Invisible String

but nothing was easy between us

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said avoiding eye contact with everyone.

"Shut the fuck up Tyler, I swear to God." Veronica came to my defense.

"What Veronica? Don't tell me you know about her too?" He said, pretending to be shocked. I could feel the panic increasing in my chest and my throat. "I mean, it's kind of obvious to be honest."

At that moment I saw Cari walking through the group of people that was growing more and more each second around us.

"What is obvious? What is going on here?" She had a confused look on her face.

"Hey babe! I was just telling little Beveridge here that she should be honest about herself, you know?" Tyler said like it wasn't a big deal. "About her preferences."

"Tyler..." She tried to say, but he interrupted her. I was just standing there, holding myself in the locker, trying to control myself and not let people see how much his words were affecting me.

"C'mon Beveridge, it's not that hard. Look, I will help you, repeat after me: I - am - " He said, leaving a pause between every word, making my heart stop with each one of them. " a - dyke. See? It's easy."

My world fell apart in that moment. I could hear the buzz around me while I looked at the floor, quiet, ashamed, terrified. I looked up and Cari was as quiet as me and as shocked as everyone else.

"That's not true." I tried to say something to save myself, but my voice came out cracked.

"Oh c'mon on, stop lying to yourself. Admit it. Admit that you like girls. Or, even better, since we are making everything clear here, admit that you like one specific girl, who turns out to be MY girl." He had no mercy with his words, his only purpose was to hurt me, to share his thoughts and humiliate me in front of everyone else. "You would love to be me, wouldn't you? To be in my place."

For a moment I considered telling him that I didn't have to be in his place to have 'his' girl, to touch her and kiss her, because she was in my bed when he thought she was at her house spending time with her family or doing whatever she used to tell him she was doing, but I knew that that wouldn't be a good decision for anyone and it would only make things worse. I looked at Cari and she was looking back at me, petrified. I expected her to say something, to make him stop, because she was the only one that could make him stop in that moment, but she didn't say anything. She just stood there by his side watching me being outed for everyone that wanted to hear.

All I wanted to do was disappear. Run away and only stop when there was nobody else around. But I couldn't even do that, because I had a stupid cast on my foot that didn't even let me walk straight, let alone run.

"You are an asshole Tyler." Veronica said handing me the crutches and helping me.

"Don't tell me you're on her side Veronica?" He said surprised. "Be careful, she might want other things with you." His laugh was the most nasty thing I've ever heard in my life.

"You know what Tyler? You know who really should be careful?"

"Veronica, don't." I said, stopping her before she could say anything else.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He said, turning his eyes. "I'm done here. C'mon babe, let's get out of here, this place is making me sick." He grabbed Cari's hand and started walking, but she kept looking at me, watching the sorrow, the fright and the disappointment in my eyes, until he pulled her and she turned her back at me, following him and leaving me heartbroken.

The news didn't take long to spread and soon everyone was talking about me and how Tyler was so certain that I was gay and in love with his girlfriend. The following weeks were a nightmare. The way people whispered everywhere I walked through the halls of the school was traumatizing. I hated being in the spotlight and at that moment I was the most talked about subject in that place. I denied everything, of course, I wasn't ready to be open about it yet and I was terrified that the rumors would reach my mother's ears, so I asked Veronica to help me and tell everyone that it was all a lie. It was hard to deal with the rumors, but it was even harder to deal with the way that I felt about Cari afterwards.