toasttheangels

toast the angels

Gracie sighed deeply. Here he went again, going on about the latest girl he wanted to go out with, and why couldn’t work up the courage to ask. Pathetic fool, she thought. Of course, outwardly, she was smiling. She was his friend, she didn’t want to stop his bright-eyed spiel about the pretty girl who’d caught his fancy.

“It’s been really hard ever since I broke up with Elissa, but like wow, Opi is so cool you wouldn’t beileve! Gracie? You ok?” Micheal said, suddenly concerned. Gracie smiled disarmingly, smoothing the frown that’d crept up onto her face. Gracie hated how Micheal always called Ophelia ‘Opi’. Ophelia was such a pretty name, and anyway, Ophelia was Gracie’s friend. The only reason Micheal even knew Ophelia was because he had been sitting next to Gracie for the last week in class, to ‘get away from that evil Elissa’. The whole class knew now about Micheal and Elissa’s most famous relationship, and how it ended in tears. Elissa had violated the rule of letting the boys play handball by themselves, and Micheal had been shamed. Secretly, Gracie had been cheering Elissa on. Well, she’d really suggested it in the first place, but it wasn’t her fault Elissa listened.

“Yeah I’m fine. What’s so cool about Opi.. I mean, Ophelia, anyway?” Gracie asked. She was going to call her Ophelia even if all the cool kids started calling her Opi.

“Huh? You’re her friend, you should know even better than me…”

“No, I’m wondering what you find so cool about her.”

“Where do I start? Her name! Ophelia! It’s from a Shakespeare play, the one where they say all that stuff about being or not being. Her hair’s so cool…” The play’s name was Hamlet, Gracie wanted to say. She zoned out. Micheal could go on for hours. About the only thing that had changed from Elissa was the start, where he added all that stuff about her name. Where did he find that out from anyway? Ophelia didn’t like being reminded of that, and Gracie hadn’t let slip. Maybe Elissa? Or Janey or Katie or that chinese girl, Sui Li or something? All of them knew, because one day Gracie had found it out off her mum and been so excited.

“I can’t believe you.” Gracie whispered.

“And– What?” Micheal asked, interrupted in his flow of superlatives.

“I can’t believe you! I don’t believe how stupid you are!” Gracie shouted at him, her voice climbing octaves. Micheal didn’t know what to do, or how to react. Confusion reigned over his face as he struggled to realise what this suddenly hysterical girl he’d known for so long was saying.

“How could anyone be so stupid? YOU, I’ve known you for so long, and YOU GO AND RUN OFF WITH MY FRIENDS! ALL THE TIME!” Gracie was screaming the last words, and she didn’t care. The whole playground suddenly went quiet. Well, the bit they were in anyway.

“Gracie… what do you mean? I’m with you more than they are…” Micheal said, dumbfounded.

“I’m saying I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!” But I love you, she thought, running. She couldn’t see where she was going, or what anyone else was doing, but she ran. Away, just away, from that boy she’d known since before school, who’d lived next door for as long as she could remember, the boy she’d loved for just about as long as she’d known what ‘love’ meant. She ran clear across the school, a blindfold of tears allowing her to see the barest blurry outlines, the sobs racking her as she ran for home to the comfort of her mother’s arms. Was that Micheal running after her? She didn’t care. Out the gate. Gracie was free and flying. That mean, evil boy who broke her heart so many times was left behind. She ran for home like she had so many times every afternoon, only she usually was beaming as she finished another day of school.

Then the car hit her.