"I just don't know how I'll live without him," cries Gina. "We've been together for over a year so it's so hard thinking of not being a couple anymore."
I put my arm around her and Kate offers a tissue.
"Don't worry," I say. "We're all here for you and I know it'll be hard at first, but we'll get through it together."
"Yeah, you don't need a stupid lad when you've got your best mates to have fun with," Kate joins in. "We'll have a great time while you're single, okay? So don't worry about him."
Chapter 9
The next day, I decide to wake up earlier so I can call for Gina on my way to school. The girls and I have decided to stick to her like glue so that if she is feeling upset, one of us will be there for her.
Gina doesn't look too good when she comes out of her house. She looks as if she hasn't slept and her eyes are still puffy and red with crying.
"Hey Ven, thanks for calling for me," she says, looking pleased to see a friendly face.
"It's okay," I say. "How are you doing?"
"I feel awful," she tells me, as we start to walk to school. "I don't know how I'm going to cope being in school today. I hardly slept last night thinking about it."
"You don't have to worry," I reassure her. "Like we said last night, we'll be there for you."
"But what should I do when I see him at school?" she asks looking terrified. "Just thinking about it makes me feel ill."
"We'll try our best to avoid him," I reassure her, although I have no idea how we can keep that up, "and if we do see him, just ignore him and pretend he's not there."
"Okay," she says, unsurely.
Kate and Chloe are both waiting for us at the school gates when we arrive.
Chloe gives her a friendly hug, "You okay, babe?" she asks her.
Gina nods weakly.
"Don't worry, he's not around," Chloe tells her, sticking to our rule of calling Lee by the name of 'he' or 'him' since it's still too hard for Gina to hear his name yet.
"And if he starts to bother you, I'll get rid of him," Kate volunteers.
"Today will be fine," Chloe reassures her and links arms with Gina.
We all set off to our form room together.
At lunch time, we all feel nervous in case Gina bumps into Lee. So far we've successfully stayed out of his way.
"Kate, you be look out," Chloe orders her quietly. "If he's spotted, we'll evacuate."
If we all weren't so nervous about our friend feeling ill or hurt at seeing Lee, we'd find this mission thing pretty hilarious, especially Chloe and her serious mission speech.
"What do we do if we can't avoid him?" Kate asks her quickly, before Gina can come out of class.
"We do Plan B," Chloe informs us and flashes her new copy of Heat magazine.
Kate and I look at each other puzzled. What are we supposed to do? Roll it up and hit Lee with it until he eventually leaves? Or maybe hide behind it like they do in the movies?
"It's to distract her until he's gone," Chloe explains.
"Clever," I agree and see Gina approaching us.
"Hi guys," she says, looking a lot more nervous now its lunch time.
"Want to go have lunch?" Kate asks her trying to act like normal.
"I don't think that's a good idea," answers Gina, looking unsure about the possibility of seeing Lee there. "I don't really feel hungry."
"You're eating something," Chloe tells her sternly, "and we'll make sure he isn't around before we go in, if that will make you feel better."
We arrive at the cafeteria and Kate does a quick check to see if Lee is there.
"All clear," she informs us.
We join the queue and order our food. Gina is still feeling nervous though, so we take our food outside instead and sit somewhere we think will be away from Lee.
"You can't avoid him forever y' know," Chloe tells her, "so eventually you will have to see him and get used to it."
"I know," sighs Gina. "Just not right now. I'm not ready for it."
We eat our lunch, talking happily about stuff and trying to avoid the topic of boys. Gina doesn't eat much of her lunch, but we pretend not to notice, since nagging her about it wouldn't help her get her appetite back.
"I have a great idea!" Chloe informs us. "Since we're all single, how about a girly shopping trip together this Saturday?"
"Yeah, that sounds good," I say, feeling pretty excited too. It's definitely a good idea to keep Gina busy.
Kate nods too, deciding not to complain about her boredom of clothes shopping for Gina's sake.
