Viral

Twenty

" It be the ones, the ones you closest too
It be the ones, the ones you trust, them too.."

Teyana Taylor

There are some things in life you should take responsibility for.  When the guilt is yours and the blame belongs solely to you, you should absolutely stand up and take full accountability for your actions. These are things that we have done ourselves. Other times we are not the perpetrators of injustice, we just make ourselves a martyr because we feel we deserve the punishment necessary in their place.

That we won't bend nor break at the hands of justice. That our skin is thick enough to handle whatever punishment is going to take place. That somehow no matter what life throws at you you'll still be standing in the end. This is not one of those instances. I have never felt so blindsided in my life-- aside from my nipples being in everyone's phone in a 20-mile radius. I have never been accused of something that I didn't do with so much conviction. Hell I almost believed him.

Principal Morris was sitting across from me behind his big oak desk. He was the type of older guy where you couldn't guess his age. He didn't have a wrinkle on his face, but all of his hair was solid white including his tapered beard. I guess he was handsome in an old guy kind of way. Not in the sense that I thought he was hot but I'm sure my grandmother would. Or even my mom if it wasn't for my dad.

His voice was just as throaty as it was gravely and even though he hadn't said anything detrimental to me just yet I couldn't shake the feeling it gave me. I felt like I was on trial for murder and he was seconds away from pounding the gavel and sentencing me to death.

My armpits were starting to prickle with sweat and it didn't help that the wooden chair I was sitting in was so uncomfortable it made my butt bone ache. I couldn't control the nervous fidget that was making my leg bounce in anticipation. Why couldn't he just spit it out already.

"Miss Beckett, it has come to my attention that there has been some sensitive material floating around the school." I had to repress the groan of embarrassment that was threatening to escape from the back of my throat. As much as I had expected it to happen, I couldn't believe it was actually happening. Principal Morris sat up straighter in his seat making himself appear taller than he already was. If he was trying to make me feel more comfortable it was having the opposite effect.

"Unfortunately yes." I paused to take a deep breath and control my shaking voice. "My mom and I went to the police to purse how this happened. But it has been removed from the internet." I cleared my throat.

He placed his hands flat on his desk. The thick wedding band on his finger distracted me for a split second. It was weird to think he was married. That someone was willing to spend their life next to someone so cold. Maybe he was a different person outside of work. "So this wasn't something you planned and released yourself?"

Did he really have the nerve to ask me if I released my nudes? Why is it that every man I've come in contact with is accusing me of ruining my own reputation? "Excuse you? I'm so sick of men forming an opinion of me based on something that happened to me without my consent!" I sat back in my seat in defiance. "You should be ashamed of yourself as a grown man even asking me something like that. Especially in a closed-door meeting in your office without someone else present in the room. Do you know how that makes me feel?"

I was charged up. Saying things that I normally wouldn't, and to the principal no less. The scariest person with the most power in this school. But my words must have carried some weight. He cleared his throat then loosened his tie as if it were a boa constrictor clipping off his last bit of oxygen. 

It had felt like the temperature in the room had increased an incredible amount and I was sure I was sweating through my shirt. The thickened air in the room was sliced by his gravelly voice beginning to apologize profusely. "No I—my apologies Miss. Beckett if I made you uncomfortable, I was just—"