She asks me about my game and where Meave is touring. I ask if she’s ready for our World History quiz, which she freaks out about, realizing she forgot.
At my locker, she abandons me to go cram.
But that’s okay, because my boyfriend, Dylan, is there waiting for me.
“Hi.” I blush, something I’ve never been able to control, leaning in for a kiss. He pulls away. My shoulders slump with confusion, feet sinking into my loafers. “Everything okay?”
“I’m breaking up with you,” Dylan announces casually and from out of nowhere.
“What? Seriously?”
“Yeah, Sutton.” He repeats himself more slowly, “I’m breaking up with you.”
“I heard you. Why?”
He checks over his shoulder. It’s then that I see how busy the hallway is, and his posse standing by the drinking fountain, snickering.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“Eh. Don’t like you anymore.” Dylan pushes off the locker and walks away.
“Dylan. Wait!” Trying to get his attention only draws more on me. Other students in the hallway are laughing, whispering to each other, or even pointing at me.
He doesn’t pay me any attention. Doesn’t care that I’m confused and hurt, or—do not cry, Sutton.
I stand there, frozen.
Dylan walks away with his friends. One of them walks backward and makes eye contact with me, and says, “He doesn’t want you. Nobody wants you. You should be used to it by now.”
I’m a smart girl. I put the pieces together quickly. Dylan is breaking up with me because of the rumor. The rumor is now no longer whispered, but full-fledged.
Before it was easier to know my truth, but not so much now.
I think I forgot just how cruel people can be—even when they know something isn’t true and are only doing it for attention.
A tear slips down my cheek. Then another when someone walks by and calls me a name under their breath.
I scan the hallway for Meave, forgetting she isn’t here. Then I look for Izzy or any of the girls. The air in my lungs catches when I spot Cooper strolling down the hallway, bookbag slung over one shoulder, his hat still on and backwards.
His smile fades when he sees me.
He picks up his pace, jogging over to me and dragging my trembling body into his arms.
“Sutton, what happened?”
“He broke up with me. And?—”
Another person walks by us, brushes shoulders with Cooper, and makes a comment that I can’t fully hear, but Cooper does. He lets go of me, grabbing onto the back of the guy’s backpack. “What did you say to her?”
The student, I can’t remember the name of right now, but I know we have English together, repeats himself.
“That’s not funny,” I hear Cooper say. “And not true. Get her name out of your mouth.”
“If I don’t?”
“Good thing I know how to fight.”
Cooper shoves him forward and comes back to me, wrapping his arms around me again. Blocking me from the world.
