Keira

t h r e e

Keira earned her heart-breaking reputation first from Ethan Lewis, who was a Junior on the Varsity football team her Freshman year.

He took interest in Keira when she showed up to a party in a skimpy outfit and had too much to drink. Later, Ethan found her at school, started talking to her, and realized that she was a genuinely nice person, so he started being her friend.

Keira liked the attention. Especially since he was a popular upperclassman. She even wore his jersey to a game once, and caused every girl in her grade to reek of jealousy.

As time went on, he grew romantically interested in her, and Ethan, being the egotistical male that he was, assumed that Keira liked him back.

She didn't. Ethan was solely a friend to her, and she didn't have romantic feelings for him. When Ethan asked Keira out and she rejected him, although kindly, he was embarrassed and angry.

Ethan had bragged the day earlier to his friends that he knew Keira was going to be his girl. He couldn't go to them now and have failed. They would definitely humiliate him.

So he went to work spreading rumors that Keira had led him on, pretending to be his friend just to be popular. Rumors will be as rumors are. They're deadly, twisting things, always changing, until they become unrecognizable.

By the end of the week, Keira's reputation had become warped into a backstabbing, lying, cheating, slutty, alcoholic, heart-breaking mess. Keira protested against every accusation, but who would believe the dorky Freshman over Ethan Lewis, Quarterback?

Keira didn't know how to deal with it. Her friends turned against her, teachers looked at her with disdain, and even her parents could barely believe it.

But they did. They all did.

Keira's old self was decimated in the social order of Westlake Preparatory, so the only thing left to do was to play along. She breathed in the spirits of Regina George and Chanel Oberlin, channeling them into an impenetrable façade of iciness.

Sometimes, she wonders if her old self is buried somewhere underneath the layers of labels and false eyelashes. But then she remembers.

She died a long time ago.