Winona ✔

Nine

Nine

The video was gone.

It hadn't taken the police long to have the video removed and the accounts deleted from the apps. I had been told by the police that Becca was the one that had first posted the video. She was the one that started all of this. And Jamie continued it on with her. Both of them have been suspended from school because of what they did to me.

Looking down at my phone now, it seemed as though nothing had ever happened. A click of a finger and everything was gone, as if the words had never even been typed out in the first place.

I walked through the archway of the living room and stopped at the foot of the staircase. My dad sat on the third step from the bottom, rubbing the back of his neck, trying to ease the muscles.

Sitting down beside him, I leaned forward, putting my hand on his shoulder.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"Yeah," my dad smiled softly. "Just a long day."

"You're doing good though," dad said and I frowned in confusion. "With how you're dealing with everything."

"Sometimes it feels kind of surreal to think that some of my friends would do that to me," I admitted. "But at the same time, I don't know if it's conceited to say I'm proud of myself. For a moment, I was going to keep hiding and wait for it all to be over. But I didn't, and I'll always be proud of myself for that."

"It's not conceited at all," dad said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. "You were brave. Very brave. And bravery pays off in the end."

I smiled a little and we stayed in comfortable silence for a few moments. I leaned over, putting my head on his shoulder.

"Are we going to be okay?" I asked suddenly and I wasn't sure if I was talking about the bills or everything that had happened..

"Yeah," my dad sighed, dropping his head down on top of mine. "We're gonna be just fine."

***

Heading towards my locker at the beginning of the day, I immediately recognized Riley and Maddie standing there, talking amongst themselves. When I was in their sight, they immediately stopped talking and turned to look at me. I frowned for a moment at the expectant looks on their faces before I realized.

"You know," I stated.

"What Becca did was crazy!" Riley gushed.

"And Jamie too," Maddie nodded. "It's scary to think she could do something like that."

"Jamie was never very...accepting," Riley said.

"Why would Becca do it, though?" Maddie asked.

I shrugged. "We used to be friends. Used to," I sighed. "I guess that might have been the problem. We just stopped being friends when we got to high school. Maybe for some reason she was still angry over it."

"Angry or not," Riley said, "it still didn't give her the right to do what she did."

Maddie nodded in agreement and I smiled. "Thanks," I said. "I can always count on you guys."

A throat clearing behind me made the three of us jump slightly and turn to see Christie, our friend, front and center, with a few other of our friends behind her.

"Hey, Winona," she said cheerfully and I bit my lip.

"Hi," I replied.

Christie gave us a dazzling smile and rolled the sleeve of her shirt between her fingers now and then.