Winona ✔

Five

Five

I stood beside my friend, Jamie's locker with Maddie beside me who rattled on about something that happened to her during first period. Jamie was sorting out her binders as Riley walked over and stopped beside me, bumping my shoulder with a smile. I tried to give one back but it ended up shaky.

Riley frowned. "What's wrong?"

A few more of our friends showed up and I didn't want to bring up the messages with all of them there. Just Maddie, Riley and Jamie were sadly who I was comfortable with. If I brought it up around everyone else then the whole school would know about the messages by morning – just like how they knew about the video.

"Winona?" Maddie called out to me and I blinked, focusing back in.

"Well I..." I gulped.

Jamie's brows furrowed in concern. "What is it?"

I brought my phone out of my pocket and let it sit in my hand for a few moments. I looked around and all my friends' eyes were on me so I took a deep breath and clutched my phone to my chest.

"I've been getting messages," I said.

"Messages?" Riley repeated.

I nodded. "They've been about the video...more specifically about me."

Christie, who was behind Jamie, took a step forward. "Winona, are you getting bullied?"

"What? No!" I said quickly then frowned.

Was I? This couldn't be bullying. It was just a few messages – a lot of messages – but I wasn't being bullied, right?

"Let's see them," Jamie said, nodding towards my phone.

"What?" I asked.

"The messages. Let's see them. Then we can decide if you're actually being bullied or if it's just some idiot having a laugh."

My blood ran cold. My friends waited, surrounding me as I realized all I wanted to do was walk away and be alone. The phone in my hand felt heavy, not as though it would slip through my fingers, but as though it would drag me down with it.

"I don't have them," I spoke quietly.

"What do you mean?" Maddie asked.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket and laced my fingers together, the pads of them pressing together tightly until the skin turned white from the force.

"I deleted them," I admitted.

"Why would you delete them?" Jamie questioned.

"I was scared," I said. "Last night I got nearly twenty messages, all at the same time. My phone wouldn't stop vibrating and I didn't know what to do-"

"Seems awfully convenient," Christie said and I snapped my eyes over to her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What else?" she sighed. "Come on, a video goes around about you and suddenly everyone is talking about you. Then you start saying someone's targeting you and oh look, we're talking about you again."

"You think I'm doing this for attention?" I asked, shocked.

Christie threw her arms up. "I don't know, Winona. It just seems kind of convenient that the video comes out and all anyone can talk about is you. Just let it die out."

"I can't," I snapped, "because someone keeps messaging me!"

"Where's the proof?" Jamie cut in and I looked at her sharply.