learnt to adapt to places quickly, I heard.
Taryn-gal: OMG! That’s great news!
DannyDevil: Yeah. Hey, maybe you should meet her. Should I invite her to the mall this week? You guys could know each other.
Taryn-gal: Sure. I can’t wait to see her.
DannyDevil: Oh, great, mom’s calling. I gotta go eat dinner. Ttyl!
Taryn-gal: Ttyl!
* * *
I couldn’t believe it. So Danny hadn’t been lying about having ‘gotten over’ me. He had found someone, he had liked someone, and he was going to go out with someone.
What was that girl’s name? Oh, why didn’t I ask him? Oh, right. Because I was so busy trying to sound upbeat and cheerful.
He made the girl sound so perfect. He even described her as hot! And what was that he’d said about her being able to adapt well? Well, no doubt she was adapting herself too well, with Danny. I hoped she appreciated Danny. A lot.
Danny was too great to hang out with any girl. She had to be awesome to have the chance to know him too much. And I was going to make sure she was good enough for him. I wasn’t going to let Danny go out with a second rate girl. No way.
I met them at McDonalds. They already looked real cosy together. Both sharing fries and drinking coke. The girl was talking to Danny in a lowered voice, and to make herself heard, she had leaned forward.
Suddenly, I was hit by a wave of emotion. Jealousy? No….more like this emptiness… well, maybe there was a little jealousy, but not too extreme. But I did feel a sudden urge to see Isaac again.
“Taryn!” Danny looked pleased to meet me.
“Hi, Danny,” I smiled, and then turned politely to the girl.
“Hi,” the girl had a slight exotic accent, “I’m Grace. Grace Johnson. Nice to meet you.”
“Taryn Marcus, happy to know you, too,” I couldn’t quite place my feeling, but I felt weird.
“So, what shall we do?” Danny asked both of us, although I felt as if his question was more directed towards Grace.
“Anything’s fine,” Grace said breezily, “Although, I do want to try bowling. Taryn?”
“Sure, bowling’s great!” I answered cheerfully. Somehow, I wanted to beat this girl in being sweet and lively.
When Grace went to bowl again, Danny asked me excitedly, “So? What do you think of her?”
“She’s fine, nice, great,” I knew I sounded a little flat, so I tried to be upbeat by saying, “She’s really good in bowling.” I inclined my head to the scores, where Grace was leading. By about 20 points.
Oh, I wasn’t jealous about the bowling thing. I wasn’t that shallow, but I felt a twinge, oh, all right, a bit more of resentment towards her. Danny hadn’t acted like I was the best girl in the whole universe when he liked me. Now, this black haired girl just came waltzing in, and had already snatched all Danny’s little attention towards me for herself, multiplying it so that he looked at her as if she were some princess.
I knew I was being what I never wanted, a jealous bitch, but I couldn’t help it. In a few days, Grace had already manipulated Danny into thinking her a princess. I felt like he had forgotten about me.
“Taryn, it’s your turn!” Grace called out sweetly, or more like sang.
I nodded and rolled the ball, thinking that they were Grace. Stupid, guy-stealer, perfect Grace.
I hit a strike.
* * *
At night, I went on facebook. Danny had already uploaded the pictures that we had taken during our afternoon trip.
Most of the pictures were nice. I suddenly felt terrible at not liking Grace. After all, had I actually given her a chance?
Then I saw the best, yet worse picture ever. It was a picture of Grace putting her arms around Danny. Both looked relaxed. They looked fun.
They looked perfect together.
I didn’t care where and when they had taken the picture. I only knew one thing. Danny was already Grace’s.
I cried myself to sleep.