"You will come, won't you, Gina?" Chloe asks her.
"I don't know," answers Gina unsurely.
"Come on, you love shopping," I say.
"We can check out some guys while we're there," says Chloe temptingly, but Gina still seems uninterested in any other guys for now.
"I'm going even though it's not my thing," says Kate, "so you can at least come along since I'm making an effort."
"Alright then," Gina says, giving into our pleading looks, "but don't moan if I act like such a downer while we're there."
Chapter 10
Gina looks a little better when we meet up with her on Saturday morning. She's dressed up, has some make-up on and is acting like her normal, happy self. Chloe informs us that this is a good step forward, since getting to look great is a huge effort when you're feeling down, and now that Gina looks great she'll start feeling great too.
We all catch the bus together and head for town. After an hour's shopping and lunch at KFC, we're all feeling better and have forgotten all about boy troubles.
We check out a few more clothes shops. By now Kate is pretty bored with clothes shopping and is starting up a game where she has to find the most awful thing in the shop and pretend to love it.
I giggle as she shouts to me loudly across the shop that she likes a ridiculously, ugly top, and everyone in the shop starts giving her funny looks.
She strikes again at the next shop. She immediately spots a horrible pair of bright orange high heels for clubbing and runs over to them as if they might be bought any second.
"I so totally love these shoes!" she proclaims loudly in a fake, girly accent and starts to put them on.
She starts to parade along the shop as if she's a model, wriggling her hips from side to side in such a silly way that we all fall about laughing. The woman at the counter looks shocked at her daft behavior, which makes us all laugh even more.
We rush out of the shop in fits of giggles, hardly able to keep standing with laughing so much. Then, all of a sudden, I notice Chloe see something ahead and her laughter stops. A look of horror falls over her face and I stop laughing too, wondering what's up.
What could she possibly see that's so awful? Her mum emptying the entire contents of her wardrobe into a charity shop maybe?
When I look where she's staring, I see that it's much worse. Lee is a distance away with his arms around a blonde haired girl from our school called Chelsea and they look as if they're already a couple.
It's too late for me or Chloe to do anything because we see that Gina has already seen them too. She looks hurt and suddenly turns and runs, bursting into tears.
"Gina!" calls Kate and starts to run after her.
Chloe and I follow them, but we don't have to worry since Kate is a fast runner and easily catches up with her.
Gina heads straight for the toilets avoiding Kate and immediately goes into a cubical and slams the door behind her. We know she's locked the door, so we stand outside and give each other worried looks. What do we do if she refuses to come out?
Chloe knocks gently on the door, "Gina, let us in so I can give you a hug," Chloe says softly to her through the door.
Gina doesn't answer or open the door, but we hear that she's still crying.
"Come on, Gina," I say. "We can take you home if you like?"
"I'm not going out there," we hear Gina sob from inside.
"I'll take a look if he's around," says
Kate and heads for the door.
Chloe and I try our best to talk to her, while Kate stays at the toilets entrance watching to see if Lee is still there. However, Gina won't talk to us at all.
"He's gone now, Gina," says Kate, coming back inside the toilets.
"See? You can come out now," Chloe tells her.
We hear her unlock the door and feel relieved as it opens. Poor Gina is crying more than ever.
"Look at the state of you," says Chloe, quickly taking Gina by the arm. "Let's get you sorted before you leave here."
Chloe takes her over to the mirrors and quickly starts to wipe away all Gina's spoiled make up so at least she looks normal again.
"You sure he's not around, Kate?" asks Gina unsurely.
"I'm positive," answers Kate after taking another look.
"Okay, let's go home," says Chloe and links Gina as we walk out of the toilets.
We sit in silence on the bus journey home, not knowing what to say. Gina won't say anything and carries on crying. The rest of us don't want to say anything in case it embarrasses her being in public, but we give her comforting pats and extra tissues.
