Confessions of A School Slut: A Story about Slut-Shaming ✓

Chapter Thirteen

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Chapter Thirteen

When only one week was left for the half-yearly exams of 10th grade, all of us began staying back in school to study. These exams were important since they would determine the subjects we would be allowed to get a year later from now. All of us wanted a choice. No one wanted to be stuck with one. Naturally, everyone tried their best to score as much as they could. Everyone was serious toward this issue. 

Everyone except Ina.

I had befriended Ina when I was in dire need of a partner to sit with. This was before Isha and Lia became my friends. No one except her allowed me a seat beside them. Initially, I had been glad to have found someone to share my seat with, but as time grew, I had come to realize what huge of a fault it really was for me.

Ina had just one thing on her mind. She wanted to be popular. She could die for popularity. Literally.

With a dark skin, small cat-like eyes, and an uneven nose, Ina wasn't someone who'd be described as pretty. She was someone who'd try to make herself look pretty by applying tons of makeup. Manas termed her as being easy. She rejoiced in the number of proposals she received. She jumped with delight at the news of some boy liking her. She laughed with glee when someone spread rumors about her hooking up with a senior. These things made her popular, she said.

I had never met or seen someone this crazy about popularity. The ten letter word was all she had on her mind. All the time. Sometimes, I felt sorry for the small world she lived in. I was her age, and even I had realized by that time how stupid any of it really was.

Not only that, but she had some major issues with attention. She died for male attention. If gaining some recognition by boys meant for her to jump from a building, then she would readily do that, too. No one could fall to her standards, and to see her fall that way was disheartening.

That day, however, when all of us stayed back after school to study and discuss important topics, she came up and stood in front of our table. Isha, Lia and I were discussing about the human anatomy. All three of us looked up to find her staring back at us furiously. Or maybe it was just me.

"What is wrong with you?" she almost yelled at me. I shuddered. What had I done to her now?

"I guess I have a lot of defects. But why do you ask?" I asked with a smirk.

"So not what I want to do right know," she fumed. Literally. Invisible fumes left her red nose and scarlet ears.

"What happened now, Ina? Can't you see we're studying? Exams are not more than a week away," Isha uttered warily. Yes, almost all of us had gotten irritated with her by now. Not after all of her stupid ramblings and everything else.

"Why don't you ask your backstabbing friend this thing?" Ina counter-asked. For a second, I looked at her with raised eyebrows, and might have continued that had Lia not broken in the conversation.

"Whoa! What backstabbing friend?" Lia spoke in.

"What backstabbing friend? Why don't you ask her how she stabbed me in the back!" she exclaimed spitefully. Okay, what had I really done this time?

"What happened, Ina? How on earth did I stab you in the back?" I asked. By this time, she began to get on my nerves.

"You know how much I adore Randhir. You know I have a huge crush on him. You let me sit here and ramble on and on about him all day. Yet, you go behind my back and make out with him! How can you be so insensitive?" she yelled at me. For the first time in the six months that I had spent there, I saw tears in her eyes. That too, because of some college a-hole she thought I was making out with? Could the situation be any more weird?