Your UnSlut Project

Submitted by @HoplessRomantic, Author of "What If I Can't Forget You?"

It was 6th grade. My friend Vanessa was your regular girl. Funny, outgoing, pretty, and she got along with everyone. We were close, like our friendship would never die.

Well...one day, she came crying to me. She said that she heard rumors about her, like "She's kissed 3 boys all at once in the same room." "She has 2 boyfriends." She cried to me saying it wasn't true and that she felt hurt. I comforted her and made her tell me who she heard it from.

Turns out everyone was talking about it. We roamed the hallways where everyone was whispering about her. She couldn't even look up and make eye contact with anyone. I felt really sorry for her. She didn't deserve this. She's never laid a hand on a boy, so how could these rumors start?

Well, 7th grade came and the rumors got worse. Vanessa had a boyfriend that she loved. People said that she was only with him to get to his older brother. She said it wasn't true but her boyfriend thought otherwise.

She could never have serious relationships without the rumors tearing them apart. She didn't really have any friends (except for me) because girls hated her and wanted to fight her while the guys would only be friends with her to get one thing.

I felt really, really bad for her. She changed. She started dying her hair like crazy, started wearing heavy amounts of make up. People called her a slut and a whore even more. They'd make fun of her from head to toe. From "she is so fat" to "her hair is so dead, I wouldn't be surprised if she turned bald by high school." I got sick of it. She did too.

We remained close until 8th grade. We drifted apart because the rumors were actually making me believe them.

They said that she only had sex with guys older than her. I told her about it and she confessed that it was just one time. Because of that, everyone, and I mean everyone, called her a slut. She was hurt - all she wanted were the rumors to vanish. But every time someone brought up Vanessa, people would say "slut" and make a disgusting face.

Well, she made a couple of friends. It didn't last because Vanessa started dating her friend's (let's call her Jasmine) older brother. Jasmine was really mad, accusing Vanessa of cheating on him with various boys. Jasmine told her brother and he broke up with Vanessa. Jasmine and Vanessa were no longer friends. I knew about this because I was close to Jasmine and she'd tell me everything.

This continued to sophomore year in high school. We weren't close anymore, but I would still talk to her. It was very sad because people in high school already knew Vanessa's "reputation." She was just a normal girl, she wanted all of this to stop.

It got so bad that she didn't come to school for a week. People were saying, "The slut finally left." I texted her one day asking where she'd been and she said she was moving, that this was all too much for her. Vanessa was the "school slut". This has been going on for years... we are juniors now and she hasn't been seen or heard of from by anyone. I miss her. She never ever deserved any of this.

People stopped talking about her now that she's gone. But I hope she has a happy, rumor-free life wherever she is now.