We're Going on a Manhunt

1

"Get out of my way, you pervert!" I yell, laughing along with my friends.

He looks down at his feet and begins to shuffle away from me. Not so fast, dork.

"Hey, Roberts, I'm not done talking to you. Be respectful to your peers, jerk."

Something seems to snap in his mind, and he stomps towards me with pounding feet and menacingly narrowed eyes. He throws a string of curses and ugly nicknames at me, even though I definitely don't deserve it. Getting extremely angry with this kid, I do something impulsive I thought I would never do.

I punch him in the guts.

And just like that, he sprays his disgusting mucus and spit filled throw up all over my brand-new black heels.

"You ruined them! You bastard!"

"Well, it was kinda your fault, Braelyn," says Geneviéve.

"Oh, shut it, will you?"

"Well, Braelyn, we don't really want to be bullying people anymore. I mean, for Christ's sake, have you heard about all of the committed suicides?" Harley announces, everyone else nodding in return.

And that's when I realize that life is going to get harder.

There is something very wrong with this.

"But, but we're all still friends, right?" I laugh nervously. "Like, besties for the resties?"

"If you cut the bullying and the drama, then maybe, yeah. But otherwise, you're on your own, woman," Harley snaps.

Not wanting to deal with any more of their sick drama, I huff loudly, showing my frustration and anger, and turn on my heel, heading straight for home. I forgot about school, but it doesn't matter. All I want to do is lay on my bed, watch Netflix, and eat.

And eat and eat and eat.

Binge eat, as I and many others like to call it. Where you eat all the junk food you can as you mourn over the loss of popularity and worth.

Oh my god, what has happened to me?

Binge eating? Junk food? Eating? Why am I thinking these ugly thoughts? Eating makes you fat.

So you eat salad.

As the devil and the angel debate on my shoulders, I think back to all of the good times we had tormenting the nerds. Oh, what fun days. And now they're over.

I reach my house sooner than I thought I would. With my parents away on vacation, which is so not fair, I can stay at home with no worries of them coming home and seeing me laying on my bed, absent from school.

Locking the door behind me, I drop my bag on the floor and trudge upstairs, groaning in frustration of how much I have to walk to get all the way to the second floor. I shut my bedroom door behind me and bring my dog to my bed, setting her in my lap.

"Oh, Bailey. What should I do with my life now that it's officially over?"

Silence falls over the room, and she snuggles into my chest.

"You know what, you're perfectly right. Eating sounds like a really, really good idea right now."