Being Harrison Bloom’s Girl

Diane Masters was beautiful, sexy, classy, sophisticated, blonde – all the things that she didn’t feel like when she wasn’t paying attention and giving herself a pep talk. There was no way she could compete with somebody like that.

Her already shaky confidence crumbled and collapsed.

Carefully, she pressed the power button, held, and waited till the phone went blank.

It was such relief to see it go blank and not have to see that photo anymore.

Then, paying great attention to every move, she brushed her teeth. Once she was sure that her enamel was probably all polished right off, she started getting ready, paying so much care to each step as if her life depended on it.

She felt like she was flying blind. In a way she was. She felt like that photo had been seared onto the inside of her eyelids and would stay there forever.

Harrison had been out with Diane Masters.

She tried to grab the right clothes, not forget underwear, find socks, get her books…

Harrison was dating Diane Masters.

She noticed, with interest, that her hands were trembling. She felt like her entire body might have been trembling, but she wasn’t too sure.

Harrison had been out on a date with the gorgeous, confident, sexy Diane Masters who wasn’t his stepsibling and would probably accept his proposal when – if – he proposed to her.

Leigh caught herself staring at her reflection in the mirror as if she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do next.

She saw herself, with her hair now beginning to curl again because she hadn’t straightened it recently, a little too long now. She saw her whiskey-colored eyes that she had always liked. She saw the even features, and the reasonably pretty face.

But all she really saw was that she didn’t have glorious blonde locks that looked sexily mussed up – had they been mussed up by Harrison’s hands? Harrison liked sliding his fingers into her hair. Had he done that with Diane?

“Leigh? Are you ready? I… Oh sh*t.”

Hana came in, and grabbed the phone from out of her hand.

“It’s fine. I turned it off. It’s all fine. I’m fine.”

Hana pulled Leigh onto the bed and sat down beside her, taking her hands in hers.

“Jesus, Leigh, your hands are like ice. Look… Well, sh*t, I don’t think you could possibly go to class like this. I’ll stay here with you.”

Leigh shook her head.

“No, of course you should go to class. I’m fine. I’ll be fine. Everybody sent me the photo. Why did they send me the photo?”

Hana hesitated, as if she were debating something. She seemed to come to a decision.

“All right, it’s better for you to see everything instead of just a little bit. You’ll see it soon enough. Might as well get it all over with now.”

And Hana showed her the rest of the photos – Diane and Harrison at the event, Diane in Harrison’s shirt and jacket.

Finally, Leigh just held on to Hana and cried.