Free My Paper Heart by Magan Vernon Page B

your number like they are here?"
    "Well." I started the car. "See here's the thing. In a big high school, people don't even notice who you are if you're not popular. And with blonde wavy hair and being as tall as I am, I got the nickname Big Bird in middle school that just kind of stuck with me."
    Brittany laughed. "You?  Big Bird?"
    "It's completely true! Boys used to ask me how to get to Sesame Street and girls would constantly ask if Elmo and I had the same hairstylist."
    "You definitely aren't getting picked on and called Big Bird now. You're like a sorority princess." Britt pointed out as I pulled out of the parking spot.
    I took a deep breath. "Yes, I may have learned a thing or two about using a diffuser, and I may have joined a sorority, but honestly none of that would have ever happened if I didn't start dating Beau."
    "Huh?" Brittany turned down the radio and looked straight at me. I caught her out of the corner of my eye, and her own eyes were filled with bewilderment. " What do you mean if it wasn't for Beau ?"
    "Since I was so painfully shy in high school, and since my mom and sister were in sororities in college, they thought I should rush. Of course the only reason any sorority even looked at me was because my mom and sisters were legacies." I took a deep breath.
    "And then along came Beau. He was treasurer of Alpha Mu, one of the biggest fraternities on campus, and after meeting me at a party he immediately dubbed me Legs. He decided that my long legs and blonde hair where something that was actually desirable, instead of something that belongs on PBS."
     A stray strand of hair poked in front of my face and I pushed it back.
     "So basically if I hadn't met Beau I would still be Big Bird, and instead of being the sorority ditz I would have just been another dumb blonde girl."
    "Wow." Britt breathed. "You actually are human after all."
    I laughed. It was the first time all day that I think I had.
    "Well, I guess I am if you say so. I guess I am just another broke human."
    "So, do you think Blaine is going to be anything like Beau?" God she was full of questions.
    "What do you mean?" I glanced at my blind spot before switching lanes then glancing back at Britt.
    "He kind of has that player reputation and so did Beau. Aren't you worried about that?"
    It was actually something I was very worried about. I didn't want to get hurt again like I was with Beau, and even though Blaine assured me over and over again that he was nothing like Beau and his playboy days were over, it was still always in the back of my mind.
    "No...I mean yes...I mean." I took a deep long sigh. "I mean I really don't know. I'm always worried about it no matter how many times he tells me he's over that."
    "Are you doing him?"
    " BRITTANY !"
    "Well it's an honest question." She laughed.
    "What's with all the questions anyways?" I spotted the exit for Elsbury up ahead and veered over into the right lane.
    "I just want to know. I mean we haven't really talked lately, and you know, just catching up."
    "Well if you really must know. No, no we haven't slept together."
    She leaned in closer. "Does that worry you?"
    I shook my head and tilted it to the side. "Why would that worry me?"
    "Do you think he could be getting it somewhere else?  Or maybe he doesn't find you attractive or something?" Britt rattled off.
    "So I tell you that I get called Big Bird in high school and you go and tell me that my boyfriend won't sleep with me because he's cheating on me and thinks that I am ugly?" I was visibly upset now. My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I started speaking through clenched teeth.
    Maybe Britt was right. Maybe Blaine just wanted to get with the most interesting new thing in town and would dump me once I got old. I had hoped it wouldn't take me that long to figure it out.
     

Chapter 12
     
    "Libby, you got mail!" Britt shouted from the living room.
    It had been two days since we went to New Orleans, and I couldn't get what Britt had said