Sunday, November 3, 2019.

I wake up the next day and look over to Connor. I think it's time I tell him my side of this long story. I get up and go to my closet not sure what to wear but right now I’m not sure of anything. I put on a light blue cropped sweater, black high waisted jeans, and grey running shoes. I put my hair up into a bun and go and sit next to Connor who is still asleep. I touch his shoulder and say “Hey it’s 10:30.” He looks at me and pulls me closer and kisses me. “I’m going to run down to the Tim Morton's down the street to get a drink do you want one?” I ask.

“Sure. I can come with you if you want.” Connor says.

“No it’s okay. You get dressed when I’m gone. Don’t go back to sleep.” I walk out of my room and down the stairs and grab my keys off the table by my door. I walk out to my car and drive down to the Tim Morton's. As I pull up I see a group of guys outside going in and they look like they are from my school, some of them look familiar.

I walk by them and they go quiet. I don’t think much of it and order. “Hello what would you like?” the lady at the counter asks. “Hello can I get one medium coffee with one sugar and a small iced coffee.”

“Will that be all?”

“Yes thank you.”

“Your total will be $4.58.” I give the lady a five dollar bill and she gives me my change and tells me to move over to the serving counter. I walked over and see someone I really don’t want to see, Parker. I just mind my own business and I could feel his eyes on me. The only thing I was thinking was don’t talk to me, please don’t my thoughts got interrupted by a hello. “Hi.” I replied.

“What are you up to?” he asked.

“Just getting coffee.”

“So I heard you know Amber.” when he said this, I didn’t know what to do but then I heard my order get called so I walked up to the counter and took the coffee’s “Thank you.” I said, both for the coffee and getting me out of that conversation. I head straight for the door. I get to my car walking past all of they guys now I know who they are with and god knows what they have heard about me. I put the drinks on the top of my car to get my key out to open the door when I hear a voice comes from behind me. I spin around to see Parker inches away from me. “It’s not very nice to walk away when someone is talking to you.” He says. “Listen I have to go someone is waiting for me.” I turn away, get my key and unlock my car. When I go to grab the door handle he grabbed my wrist that I had burnt and pulls me very close to him and whispers to me “I know who you really are your not an innocent little girl.”

I used my other hand to slap him then break my other hand free. I rush to get into my car but he grabbed my hand again so I turn to him and kicked him where no man wants to be kicked but he asked for it. He falls to the ground and I grab the coffee off the top of my car and get in. He was yelling at me as I drove away but it felt hella good and hella scary. I drive up to my house and bring the coffee inside. “I’m back.” I said. Connor didn’t answer I walked out to the kitchen and see him sitting on one of the bar stools at the breakfast bar I hand him his coffee. He looked up at me from looking at his phone. He looked scared and mad, a little of both. “What’s going on?” I ask. “Have you been on Sinstagram?” he asked.

“No, why?”

“Don’t.”

“What’s going on your creeping me out?”

“You know about how we seen Amy yesterday, yeah well her side of the story is all over Sinstagram and the comments on your page are even worse.” I stood there not knowing what was going on. Was this real? Is this just a cruel joke? I grab my phone and run upstairs to plug it in because it died during the night. I turned it on and the notifications started flooding in. The first thing I do is go onto Amy’s page. Connor came upstairs and took the phone out of my hand. “I want to know your side not theirs.” He said. He sat on the bed next to me. I turned to him. “Okay.” I said.

“About two years ago I joined a new school because my dad got a new job their so we left everything behind for this job.” I will tell him about the girls but not my family, not yet. “And so the first day I went to this school, I met these girls named Rose, Jane and Amber. I guess because I was new and I didn’t know who they were or who anybody else was I thought they were nice girls so I wanted to become friends with them. The second week I was there, Amber asked me if I would put a note in someone's locker for her, she said it was a boy she liked. I didn’t know who’s locker it was all she gave me was the number of the locker so I did and I didn’t even know what the note said until after. When the bell rang we all stood by the locker and it wasn’t a boys locker it was a girl. When the girl looked at the note she looked at the note and walked out of the school and she looked upset. I asked them what the note said and they said it was a back off note. It was meant for her to stay away from this boy that Amber liked. So I told Amber I didn’t want to do this anymore but when I put the note in that girls locker she took a picture of me doing it. So I kept quiet. And there are somethings that I know I could have done different but I didn’t and so they made sure that I stayed with them and they continued doing stuff like that and I was stuck I had nowhere to go. One day they did something that wasn’t worth me getting in trouble for them, so I left and they started spreading rumors about me, and stuff I did with guys and things that I didn’t do. The things that they did were all on me. So everyone in the school and the town hated me so we left.” That was my story and I didn’t know what else to say and I don’t think he did ether.

We just sat there for a minute not saying anything to each other then he turned and looked at me. “I don’t care.” he said. “What?” I was confused.

“I don’t care what they say and I don’t care about what they say you did. I believe you.” I felt tears streamed down my face. He put his hand on my cheek and kissed me. I look up to him and say “Thank you.”

“Do you want me to order take out for lunch?” he asked. I looked at my phone it was already 12:30 pm. “Yeah, what about Thai?” I asked. “You know it.”