When we finally arrive at Gina's house, we make it to the safety of her bedroom where we can talk in private.
Gina's still crying a lot. "How could he move on so quickly?"
Chloe puts her arm around her.
"All lads do that, believe me," Kate tells her. "It's not that he's moving on 'cause you don't mean anything to him. It's just lads are stupid and they'll just go with any girl just to avoid feeling upset."
"Yeah, I bet he's only moving on so fast because he's finding it hard to get over you," Chloe tells her.
"But what if he wanted to be with her all along?" weeps Gina. "I bet that's why he broke up with me, so he can be with her instead."
"That's not true," I reassure her. "I know it looks bad, but he's probably only just got interested in this girl and he's just moving on like he told you."
"Anyway, I heard that girl he's with is a total slut," says Chloe with hatred. "It's probably her that came onto him. They might have only just got together today knowing her reputation."
Gina continues to cry, using up most of the tissues that are left in the box.
"You know what you should do?" says Chloe strongly. "You should just think sod him and get on with your life. If he's moving on then you should too. There's plenty guys out there better than him."
Gina sniffles a few times, but you can tell that Chloe's advice makes her feel a bit stronger.
"You're right," replies Gina, "but I'm just not ready for that yet."
"Take your time," says Chloe. "Forget all about him, he's no-one to us and eventually you'll find someone better and be happy again."
Chapter 11
It's a typical, boring Sunday the next day, so I log onto my email account to see if there are any emails from Matthew. Unfortunately there aren't any new emails from him, so I log off wondering what else to do.
I know from yesterday that Chloe will be visiting her sister and Kate will be going out with the boys playing football, so I decide to text Gina to see if she wants to do something. After all, she really needs a friend here for her right now.
I grab my mobile and send her a text message: Hi Gina fancy watchin a movie or something?
I have to wait ages until she finally replies back: Yea ok mine or urs?
I feel so relieved that she does actually want to hang out and quickly reply:
I'll cum round urs n bring a few dvds. B round in half an hr.
Gina is already waiting for me when I get there and she looks a lot better than yesterday.
"What took you so long to reply earlier?" I ask her.
"Slept in," she replies.
"Lazy," I tease her and we head up to her bedroom.
We both sit on the floor and spread the DVDs out so we can choose.
"Let's have a comedy so we can have a good laugh," I suggest.
"Good idea."
So we settle for one of the Pink Panther movies and sit on her bed watching it while stuffing our face with mini choc chip cookies.
After the film, an episode of Scrubs is coming on the TV, so we decide to watch that as well to make us giggle even more.
"I think JD's pretty cute," I say as I look at the main character and wonder if Matthew looks anything like him,
"I prefer Turke," says Gina, looking dreamily at him.
"That's funny, I thought you might go for Kelso," I joke and she hits me with her pillow since Kelso is a seventy-five year old.
Just as we are half way through another episode, both our mobiles buzz. We have received a text from Kate, who has finished her game of football:
Wanna meet at the caf? 4 hot chocolate?
We both answer 'yes' and make our way over to the local caf? near the beach called Butterflies. It's a really trendy caf? where most teenagers hang out, with stylish butterfly patterns on the walls and plastic butterfly decorations hanging from the ceiling.
When we get there, Kate has already saved us a table near the window. We all get a hot chocolate from the counter and sit, staring out of the window at the beach. We can see a few children running riot and a dog that is running away from his owner.
"Have you asked Jamie out yet?" Gina asks Kate, who starts to blush.
"No way, I told you the lads will laugh at me if they find out," answers Kate.
"Has he not asked you out either?" I ask, hoping that he will. Jamie does seem interested, even if Kate is denying it, so I don't know why he's holding back.
"No," sighs Kate, looking sad.
"If you really want to know if he's interested, you should ask him out on a date," urges Gina. "Lads are too slow to do stuff, so most of the time it's up to us girls."
"You shouldn't bother what the other lads will think," I tell her. "You usually don't anyway."
