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CHAPTER ONE ENVIOUS

BETH WOULDN'T SAY SHE WAS ENVIOUS of her best friend. Kaelyn was co-dependent and liked to be around people and people liked to be around her. Beth was the comedic relief, the emotional support, but she ended up just feeling like a supporting character in her own life. However, the one thing that would always, unequivocally be hers was her absolutely hopeless crush on Liz Allan. Kaelyn would never experience that the way they experienced everything else together. Thankfully, that didn't stop the redhead from constantly being motivating and supportive.

"Why do I feel like being gay is my only personality trait?" Beth asked as the two of them laid on Kaelyn's bed during one of the many nights they slept over at each other's places. Right now, Beth was staying over at Kaelyn's because her parents were driving her absolutely up the wall about her failing Spanish grade. Sure, her parents were lawyers and they traveled like no one's business and Beth had been raised speaking multiple languages fluently but doing the meaningless assignments was just so annoying.

Kaelyn who had been also laying on the bed scrolling through her phone places her phone down on her stomach before turning to the girl with a furrowed brow, "Girl, what the hell are you talking about? Are you seriously asking me that? You have lots of personality traits!"

"Yeah, but I feel like everyone has a personality trait that's kinda front and center you know? Like, I feel like being gay is mine," Beth tried to explain in further detail, her eyes squinting at the ceiling as she put her thought process into words as best she could.

"Well, I don't like that idea because if your front and center personality trait is being gay then mine is most definitely being a bitch," the girl countered with a scoff, picking up her phone once again. "Call me stupid, but can being gay even be a personality trait? Like for me, being straight isn't a personality trait let alone my main one."

Beth shrugged, "It is more than you think."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kaelyn asked with an offended gasp. "You don't even defend the bitch part, I am going to find a new best friend ASAP."

The girl stuck out her tongue, "Yeah, but if you're a bitch I'm super nice so we balance each other out. It works. Also, you couldn't find a new best friend because no one is as amazingly awesome as me. Don't laugh, you know I'm right! We're Thelma and Louise, bitch."

"I've never seen that movie," Kaelyn admitted with a stifled giggle.

"Neither have I."

The two girls burst out laughing together, but Beth jumped out of her skin as there was a knock at the door. They both calmed down as Kaelyn stood up from the bed to answer it, facing her older brother Caden.

"What do you want?" Kaelyn asked, her tone shifting from the carefree one it was to much more annoyed. The older boy always had an affect on Kaelyn's mood. Beth had a feeling it was because Caden was stuck fulfilling the role of annoying older brother and father so it was a bad mix all around. Beth felt bad for both of them, really, but she would never say anything. As the two of them whisper-shouted at each other, Beth minded her own business already knowing Kaelyn would start complaining about whatever he was bugging her about the moment that door closed again.

She picked up her phone and the first post on her Instagram, of course, had to be from none other than Liz Allan. Beth sighed as she liked the photo, knowing it would probably just be one notification in a sea of notifications from people much cooler than Beth. She couldn't imagine a world where the girl even knew who Beth was -- you'd think she would since they share the same name, but a girl as gorgeous and popular as Liz Allan would never waste her time hanging around with some stupid sophomore. Granted, Kaelyn had a sort of "in" with Liz being the cheer captain since a large amount of the team was friends with Liz, but it wasn't the same. Beth was probably better off this way. Crushing from far away was always better than liking someone you actually knew. Knowing someone enough to not just crush on their outward appearance and aura but on actual aspects of their personality would be absolutely deadly for Beth. She sighed to herself as her eyes swayed from her phone to Kaelyn who was now slamming the door with an exasperated sigh.

"I hate him," she exclaimed, her back leaning against the door as she slid down to sit on the hardwood floor instead of coming back over to the bed.

"No you don't, if you hated him, me and you would have run away and lived in an apartment in Los Angeles by now," Beth said with a shrug, putting her phone down to pay attention to Kaelyn. The two of them were always pivotal to each other in dealing with family issues and she owed it to Kaelyn to be there for her. Fantasizing about making out with Liz Allan could always wait. "What did he want?"

The girl just shrugged, her pale fingers twisting red locks around each other absentmindedly. "Just stupid shit! I told him I wanted to get a job to help out and he said no! Like, what? Isn't he tired of working two jobs and doing everything around here?"

