Under the Stars

19. Shook my world

Chapter 19: Shook my world

Mia's POV

*****

I sat there, staring in perplex at Layla, not quite able to register what she had just told me. I looked at her teary eyes, knowing very well that she was trying to keep strong and hold her tears in, not wanting to show any signs of weakness. My heart ached seeing her that way. She was one of the strongest people I knew, and she was very hard headed. Layla hated letting people see any trace of frailty from her end, but there was no way she was going to be fooling me. 

There were so many things I wanted to say, so many questions I wanted to ask, but not one of them was able to come out of my mouth. Right in front of me sat my best friend, one of the reasons I even woke up in the morning, and she was hurting because of someone who couldn't see her greatness. Thinking about the person who even had the audacity to make Layla cry made my blood boil, and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins as a sudden urge to punch somebody overtook me. 

"What do you mean you think you're being bullied?" I ask, trying my hardest to compose myself, not wanting to make matters worse for her. 

She looked at me, blinking away the tears from her beautiful, glossy blue eyes before clearing her throat. "Remember when I told you that I don't have any socials?" She asked, the sadness in her voice making me want to cry. 

I nodded, waiting for her to carry on talking at her own leisure. 

"I deleted them all because of cyber bullies," she said, making my heart stop. "And I thought it was all okay at first because they didn't bother me again, but  just because I don't have social media does not mean that they can't post whatever they want on theirs."

My eyebrows scrunched in confusion, not knowing what to expect next from her. I could feel my mind filling up with thoughts of what her words could have possibly meant, and I couldn't help but feel scared about it. 

"A rumor was created about me, based on a picture someone found, and people just believed it," she said, her voice breaking slightly. 

I could feel tears well up in my eyes as I saw the pain etched all over Layla's face. Layla was my bright and shining star, the one whose smile I longed to see everyday, and whose uplifting mood I loved to be around. I was not a very positive person, and anybody who truly knew me would know that, and yet some of Layla's happiness rubbed off on me, turning me into somebody I couldn't even recognise. Seeing her light die down automatically killed mine, and all I wanted was to somehow bring her smile back. 

"Lays," I softly said, wanting to grab her attention. "Have you told your parents?" I asked, my first priority being wanting to make sure that she talked it out with somebody. 

I had my fair share of bullying, which meant that I for one knew the dangers of not telling anybody when it happens, as well as the benefits of letting somebody know. Seeing Layla that way took me back to when I was about nine years old, and all of the horrible things which my classmates would do to me for no reason at all. It seemed to be easy for everybody to pick on the person who always tried to be nice to them, no matter what, and who was always there to help them whenever they had a problem related to something we were doing in class. I had always been ahead of my class, ever since I was about five years old, which was something which not only did not sit well with my classmates, but also with their parents. 

My mind wandered to one of my first exams, one which I was nearly just finished with. The boy behind me, with his attractive blonde hair and piercing green eyes, had asked me for a rubber, saying that he forgot his at home. Thinking back on it, I felt stupid at the fact that I trusted him. I turned around, wanting to give him my rubber, only for him to yell out to the invigilator that I was copying from him. The invigilator was a teacher who taught students a grade above us, which meant that she did not know who I was, nor how hard I worked when it came to school. Getting mad at me, she told me that I was lucky that the exam had nearly finished, or else she would have taken my paper away and failed me.