HIDDEN FATES [Mattheo Riddle]

FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR
—
Masked Truths

Tuesday morning. I clung to the hope that today would be calm, that maybe, just maybe, yesterday's chaos had been some bizarre fluke. I told myself that today would be normal. People wouldn't stare. They wouldn't whisper as I passed. I convinced myself that if I acted like nothing happened, everyone else would too.

Silly me. I was wrong—dead wrong.

Breakfast, while not as catastrophic as the day before, was still unnervingly strange. Students, particularly Ravenclaws from the younger years, greeted me as if I were some kind of celebrity. The greetings were awkward, mumbled, and rushed, as though they feared I might hex them on the spot. The stares felt like knives, the weight of their eyes piercing through me with every step I took.

And then there were her eyes. The unfriendly pair that bore into me from across the hall, like she was trying to set me on fire with her glare. The same girl who drenched me in juice yesterday. I should've remembered her name by now—Mattheo had mentioned it at least twice, and Sarah had said it hundreds of times—but somehow, I just couldn't be bothered to store it in my memory.

By the time lunch rolled around, I was already drained. Dean stuck to me like glue, walking by my side as though he were some kind of personal bodyguard. Even when we didn't share classes, he would insist on escorting me to the next one, his shoulder constantly brushing against mine. It was sweet at first, but now it was starting to suffocate me. I couldn't get a moment alone. If it wasn't the whispers and the stares, it was Dean's relentless presence at my side, making me feel like I was in some kind of protective bubble I hadn't asked for.

And then there was my phone. I was bombarded with new Instagram follow requests and tagged in videos I hadn't even seen yet. The requested messages—some from fake accounts—were cruel, filled with insults and thinly veiled threats. It was overwhelming. By midday, I was already over it.

But the real blow came after lunch.

Sarah, Dean, and I were walking to our next class when we were stopped in the middle of the hallway by none other than the blonde girl from yesterday. This time, she had friends with her, standing behind her like a scene straight out of Mean Girls, all smug smiles and crossed arms.

I wasn't fully paying attention at first, but I noticed a few familiar faces lurking in the crowd, including Mattheo's. He stood at a distance with his friends, casually chatting as though the scene unfolding in front of him was of no concern. But I could feel his eyes on me.

A sharp snap of fingers in front of my face brought me back to the present. "Excuse me, I'm talking to you," the blonde girl said, her voice dripping with arrogance.

I blinked at her, narrowing my eyes slightly. Honestly, she wasn't even that pretty. Her personality dragged her down like a weight, turning what might have been beauty into something twisted and ugly.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked, genuine confusion flickering through my eyes. My calm, non-hostile response seemed to catch the crowd off guard. The hallway grew quieter as people strained to listen to our conversation.

"I just wanted to say that I realized I was really silly yesterday," she began, her tone feigning sincerity.

For a moment, I thought she might actually apologize. Maybe she'd come to her senses. I could still smell the sticky sweetness of the juice, despite having scrubbed myself raw in the shower multiple times since yesterday. Maybe she had grown up overnight, I thought.

But I should have known better.

"Like, there's no way Matty would be with someone like you," she sneered, her words cutting through my hopeful thoughts like a blade.