The Nerd and The Bully

029. Toxicity

~Gracia's POV~

The week went by. Ash changed seating positions so he sits next to Gwen. Gwen has came up and talked to me a couple of times but only when Serena weren't looking. I eat lunch by myself in the far corner of the lunchroom.

Meanwhile at home, my dad tries to talk to me and I ignore him. He can't expect me to let all of this go. I refuse to let it go.

I was at my locker, putting my stuff in my backpack. Serena came and quickly did hers. I need to try and talk to her, try to explain.

"Serena." I called her name.

"Don't call my name. I just wanna go home without hearing your voice." She says.

"Rena, we need to talk." I said.

"Gracia, do you not know what stay away from us mean?" Serena says.

AJ comes up and grabs her hand. I went to talk to him. "Oh no, I don't wanna embarrass you." He says then they both start laughing.

I hold my head down as they walk away. I look and Chase and Ash are talking. Ash looks at me. I wave and he rolls his eyes and continues to talk to Chase.

They hate me. My stuff falls out of my backpack and I groan in frustration. I bent down to pick them up. Gwen bends down in front of me.

"Are you okay?" She asks me.

"No." I say. I pick at the rubber band on my wrist.

"Gracie, don't do that. It'll cause marks." She tells me.

"I'm fine, Gwen. I just wanna get home." I say.

Once everything's in my backpack, I pick it up and quickly walk out of the building. The walk to school is exactly how it was before.

Once I'm home, I unlock the door with my keys. My parents are sitting on the table and Callie is on the couch.

"Hey, sweetie. How was school?" My moms asks.

"Just how it always been. It was fine." I reply. She frowns.

"Dinner tonight is your favorite, spaghetti and meatballs." She says.

I smile but it was fake. "Ok." I say.

-Ashton's POV-

AJ, Chase, Serena and I were at the diner just hanging out. Everyone was laughing and just having fun but I couldn't stop thinking about Gracie.

Maybe I misread the situation. Maybe I shouldn't have told them the way I saw it. Maybe she was telling the truth. I feel bad. We've all been ignoring her all week.

"Dude, what are you thinking about?" AJ asks.

"Is it the girl who shall not be named?" Serena asks. That was snobby.

"Rena, chill okay? She's your friend." I said, kinda annoyed.

"Ah ah. Used to be my friend." She says. They soon laugh.

"I shouldn't of said anything to y'all if I knew you guys would make fun of her every chance y'all get." I said.

"Ash, relax, just making jokes." Chase says.

"Yeah but it's not funny." I say.

"Ok, then we're sorry. Now stop being so sensitive." Rena says.

"I misread the situation." I spoke up. "I'm starting to think that she was telling the truth. She was probably in the moment and wanted to introduce us to their faces." I said.

Their faces go blank. "I mean, why would Gracie be embarrassed of us. If that was the case, she wouldn't have gone to the party, the football game of hang out with us even though she's busy. Damn, even Callie loves us." I say.