Family Friendly

Chapter 18- Social Media

I have never been allowed to get any sort of social media. Instagram, snapchat, anything. My mom is way over-protective like that. My sister in eighth grade doesn't even have a phone yet. We just can't afford it.

I walk into school on Monday after the weekend of craziness and winning the local competition.

I spot Molly on a nearby bench sitting with Kit, and I walk towards them. I wave goodbye to my sister as she walks to the eighth grade classrooms.

I sit down beside my two closest friends and watch as they giggle about something on Instagram or something, then they both immediately stop talking.

" McKenna have you seen this?" Kit asks hastily. She begins to scroll down on the page. " I think it's about you. Molly, McKenna come and take a look at this. This page has been going on for a while it seems."

I look down at Kit's phone. There it is: a page full of horrible comments about me, even the page title is bad. The weird new skinny girl.

Tears begin to flood my eyes. I bound up from my place at the bench and turn my back from my friends. I don't want them to see me like this.

Some popular girls walk by and they laugh as if to mock me crying about this. Molly springs up to protect me, but Kit grabs her arm as if to tell her it's not worth it. I run to the bathroom leaving my friends to stare at the list of comments about me. Why me? Because I'm innocent? New? Thin and small and weak? What was it? Why would they want to do that to me?!?

I slow down when I reach the bathroom and I go in and lock the door. I slide down the wall and bury my head in my knees. Why can't people just leave me alone? What did I do to them? If only I could make it up to them so this would stop.....

I hear my friends banging on the door. I'm not going to let them in. I just need to be alone right now.

I look down at my watch. It's 7:58. I'm going to miss the first class if I don't run right now. But I can't. Somehow I'm stuck here at the bottom of the bathroom floor unable to move. That's what they want me to do. They don't want me to show my face. I subsided to them. Suddenly the banging goes away, telling me they decided to go to class. I don't blame them, they couldn't 'ditch' with me, but I just can't bear to be seen right now, especially like this.

I'm so embarrassed. When I know everyone is in class, when it's 8:25, I crack open the door to the bathroom and look around making sure no one is out and about. The halls are empty and it seems the entire world is silent watching to see what I do next.

I head to the office quickly, making sure to get their before they call my mom to ask why I'm not in attendance. I walk inside after sprinting across the courtyard, and I pull open the heavy door and walk to the front desk.

" Hello, how can I help you?" The office lady asks.
" I'm not feeling well, I was in the bathroom the first part of the class because I felt so sick. I didn't have the strength to get up till now. " I had been working up this lie to get home the first 25 minutes of class, but it still felt so wrong. But I knew I can't tell the lady what had really happened.

She called my mom on the phone and my mom rushed over. In the mean time I collected my backpack from the courtyard before heading back to the office.

When my mom arrived at the school she got out of the car and I ran to her and gave her a hug. She was all I needed right now. She told me she took the day off from work to take care of me. That made me feel really bad. Maybe I should tell her the truth of what really happened. I'm not sure if I have the nerve to.

We rode home in silence. I felt the guilt sink in. She was being so kind and loving to me like she always is when I'm sick.

I climbed into my soft bed when I got home, and told my mom I was taking a nap. I also asked to borrow her phone in order to email my teachers about the work I was missing. That wasn't really all that truthful. I wanted to talk to my friends but I had to think about what I was going to say.

I cried into my pillow first. Felling utterly depressed, like literally ever person in the school knew all about this for a while except me, and no one said anything to help or even told me. Except Kit and Molly, who were my true friends. How come the majority of people in North Carolina are either really nice or really mean?

Or don't bother to stand up for someone?

I pulled up the message app on my mom's phone.

I addressed it 'me'. It read:

Hey guys it's McKenna. Just thought I would tell you thanks for telling me. It hurts so much. I know you won't read this for a while but, I thought I would tell you I went home. I'll see you tomorrow and we will talk about the Instagram whatever this page is on thing. This is my mom's phone so I won't be able to respond or see any of your other texts, but I know you care and that means a lot when it seems no one else does.
-McKenna

I sent it off and returned my mom's phone. What I forgot to do was remove the chat after I finished writing and sending the message.