PURE HEROINE II 13 REASONS WHY

jocks

"Jocks have a sensitive side, too."

❥

On Monday morning, Liz walks through the hallway before the first lesson starts and heads to her friends. She can already see them joking around when she enters the school and smiles seeing them having fun. They're so easy to be around. Justin shows Bryce something on his phone and Bryce takes it to look at it. When Liz's phone rings, she takes it out just to see that she got a message from Justin. 

Why would Bryce send her a picture from Justin's phone? She opens it and understands why. Can these boys just be normal for one day? She approach her friends faster and when they notice her, Justin gives her a shocked look whereas Monty pretends that nothing happened. "Why do you guys have to be so dumb all the time?", the girl snaps at them. 

"Come on, Els. You can't tell me this hurt you. It's just a fling to you", Monty tries to defend what just happened thinking that she is hurt by the fact that Justin met Hannah behind her back but Liz couldn't care less about that. "Cut the bullshit, Monty. It's not about me. You can meet every girl you like", she makes clear and turns to Justin, "But why the hell would you take such a photo of a girl?" "Els, calm down. You've sent so many to Jeff. It's the same", Monty steps in once again because Justin doesn't even know what to say. He knows she's right. 

"The same?!", the girl yells at her best friend, "There's a different between sending a picture to your boyfriend and be pictures by a dumbass without your consent!" "Els-", Bryce wants to intervene but the girl gives him the same angry look that Justin and Monty received. "I haven't even started with you", Liz hisses at Bryce not knowing who she hates the most in that moment. Before she's got the possibility to tell him how bad sending the picture is, she's interrupted. 

"Ms. Lennox, is there a problem?", Mr. Porter asks his student. He's been confused by every student looking at their phone and heard her screaming at her friends wondering what happened. "Els, please", Zach speaks quickly signaling her to shut up in front of a teacher. Zach Dempsey cannot risk being a part of this and especially detention. His mom would freak out. "So? Will you tell me why you were disturbing the peace in school or do we have to call your family?" 

"Try it", she huffs triggered by her teacher mentioning her family when he knows exactly that she's alone for most of the time. "We can make it short and solve it here or I can ask you to follow me to my office, Ms. Lennox", Mr. Porter warns her for the last time. The girl would have loved to yell at him as well. She doesn't understand why shouting at them is wrong when in reality, the boys fucked up humiliating a girl like that. 

But she also knows who they are. None of them won a prize for being the best boyfriend or the best person. They are normal teenage boys who hide their problems. And if this would be recorded in any way, it could be possible that universities would find out about it when the teenagers would apply for them. By no means, she would risk her good feedback at school being an A-grade-student. 

"No, it's fine. I shouldn't have shouted", Liz gives in and Mr. Porter nods. "Fine. If there are any problems, solve them before school." As soon as the teacher has left, Liz rolls her eyes. Of course they should solve problems before school so the school is not responsible for anything. "I have Maths in five minutes so bye", she mumbles to her friends not knowing what else to say. She's defended her point of view. What else could be done?

"Hey, Hannah", Liz greets her softly after she's walked over to the other girl, "I actually haven't done anything but as these boys are still my friends I feel the need to apologize for what they've done. So I'm really sorry for what they did earlier." Hannah looks at her surprised. She's right. She hasn't done anything but still apologizes to her. That's not what you would expect from someone who's hanging out with the school's greatest jocks. Although it doesn't change what's happened, Hannah smiles lightly being thankful that not everyone thinks she's insane. "Thank you", Hannah nods, her voce shaking, "But it looks like that won't help. Everyone thinks I'm a slut." 

"No, don't worry about that. It's still not fair what happened to you, but everyone will forget about in a few days. I know what I'm talking about. When Jeff and I were together, people were talking so much shit about us. One day, someone said that I was pregnant which was not true but they felt like they needed to say something about us. Three days later, they've found a better topic and everything else isn't interesting anymore. In three days, students talk about another topic again." Liz gives Hannah a warm smile when Hannah nods. "I'll see you around."

"So now that Justin and you don't 'hang out' anymore", Jeff stresses mocking Liz when he drives her home after school, "What do you do?" The girl usually drives with the other boys since Jeff and her broke up but today, she wants to show them that she is still not okay with what they did. "Whatever I was doing before just without the sexual part", she shrugs, "I'll let them pout for a few hours and tonight they'll think about what they've done and regret it." 

Jeff nods and is once again surprised by how she handles disputes. After all that has happened between him and her, she manages to have a friendship with him and she will only be friends with Justin from now on. "And what do you do for the sexual part then?", Jeff questions a bit too interested for a friend. "You know, I don't always need a boy for that", she chuckles, "But Tony is cute and nice." "Tony is gay", Jeff replies not liking the fact that she would call someone else cute. 

"So what? He's still cute." "You're just saying that because he helped you last year", Jeff insists knowing that Tony and her met once a few days after Jeff had broken up with Liz to talk about their lives. "Jeffrey Atkins, are you jealous of a someone who isn't even attracted by me? Tony wouldn't even look at me like that", Liz grins. She is amused by the fact that Jeff Atkins, Liberty's most wanted boy, feel threatened by Tony just because they were having a nice conversation. After all, this conversation was only about random stuff and didn't lead to a close friendship or more. "I care about you", Jeff avoids admitting that he might be jealous.