Your UnSlut Project

Submitted by @_Stop_and_Stare, Author of "Reading the House of Hades"

You know what I really hate, with all of my heart? Bullying.

Bullies are people just like us, living their own daily lives, doing whatever they like to do. Except for one thing: a couple times a day, they make people feel horrible about themselves just for being their own person.

No matter if it's online, verbal, or physical, bullying hurts people. It can cost them their tears, blood, and in worse cases, their lives.

If you're a bully, please, stop. Confide in one person, just one, about why you are doing what you're doing. This could save lives.

I understand that you may have a reason for doing what you do, so tell the people you can trust that reason! You don't need to be mean to people to make you feel better about yourself or your problems.

Now that we've gotten through that, onto my story.

When I was younger, I was popular. Like, really popular. At that age though, it didn't really matter to anybody what your hair looked like, or how trendy your skirt was, or if your shirt was on backwards (yes, it happened). All that mattered was that you were nice and could crack a joke.

I don't really go around telling people this, because, well, who want to hear about that?

After about two years, I started losing friends. Fast.

It turned out that the person who was pretending to be my best friend hated me. She was the popular person in our little group, and most people followed her like zombies. I was one of the people who didn't, which I guess was one of the reasons why she decided to not like me.

I didn't really care. If she was just pretending to be my friend, why should I care about her? I just talked to my other friends within our group.

Soon, they started slipping away, too. I kept hanging out with them anyway, because I didn't really know anyone else well enough to hang out with them other than sitting at the same lunch table.

On the last week of the school year, I heard one of them talking about me behind my back. People had been shooting me dirty looks wherever I went, also.

It turned out that my old best friend and another person were spreading rumors about me behind my back. The year ended, and I felt terrible.

It wasn't exactly bullying, but it showed me the power of rumors.