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Jessie’s face was all glittered up. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, a ribbon of orange tied around the hair tie. She hadn’t exactly been warm to me since the incident at her party, but it was something I understood. She hadn’t been mean to me, either. Hopefully, she’d react to this like I hoped she would.
“Jessie,” I said, “I need to talk to you.”
The other cheerleaders glanced to each other, and Jessie was slow to nod. “Okay,” she said, folding her arms over her chest. “Talk.”
I started moving backwards, to the door that led to the hallway. It was the back hall of the school, where the locker rooms were, so we didn’t have to worry about anyone overhearing. Or seeing. The concession stand and the bathrooms everyone used during games were in the front. We’d be okay here.
Jessie didn’t give me a chance to speak. “I thought you said there was nothing going on between you and Christian? You said—”
“There’s something you don’t know,” I said. “Something Christian told everyone to keep from you.”
“What?” Jessie was so clueless, and she’d done nothing to me, so I hated making her feel like this. Who knew? Maybe I misjudged her. Maybe she wouldn’t care about the truth. Maybe absolutely nothing would happen tonight, and it was all just a waste of time.
I inhaled a great breath, feeling my lungs fill up. For the first time, I was about to tell the whole truth. Well, I was going to keep the whole revenge thing to myself, but it was a lot to unpack to someone who’d been in a different class growing up. Someone who hadn’t witnessed their cruelty firsthand.
I told Jessie everything. The summarized version of it, watching as her anger faded and a look of disgust, of sadness, took its place. Basically, I told her that Christian and his posse had bullied me so badly I’d tried to kill myself. I even tugged up my sleeves and showed her the old wounds. I told her that Christian still hated me, and I was sure he wanted me to try to kill myself again. That he was mean, rude, and just horrible.
And, because Jessie was a nice girl, because I had her pegged from the beginning, I knew she’d never want to date someone who could be so awful.
When I was done, Jessie threw her arms around me, hugging me close. “I can’t believe…” She blinked, her eyes tearing up. “I can’t believe he would do something like that.” When she ended the hug, she swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “I need to talk to him.”
Confronting him would do no good, but I let her spin on her white tennis shoes and march to the boys’ locker room down the hall, disappearing inside.
Telling someone the truth, showing an ignorant person my scars, it wasn’t something I did on an everyday basis. I was suddenly tired, so very tired, and yet the night wasn’t over yet. This night had just begun.
I crept closer to the locker room, leaning in the shadows of a locker as Christian and Jessie exited the locker room and went into a nearby classroom. I slipped my phone out of my back pocket and tiptoed to the classroom’s open door, listening to what went on in the room.
It was brutal. Jessie confronted him on his past actions, probably hoping to get the truth from him, but did Christian tell the truth? Did he even try to defend himself? No. In fact, he sounded just like the asshole I knew he was. Really, it was a miracle they’d survived dating each other for the last few weeks.
“I don’t have to explain anything to you,” Christian said, sounding haughty.
It was a moment before Jessie whispered, “You know what? You’re right. You don’t. Know why?” Another tense minute before she added, “Because I’m not your girlfriend anymore. Your reaction was enough. Everything she said was true. You bullied Elle until she tried to kill herself, and you didn’t want me to know. You’re an asshole, Christian, and we’re done. We’re so done.”
I hurriedly stuffed my phone in my back pocket, darting into a nearby hall that led to an emergency exit as Jessie stormed from the room, furiously wiping her face, trying to stop the tears from falling.
Mission accomplished, though I didn’t feel too good about it. I felt horrible, really, but when I watched Christian leave the classroom and huff away, I couldn’t help but smile. The boy truly was upset. I didn’t know why. A jock who looked like him could have another girl on his arm before the morning.
Since I was in the short hall near the emergency exit, he didn’t see me as he walked by—and even though I knew it was a bad idea, I did it anyway.
I called out to him.
