Camila Alvarez and Jeff Atkins were the perfect high school sweethearts. With their social statuses and unnaturally good looks, they were bound to live happily after, until one unfortunate night when everything goes wrong and Camila's life begins to...
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CAMILA HAD NEVER REALLY liked communications class. Her only joy in that class was sitting beside Hannah, at the table next to Skye. Those two seemed to be the only decent people in that class, until she met Jeff. Even if the only contact they could make was smiling at each other from across the room or roll their eyes to each other when Mrs. Bradley pretended to know what it was like to be their age in this century.
Communications class was usually uneventful, but today seemed to be an exception.
Camila and Hannah walked into class, Hannah telling her about how she had went on a "date" with Justin. At first, Camila wasn't pleased that Justin had managed to reel Hannah into his trap but she didn't say anything about it to Hannah, she was just too happy. As the two sat down, Camila's eyes caught Jeff's but someone's phone going off at the next table caught her attention and they broke eye contact. It wasn't as if someone getting a text was particularly out of the ordinary so she turned back to Hannah before her attention was brought back to the table beside them once again.
"Oh my god. Seriously, Justin?" a girl said in disgust, looking at her phone. "Why would you send that?"
Justin simply shrugged and Camila narrowed her eyes in suspicion. His gaze landed on Hannah, a guilty expression on his face. Camila looked to Jeff as if to say 'what the hell did he do?' but he was just as clueless as her and simply shrugged.
The same girl from before showed whatever was on her phone to her friend who gasped, clearly over exaggerating and looked in Hannah's direction, a judging look in her eyes. Camila looked to Hannah to see that she was clearly upset, she looked as if she wanted to ground to swallow her whole.
As the bell rang, more phones went off, including Jeff's. When he looked to what was on his screen, his eyes widened slightly and he looked towards Hannah with pity. His eyes then landed on Camila who mouthed 'what is it?'. Jeff looked back down to his phone and Camila's phone went off within a few seconds. She immediately reached for her pocket and pulled it out.
jeff: attachment: 1 image
Camila opened it with hesitation and instantly regretted it. It was a picture of Hannah on a slide from a downward angle, obviously taken by Justin. The picture was completely innocent but just because you could see a glimpse of the girl's underwear and this was high school, Hannah might as well have stamped 'SLUT' in bold red letters on her forehead.
Hannah caught sight of what was on Camila's screen and tears sprang to her eyes. She couldn't bear to look up to her friend's pitiful expression. She felt Camila's hand on her arm but her eyes remained on the desk.
"Ignore them." Camila whispered to the girl in an attempt to comfort her but it went in one ear and out the other.
Hannah wanted nothing more than to be invisible in that moment. Everyone's stares felt like sharp daggers to her heart. She could practically feel the hushed words passed around the classroom. Slut. Whore. Easy. Each word wrapped around her throat like a vine, slowly suffocating her, but no one saw. All they saw was the picture. The slut.
Everything Mrs. Bradley said was muffled, as if she was underwater, gradually being pulled under to no return. The only thing that managed to get through to her was Camila's voice as she yelled at someone who's face was a little too judgemental for her liking.
"Mind your own fucking business!"
Camila may have been the nicest girl in school, the girl who was nice to everyone, but if anyone ever hurt or upset her friends then she would contort into a vicious snake, spitting words out like venom.
"Miss. Alvarez!" Mrs Bradley scolded the girl. "Principal's office, now."
Camila stood from her seat, but didn't move, she only turned to Mrs. Bradley, an angered look on her face.
"Are you blind? Can you really not see what's happening right now?" she scoffed at the teacher's obliviousness.
"And what am I supposed to be seeing, Miss. Alvarez?"
Camila looked down to Hannah who looked up to her, her eyes resembling a puppy's, if a puppy's eyes were puffy, red and overflowing with tears. Hannah shook her head with a pleading look in her eyes and Camila's expression softened before she looked back up, her eyes scanning the classroom. Her eyes landed on Jeff who broke eye contact, appearing to have found a new interest in the work in front of him.
"Nothing, Mrs. Bradley. Just a bunch of cowards." Camila spat, her eyes set on Jeff who's eyes remained on his desk, much like Justin who was sat beside him. Camila held in the urge to scoff and grabbed her books, exiting the classroom, making sure that the door slammed loudly behind her.
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AT LUNCH, CAMILA MADE a point of not bringing up the picture, she simply acted like everything was normal which Hannah was grateful for. She didn't even bring up the detention slip that was now in her back pocket for her outspokenness. The whole table was free of the drama from earlier, until Bryce Walker began walking towards their table. Camila caught sight of him and rolled her eyes, turning to face Hannah, a tired expression on her face.
"Hey, Camila, Hannah." the boy greeted as he stood unwelcome at the front of the table, his signature dirty smirk on his lips.
"Bryce." Camila said, annoyance clear in her voice.
"I heard you got pretty feisty today." he spoke, a million different meanings behind his smirk.
"And why is that any of your business?" Camila questioned, glaring towards the boy.
"I was just wondering if you wanted to come over to mine later to be feisty with me."
Nothing annoyed Camila more than Bryce Walker. There really was nothing worse than an entitled rich boy thinking he ruled the world and could do as he pleased with no consequences.
On her last straw, Camila looked to the boy, a smile plastered on her face.
"That depends, Bryce, would me cutting off your balls—if you have any that is—be classed as feisty?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice.
Bryce let out a loud chuckle, "Now, that's what I'm talking about!"
His yell caught the attention of a few people, Jeff's included. As soon as he saw Bryce standing by Camila, he wanted to storm up to him and drag him away by the collar but Camila seemed to have the situation handled as she stood from the table, her eyes set on Bryce's, a fire burning behind them.
"Bryce if you don't walk away from this table within three seconds, I will not only cut off your balls but I'll tear them off with your own pearly whites and hang them from the flagpole outside, understand?"
Bryce's smirk only widened into a full blown smile as he backed away from the table.
"Only because this side of you terrifies me," he said as he backed away. "Call me when you want to show me it again."
With a wink that made Camila want to recoil in disgust, Bryce turned and walked back towards his table, taking the seat across from Jeff. Camila locked eyes with Jeff for a moment, her face expressionless as she sat back down. He beckoned for her to come over but she ignored his plea and began talking to Hannah. It was safe to say that no one else spoke about what had occurred in communications class in Camila's presence again that day.
