Trauma

12 | It gets better

"I'm going back in," she says to Timothée after a long pause. She wants to believe him but then again, she doesn't. No one else knows about what happened at her old school apart from the people she trusts and, although it was on the news, the police didn't disclose who the witness was. Plus, the day after she told Timothée, everyone found out. That doesn't seem like a coincidence.

Evelyn walks back into the drama room, her classmates chattering away. She decides to stand at the front of the room and clears her throat. The class goes silent and she sees Timothée stand in the doorway.

"Look, I know I haven't been the most social and likeable person in the world," she starts. "But that doesn't mean you have the right to treat me like this. And yes, I did watch Lily Davis get killed right in front of my eyes, but I wasn't the one who did it. It was our classmate Robbin Baker. He was always the quiet one and never talked to us, but it turns out, his father had some sort of grudge on my father and wanted to kidnap me for revenge . . . Lily just happened to be there too. She tried to save me. Robbin was pointing the gun at me and Lily tried to trip him but he shot her first. That's what really happened, okay?"

She sighs, urging herself not to cry in front of her class, especially since some of them were pulling out their phones and filming her. "I don't know who started the rumour that I was the one who planned for him to come, but I wouldn't have ever done that. Lily was my best friend since kindergarten; we were inseparable. She was my other half and now a piece of me is gone with her.

"And to answer why I stormed out when I needed to perform, it's because acting is painful now. We were going to perform in front of the public that night and we were rehearsing; Lily liked theatre too. But now, whenever I have to act, I just feel this guilt because I'm not doing it with her. It's gotten a lot better now, thanks to Timothée," she motions towards the boy in the doorway, not making eye contact with him, "but it still hurts, and I really didn't appreciate all the teasing and making fun of I got afterwards. It made me feel like shit and that's not a fun feeling to feel.

"I just wanted to finally stand up for myself because I couldn't take it anymore. And I know this is probably going to be all over social media now but I don't care. I think I'm finally ready to share my story for the people who are also going through a rough time right now. 'Cause it gets better, and people should know that," she says.

"And I hope we can move on from this some day and get to know each other," Evelyn finishes and stands there awkwardly.

The clapping comes slow, people not knowing if this is the right thing to clap to, but then it gets louder and louder until that's the only thing she can hear.

People who had said nasty things about Evelyn apologizes, and Evelyn feels the weight of everything lift off her shoulders, even though she doesn't accept their apologies. "Hey, can I talk to you in the halls for a sec? I want to explain everything," Timothée whispers.

"Not right now, Timothée."

"I'm sorry-"

"I said not now, alright?" she snaps. "I don't have the time for being told it wasn't you who spread the news, because who else would it be? Right after I told you, everyone else knew."

"I know, but it wasn't me, I swear! It was-"

"Please Timothée! Just let me be for a while."

He nods, defeated and walks away, resting his back against the wall.

A/N

Aaaand another kind of cringey chapter. I swear, if I ever have to do a speech in real life, I'm gonna just fail. That speech was horrible. And the fact that people just immediately apologized right after? Ugh, even worse.

I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless and don't forget to comment and vote if you want! Next week will be the last week of me updating before this whole story is finished! Be patient with me as I try my best not to forget to update.

- M