Free Playing With My Heartstrings by Chloe Brewster Page A

I took action right at that moment.
     
    "What are you doing?" Joel hazily asked as he noticed my picking up my handbag and cup of lukewarm coffee, my face deliberately turned away from his.
     
    "I'm going home," I grunted, gritting my teeth to prevent saying what was truly floating in my aggravated-beyond-belief mind.
     
    "What? I only just got here!"
     
    "And I've been here long enough, waiting for you to give me some answers as to what happened last week," I said, loudly getting out of my chair.
     
    Joel grabbed my arm, his strong-as-nails grip mightily pinching the skin, and I shrieked in pain, causing a few old ladies to rudely glare at Joel, who realised what he was doing and let go, and I sighed in relief.
     
    "Sadie, I'm sorry -" Joel started, then I cut him off.
     
    "I've got no more time for you, Joel Henderson," I flatly stated, malice creeping into my stone-cold voice. "Whether you've noticed or not, I loved you since we first started primary school and you offered me one of your cookies for lunch because I didn't have any." My voice breaking, I added, "Until now."
     
    Looking awkward, Joel protested for his apology to be accepted, but I waved it off, not caring a single bit about what he had to tell me.
     
    Suddenly becoming aware of the time, I stalked over to the door, a flood of tears on the verge of hitting me any moment, then something reoccurred to me.
     
    "And one last thing." I said, my voice echoing in the deadly-still building - embarrassment flushed across my face as I realised that everybody was listening to my words and I dreaded to think whether any local journalists were part of the mini-audience - "Are you going out with anybody?"
     
    His perfectly concealed mask slipping away, Joel stammered, panic gaining control of his spluttered speech, and that was the answer I'd desperately needed. There was nothing else I wanted to know.
     
    "Oh, see you at school next month," I added, mostly muttering the statement to myself as I steadily opened the door and entered the warm sunshine, clouds as fluffy as whipped cream scattered all over the pale blue sky.
     
    In the midst of a loudly chatting crowd of teenagers, a silent stream awaiting tears - engulfed by powerful waves of sadness and hidden torment - washed over me and I kept my face low so nobody else would witness my public display of uncontrollable emotion. As if I wanted classmates in my year to take unflattering pictures of me and post them on Facebook for the whole world to poke fun about; I'd endured an extended nightmare for long enough.
     
    Audibly sniffing my blocked-like-a-terrible-cold nose, I pulled myself together and gazed at the sky, whose clouds had drifted away to reveal the fantastically bright blue sky beneath and the dazzling illumination from the sun shone on my clothes, as though a spotlight had suddenly highlighted me. Tears, I reminded myself, won't last forever and will disappear within time, while I slowly learn the lesson of gaining some much-wished for patience.
     
    And in spite of my deeply-low mood, I raised a sun-inspired smile, a glow lightening my tear-streamed face to its former happy-go-lucky glory.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8
    "Hey, haven't you noticed how nice the weather is for once?" Cassie noted, her pale, traditional English rose complexion dazzling like diamonds. "Ah," she sighed, relaxing on the soft red blanket, "I could get used to this."
     
    "Yeah, me too," I said, readjusting my 50s-inspired polka dot hat to avoid the sun burning my highly-sensitive untameable mane of hair.
     
    Cassie and I, whose relationship as fun-loving sisters had grown stronger over the past week, were spending the afternoon lying in the full-on sun in the rose-filled and vegetable-grown garden, eating a homemade picnic which mainly consisted of shop bought scotch eggs, a vibrantly coloured mixed salad, sandwiches and a ridiculously vast amount of Cassie's favourite spread, chocolate heaven Nutella. Well,