Literati

By K.C. Aria

They are a surefire way in.

 

Without them, Hazel may never have good standing, may never have a recognizable name...

 

...but what will it cost her to prove she deserves it?

 

What is a friendship worth?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mannarino Publishing
• Release date: Sep 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201641931

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Copyright © 2021 by K.C. Aria

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Mannarino Publishing

Literati

A Short Story

K.C. Aria

Eloise looked indelible. With her thin, unsmiling mouth and upturned pixie face, she came off as cold and untouchable. Her gray eyes bore into you when you met her gaze. She read through the entire syllabus before classes even started.

Hazel longed to be just like her. She hummed with the desire to be taken seriously as a writer by people whom she viewed as serious. After reading every one of Eloise’s responses to their assignments for class, the person who struck Hazel as the most serious out of everyone was Eloise.

Eloise, who had a mystery about her. Eloise, who had some kind of power, some kind of presence, that Hazel longed for. Sure, it was nice to make friends everywhere she went, but the power Eloise had to command words, and grab the attention of important literary people, made Hazel’s mouth water.

Dour and poised, sharp and cunning, Hazel would’ve crawled into Eloise’s skin, if she could’ve.

Short of doing that, she chose argyle sweaters from her tiny sets, pairing them with her lonely set of dark jeans. They were the darkest pants she owned, but that wasn’t the important part. Above all, they made her more intimidating.

Dark colors would reveal the mystery of her, while hiding what she tried to keep quiet. She even practiced being reclusive, keeping the darker secrets of her past to herself by keeping quiet around the friends she’d made at the start of the year.

That’s how Eloise does it. She doesn’t talk much about her home life, and doesn’t make comparisons to herself in her stories. She just withdraws from others, writes about things with a command that no one else has, and talks about things no one else can understand about her past.

Nobody, except her bookish friends.

"I don’t understand