Fragile

1. The beginning

(December)

"Amazing results as always Livia!" My teacher, Mrs. Carnell smiles brightly at me while handing me my math exam back. I flash a smile back and stare at the A mark on my paper.

"Shit, you got A again?" Dahlia asks and frowns. I smile back at my friend and nod, proud of myself. "Tell me your secret, please" she begs.

"I already told you, I studied hard." I say and she rolls her eyes. "What?"

"You're sixteen, you do nothing but study, go get a life." Dahlia says. I know she's jealous about my great results but that still stung a bit.

I stay quiet for the rest of the lesson, trying my best to focus. Even though I'm a straight A student I still glance at the clock every two seconds and count minutes to our lunch break, only 20 more minutes. Then 15, then 10, 5, and finally the clock goes.

I jump out of my seat and start packing with Dahlia. "Gosh I'm so hungry." I say.

"Me tooo, this lesson took like forever." Dahlia sighs.

"I know right?" I say. We head to get our meals and drinks and then go to our usual table in the center of the cafeteria.

"Hey girls!" We hear a loud voice, Abigail.

"Hi Abby, what took you so long?" I ask, usually Abby is here before us.

"I had a history test." She just shrugs off. I nod and begin to munch my food, fish and vegetables and potatoes. Not that bad actually.

"Wait where's Leo?" Dahlia asks after a while.

"He probably just got scolded by Mr. Martin, they never get along remember?" Abby says and laughs like it's the funniest thing ever. Leo is Dahlia's boyfriend, they've been like glued to each other which is kinda gross.

When Leo finally arrives, Dahlia jumps to his arms smiling like the happiest girl alive.

"Gosh you're only sixteen stop that, it's gross." Abby says when they start kissing and I make a puking sound. Dahlia just rolls her eyes at us and keeps kissing Leo.

"Hey can we eat our lunch in peace at least?" Abby asks rolling her eyes at Dahlia who finally stops kissing her boyfriend. We all sit down and start casual chatting.

"This fish is actually surprisingly good." I say.

"No ew it tastes like they found it in the trash." Dahlia says and scrunches her nose.

"You're just picky Dahlia." Abby laughs.

"Or maybe Liv just eats everything she can see." Leo says and grins.

"What?" I ask in confusion, but Abby and Dahlia just giggles. "What's that supposed to mean?" I ask again, not laughing with them.

"Oh well, you know." Dahlia says and looks at me weirdly.

"Huh? No I don't." I say, my confusion just growing.

"Well, you're not exactly the... umh, skinniest of the group Liv." Abby says and chuckles.

"Oh." I just say, so this had something to do with my weight. Oh well. "I'm not even fat?" I say rolling my eyes.

"Well if you say so." Leo says. "But aren't you like, 160 lbs?"

"Well I mean, yeah I am? But that's not even bad?" I say but Abby side eyes me. "What?"

"Whatever, let's just eat okay?" Dahlia rolls her eyes and we all go quiet for a moment. I mean, I'm not fat right? Right?

***

When the clocks finally rings to the end of the day, I jump up and pack my bag quickly. My mom was probably already outside waiting for me so I needed to hurry. I quickly waved goodbyes to Dahlia, we shared the last class together, and sprinted outside.