"See, that's how I know you don't hate him," Beth smiled, shaking her head. She moved so she was laying on her stomach facing the end of the bed with her chin propped up on her elbows so she could better face the redhead on the floor.

Kaelyn scoffed, avoiding the girl's eyes as she deflected, "What are you even talking about?"

"If you hated him, you would walk all over him. You would watch as he comes home exhausted from work and cleans up after you and cooks and all of that and you wouldn't bat an eye. But you want to work, you clean up your own messes, you leave meal prep for him, for god's sake," Beth explained with a driven tone, trying to drill her point in her best friend's mind, "You care about making things easier for him, he cares about making things easier for you. He just wants you to be a teenager and have fun, so stop making him the bad guy. Sure, like, communication-wise, you guys could do a lot better considering you guys show care by arguing constantly, but you're always arguing about taking care of each other. So, you don't hate him. I rest my case."

"I hate when you're right, why are you so right all the time?"

"Because I spend all my time with you and we know everything about each other, of course, I'm right all the time," Beth said with a nonchalant shrug, trying not to let her laughter shine through.

Kaelyn rolled her eyes, crossing her arms, but Beth knew she wasn't being serious. After a moment, the redhead scoffed and dropped the act, "Enough about me, what's up with you? Tell me something that takes my mind off of my deep-rooted family issues."

"Oh, my God, I have nothing! I'm the comedic relief to your protagonist, I've got nothing for you!" Beth joked, twirling her jet-black hair between her fingers, "Will's the interesting one, not me."

"Ugh, the only interesting thing about your brother is that he goes to boarding school," Kaelyn argued, "Also you're totally interesting literally shut up. If anything, I'm the one with no personality."

"Are you gonna fight with me over which one of us gets to have a personality? I'm gonna beat you up."

"You're a twig."

"I'm a base you motherfucker, I'll kick your flyer ass into next week," Beth teased, sticking out her tongue as she took her chance to throw a pillow at Kaelyn. The redhead caught it with a gasp, throwing it back. Beth ducked just in time for the pillow to slam into Kaelyn's pencil holder on her desk -- which in turn caused it to tip over and all the pens and pencils to spill across the floor. It's amazing how much noise something like that can make when it's so late at night. The two looked at each other in awe for a moment before they both simultaneously let loose into a fit of giggles, both racing to clean up the mess.

As the two sat on the hardwood floor and picked up the writing utensils, Kaelyn sighed, leaning up against the desk leg with a huff. "I think... that we are both fucking awesome. No arguing. You're also nicer than me so you get bonus points."

"I--"

"I said no arguing!" Kaelyn cut her off before any disagreement could even make it past her lips so Beth resorted to sticking her tongue out again instead. "We are both fucking awesome, I wanna hear you say it."

"Ugh!" the dark-haired girl exclaimed, but as she looked at Kaelyn she knew the redhead was not going to budge on this, "Fine, we are both fucking awesome. However, I will not accept any bonus points because you are nice when you want to be. Albeit that is not often, I've seen it happen with my own two eyes so, no bonus points."

Kaelyn gasped, "You are such a bitch."

The girl's initial response was to laugh, teasingly saying, "No! That one gets to be your personality trait!"

"Don't make me throw the pillow again!"

"With your aim? That's not even a threat!"

"I am going to throttle you, I swear--"

"Girls!" Caden's voice rang through the door, "Please just go to bed!"

The two girls went silent, almost afraid to say anything else as they both looked between each other and the door; stifling their laughter for fear of Caden entering the room again. However, the silence didn't last long as they started laughing again, making a very futile attempt to stay quiet as per the boy's request.

As they calmed down, Kaelyn did her best to speak, "Okay, okay, in all seriousness, I love you and stop questioning yourself so much. You are you, no matter what your "main" personality trait is, all of them make up Beth no matter the percentage so stop worrying about it."

"Okay, I will try my best."

"There is no try, only do or do not."

"Oh, shut the fuck up, Yoda, what kinda shit is that?"

"It doesn't count because I didn't say it backwards so you can't make fun of me for it." Kaelyn's logic was... flawed, but it made Beth laugh anyway.

"Whatever, I can't with you."

The redhead rolled her eyes, "You love me."

"You know I do."

writing beth as a main character is so FUN i love her so much! when i published this for the first time i struggled to get more than 80 words but now i was able to whip this out and it just felt right like i didn't wanna end it. ugh, this really is beth's time to shine