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

Chapter Fourteen

Try listening: Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

Note: This chapter is very important to me and hearing this scene in the background just made it more heart-breaking for me. I would highly suggest listening to this song even if you haven't heard the previous ones, for the full experience. Hear it on a loop until you're done, please? Or don't do that but hear it from when she returns back home.

Chapter Fourteen

A few days after the exams were over, I went over to attend a relative's wedding. I didn't have anything to do so I figured, why not now? We returned home late that night. Devoid of any energy. So much that I barely had the strength to change my clothes, splash some water on my face, brush my teeth and go to sleep. So much that the next morning when I woke up, I barely had time to clean my teeth, put on my uniform, comb my hair and hurry to catch the bus.

In all this chaos, I forgot one thing I had never thought would create an issue for me. I forgot the single layer of eyeliner I had on my eyes when I went to sleep last night. I forgot about the same layer of eyeliner I had on my eyes when I left for school that day.

Not that it mattered to me once I realized what I had done. I wasn't a makeup junkie. I barely applied anything other than soap and water on my face. A layer or two of eyeliner whenever I attend a big function. That was it.

When I started the day, I hadn't assumed my makeup to be an issue. Yes, it was a silly thing to do. But it was also a mistake. I was late. I forgot to remove it. What was the big deal? Yet, there was one. One that I couldn't see.

People judged me over it. They passed their unethical theories. Theories that the other people believed freely, without even thinking twice.

One girl went to such extremes as to suggest I worked in a strip club. Hence, the makeup. No one contradicted her theory. Or at least no one other than my friends. No one suggested that a fourteen year old couldn't work in a place like that. It would be against the law. No one cared. It was as if no one had a mind of their own. No one had the ability to think. Everyone presented their stupidity. Could no one assume that I had merely attended a function, applied some makeup and forgotten about it in a hurry? Did these things never happen to anyone else here?

By the time day got over, rumors had worked from a variety of ranges. I worked in a strip club to I'd already lost my virginity to I couldn't keep my hands off the first male I saw. As each rumor made its way to me, I tried to remember something happy. Anything happy. Barely anything came to my mind. Isha and Lia helped me get through the day. They said things to soothe me and I pretended like they worked. But they didn't. I needed my Manas, but I couldn't have him. He was out playing in some badminton cluster of his. 

Besides, he had already distanced himself from me, thanks to the things Ina blurted out that day. It was so annoying that I just... I couldn't. I needed my Manas.

I didn't want anyone  else to think these rumors affected me so I pretended like I was okay. Inside, I was crying. With each rumor I heard, my heart broke a little. The worst part was, there wasn't even a sound.

There were other girls who wore makeup to school, but no one suggested them to having been working in a strip club. No, it was just me. Why? I had no clue. I had never harmed anyone in this school. Despite being here for more than a year now, I barely even knew anyone. What grudges were they, then holding on me?

Once I was alone in the bus, I finally let my tears flow. People were still looking at me and whispering. I had no idea what they said. Somehow, I just knew it was something bad. And why wouldn't it be? No one saw I was the class topper. No one saw to work in a strip club, I need to let go of my studies. At least to an extent that I wouldn't top. No one saw I came from a well-reputed family of the town. My father would never succumb to an idea as disgusting as this. I didn't even know if there were any strip clubs nearby!