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Closing the door, I sit down farthest from him, wanting to be away from him as much as possible. I hate being here with him.
“So, a little birdie told me you have been hanging out with the four new guys.” He laughs. “Why do you continuously have to be such a fucking whore? You couldn’t just get through this last year without incident, could you? I told you barely a week ago to keep your nose down and not cause a commotion. Yet here you are, in my office. I got word that you have upset two students, to the point that they dumped something on you. Is that laying low? Fuck no, it isn’t!” he says while sitting there, looking at me with disgust.
I don’t understand. It’s not like I truly did anything.
Except no one will listen. Him especially. The principal is best friends with the one person who changed my life forever. Every time I’m in this office and he looks at me like that, I want to shrink and be as tiny as possible. His stare not only makes me want to be small; it makes mefeelsmall.
“First period just ended, so head to second,” he says, dismissing me.
It’s taking everything in me to not cry in front of him, but I refuse to give him the satisfaction that he has gotten to me. Getting up, I grab my bag and head to psychology.
As I walk down the hallways, everyone is staring at me.
Sometimes…sometimes I just want to yell at them to leave me the fuck alone.
I didn’t do anything wrong, yet they treat me like a pariah. I lost my best friend. I lost my voice at school. I lost myself after that day. I lost everything, really.
Finally getting to second period, I head to my seat, but when I get there, there is a picture of me sitting on my desk. The picture has all kinds of hateful words on it. I can get over most of them except one.
Father-fucker.
I grab the picture, crumple it up, and put it in my backpack.
I’m so embarrassed, yet the biggest emotion isn’t that. It’s hatred. They want to call me all the names under the sun, that’s fine, but that one? That one hits a nerve.
I didn’t do anything except say no and tell my mom.
I thought my mom would at least believe me, but I really should have known better.
As I sit silently in my seat, tears are running down my face. The invincible armor I usually have in place can’t protect me today.
Slap.
Immense pain radiates from the right side of my face.
“Let us have them! You just want to ruin their lives like you ruined my dad’s, don’t you? Once they hear how you lied about my dad because you were starved for attention, they will never touch you. No one believes you, you know. I heard you were all hot and heavy with some guy in the library the other day. I knew you were just an attention-seeking cheap-ass whore,” Quinn taunts.
I finally look back up at her after she is done, but when I do, I go pale. Atlas is behind her, and I’m not sure how much he heard of what Quinn said to me.
I don’t want him, or any of them, to find out this way.
Starting to tear up again, I grab my things and run past Atlas. He tries to grab my arm, but I move it at the last second.
I need to escape. I need to get away from everyone.
I head to the girls’ locker room, knowing that at least he can’t follow me there, and she won’t waste her energy.
“Paisley? I know you are in there. I’m coming in whether you like it or not,” comes a familiar voice.
Atlas opens the door and walks in. “We don’t have to talk about what happened, but I’m a good listener. I don’t know exactly what Quinn meant, but I’m still here for you.”
“Why are you all nice to me? You don’t know anything about me,” I sign.
“Do I need a reason to just be nice to a person? Besides, I like you. We all do.”
I start to cry.
“No one is nice to me except for you and your brothers, and it hurts. I don’t want to trust this feeling. The last time I trusted someone…well, let’s just say no one talks to me because of it now,” I sign with tears running down my face.
