EMILY***“Now that we know she’s just doing this for attention, all that’s left for us is to find a way to expose her,” I said to Harry.It had taken a lot from him to tell me his story, and I had told him that we could discuss the rest of the details when he felt better but he had suggested we keep going.“Talking about it has made me realize just how deeply I was wronged. I want to get to the bottom of things as soon as possible. I want to make her pay,” he had said.“What if you just tell the truth?” he asked.“I have considered it, trust me. I have been feeling very guilty and I have wanted to just tell Gabriel that I know who she is, but there are two things to consider now. One is the fact that my reputation is at stake, and her exposing me will not have anything to do with her getting attention. It will be purely out of malice and it will ruin me. It is something very personal to me that I am not yet ready to share,” I said.“I understand. What’s the other thing?”"The other t
Bakersville High School***"I really need your help, Emily, please," Gabriel said.He was at the door of her room. She had refused to open it for him. It didn't matter that he was going through something, that his parents were fighting, on that day Emily was going through something as well, something that Gabriel had caused. She wasn't going to help him. She wasn't going to open the door.She wasn't even going to acknowledge his presence because that was all it took for him to use her and then throw her away when she was no longer helpful. She was done. It was the day he had shown the whole school his 'real' girlfriend. It didn't matter to Emily that she had been wrong, that she had actually been the one that had caused the rumor to start by telling Julie, what mattered to her was how Gabriel had chosen to act.How he had chosen to respond to that rumor had told Emily everything she needed to know about where she stood when it came to him- she was just someone he was holding on a le
EMILY***"I decided not to post it," she said and I had to hold myself back from screaming in joy.I was in her room. It had been three days since I had last spoken to her, three days since Harry and I had come up with a plan to stop her from doing any more damage. Harry had advised me to give her some time before I asked her about the post so that I didn't look suspicious. I had.On the third day, I couldn't wait any longer. I was anxious. I needed to know what she was doing. Harry had given me a go-ahead and so I rushed to her room, hoping and praying that she had not changed her mind and gone back to her original plan. She hadn’t. In fact, she had done exactly what I hoped she would do. Our plan was already working."Why not?" I asked, acting to the best of my ability."I think that those people should share their stories themselves, in their own ways and at their own times. It felt like they were riding on my courage.""I get that," I said, playing along, "it took you a lot of co
GABRIEL***“Emily and I have an idea,” Harry said as he stood and walked towards her.It was yet another day in which we were in my room trying to find out how to get the person who had made the post to confess what they had done. The two looked at each other and Harry nodded at Emily, as if encouraging her to go on.I tried not to read too much into it. They were both helping me, they were no longer together and even if they were I doubted that simply apologizing and crying in each other’s arms had made that much of a difference.“The idea is to get the person to expose themselves,” Emily said, “I know I suggested this last time but Harry helped me flesh out the idea more and this is what I have. I have been interacting with the person more and I need you to know that I have made it so that they think I’m on their side,” she said to me and I nodded, “and I’ve done so so that I’m better able to convince them to make another post saying who they are, telling their names.”“Our reasoni
EMILY***I needed to find Harry. We had been caught.I didn’t know how she had caught on but she had. Had we told on ourselves? But how? Hadn’t we been careful? Hadn’t we done all we could do to make sure our tracks were covered? I knew that Harper had a talent for seeing things other people didn’t see but was she really that good? Had Tiffany approached her? No. There was no way. Tiffany herself didn’t know what I was really doing. She must have just figured it out on her own. I didn’t know whether to be angry or scared. Harry had gone after her and it was not that I didn’t trust him, it was that he didn’t know how to lie.The only reason he hadn’t already told Gabriel the truth about TIffany was that I was there in almost every interaction they had to make sure he didn’t slip up and to cover up for him when he did. I was afraid of what he had said. He was no match for Harper. Had she already gotten the truth out of him?That would ruin everything. Everything we’d worked for wou
GABRIEL***Doesn’t it make sense now? That’s why you felt like you didn’t deserve it. Because you didn’t.The voices in my head were taunting me. They were making fun of me, telling me they told me so. I should have been more suspicious of the fact that the people I had hurt were helping me, no questions asked.Of course, they were getting their revenge. Had they laughed with each other after our meetings, marveling at just how stupid I was? Had they wondered how desperate someone had to be to accept help from someone who had hurt them?I was too stunned to even cry. I had no tears. I couldn’t place a finger on how I really felt. I couldn’t feel angry, because didn’t I deserve it? Hadn’t I wronged them? Weren’t they just doing the right thing by getting their revenge? I couldn’t feel betrayed either because I had it coming.Could I feel sad? That was what I felt. I couldn’t deny it. I had gotten my hopes up even if it was a little and I had been disappointed. I had opened my heart up
Bakersvile High School"I'll see you after class," Gabriel said to Emily.They were at the door of her class."Okay," she said, smiling up at him.She didn't want to let go of his hand, because she felt like she would wake up from what she thought was a dream. She didn't want to wake up if it was. It was a dream she wanted to be in for as long as she could. The dream has been going on for a month now, a month since his accident. He hadn't been severely hurt and he had been able to recover quickly. As for the matter of their relationship, he had asked that she not leave him, and he promised he would do everything he needed to do if it meant they could stay together. Did she want him to tell the whole school they were dating? He would tell the whole world. He would be kind and considerate of her feelings.He wouldn't hurt her or make her cry. He would be good. He would work on himself to become a better man. He would do anything so that she never turned her back on him again the way sh
EMILY***"I can explain," I said to Tiffany. We had been running around so much in such a panic that we had forgotten to be careful. If Harper finding us out hadn't ruined things then this definitely had. I couldn't lie my way out of it. Tiffany had caught me with Harry and to her, it was the same as catching me with Gabriel.She had caught me on the wrong side and there was no explanation that would get me out of the trouble I was in. I knew this, but I still wanted to try my luck. Maybe she would listen."It's not what it looks like," Harry said, "we just bumped into each other.""She wouldn't have said she could explain if that was the case. The both of you look anxious too. What’s going on?" she asked."Can we go somewhere and talk? If you give me a chance I can explain everything to you in detail. I promise I have a reason for meeting with him," I said."I thought you guys had broken up," she said, tears forming in her eyes. "We had and we are broken up," I said, "you have to