"I know, but this is different," she says. "What if I ask him and he doesn't want to? He'll probably get all awkward and ignore me."
"There's only one way to find out," Gina tells her. "You'll have to ask him."
"But I can't, it's too awful," she says looking shy.
"I could ask him for you?" offers Gina, trying to be helpful.
"No thanks, I'd rather not," answers Kate.
"Okay then, I dare you to do it on Monday," I say, looking at Kate eagerly.
Gina grins at me, knowing that Kate can't resist a dare.
Kate hesitates.
"What's the matter? Are you chicken?" Gina teases her playfully and we both do chicken impressions and giggle.
Kate gives us both an annoyed look, "Fine, I'll do it, as long as the lads aren't around."
"But you have to do it on Monday," I remind her.
"Alright," answers Kate, looking nervous, "but if he goes all funny with me afterwards, I'm blaming you two."
Chapter 12
On Monday morning, Gina and I tell Chloe about Kate's dare.
"That's pretty brave," says Chloe. "I wouldn't be able to do it."
"You don't need to, guys are always asking you out," Kate reminds her.
We're walking to our form room when Chloe sees Danny nearby.
"Oh crap," she mutters under her breath, not wanting to see him.
"Are you still ignoring his texts?" Gina asks her.
"Yeah. I've still not got around to telling him I'm not interested yet."
Danny has already seen her and calls for her, starting to come over.
"I think you should just tell him, put him out of his misery," suggests Kate.
Chloe nods in agreement, looking nervous.
"Hi Chloe," Danny greets her, smiling.
"Hi," she answers nervously.
"Why didn't you answer my texts this weekend?" he asks, looking confused. "I was hoping we could go on another date."
"I'm sorry," says Chloe, looking a little ashamed. "I just don't think it's a good idea that we date anymore."
"Why
not?" he asks, looking sad.
"The thing is, I just don't like you enough to be your girlfriend. I'm really sorry."
He looks really hurt at her answer, but then it's replaced by anger.
"I wouldn't want to be with a stupid slag like you anyway," he retorts and storms off.
I'm really shocked by his reaction. Do all boys act like that after rejection?
Gina goes and puts her arm around Chloe, "you okay?"
"Of course I am," answers Chloe, not bothered at all by what he just said. She rolls her eyes. "Boys are so pathetic, they can't even take no for an answer."
I smile at her. She took it better than I would have, but she has had more practice than me.
"Most lads act like that," Kate tells me, as we start walking to form room. "They hate to show when they're upset so they just go all moody instead if they're rejected."
"I hope you're not like that if Jamie turns you down," I joke.
"No way, I would take it a lot better than any immature lad could," she says.
She still looks nervous at asking Jamie out on a date though.
When school finishes, we all wait outside the school gates. It was Physical Education last lesson, which we all have together, so luckily we don't have to waste time waiting for each other at the end of school.
"What if Jamie's gone home already?" Chloe asks, looking impatient.
"Then we'd be total idiots standing here for nothing," replies Kate.
I think she's just trying to get out of it.
"How can he have left, we got out before the bell, remember?" says Gina.
"He'll probably be with the lads and I told you all I'm not doing it in front of them," Kate reminds us.
Luckily, we spot Jamie saying goodbye to his friends and heading in our direction alone. He must walk home in a different direction to the other guys, which is a great advantage right now
"Go on, Kate," Gina urges her. "Ask him."
Kate nervously walks towards him. "Hi Jamie."
"Hi Kate," he greets and stops to talk to her.
Me, Chloe and Gina quickly pretend to be mega busy on our mobiles so he won't notice we're listening.
"I was wondering if you want to go to the cinemas Wednesday night?" she asks nervously.
We can all see that Jamie is surprised at her asking him and Kate probably notices this too. "The thing is, there's this awesome horror film I wanna see and the girls are too chicken to come with me," she says innocently, "so I thought I'd ask you instead."