SAVE ME

Ch#22 Not all my Smiles are a Mask

Ch#22 Not all my Smiles are a Mask

"What makes you think that my life has always been rainbows and cupcakes? Just my smile?", I asked but he only replied with silence. He understood what I was about to do.

I was going to let him into my wall that I built around to protect myself. The wall which only my family could climb.

"Just like most of the students here, I was bullied too during my mid school days. Heck, I even almost high-fived with death and came back alive." He spoke nothing and let me continue.

"I don't mean to boast, but I was really popular back in the days for my visuals. But little did I know that it would be the cause for me to meet death. Everything started a little over two months after we moved." I travelled back in time, narrating my past.

Yet another new day at Crestview Mid. As usual, I walked into the building preparing myself for all the comments I would be receiving today and to meet my friends at the other end of the main hallway. But today, something seemed strange. Today I wasn't showered with compliments and I actually liked it. Yes, I did like all the attention I used to get. But this felt good too. I felt like I could breath in fresh air and hence I didn't mind the lack of attention.

A few days passed by in the same manner and about a week later I could sense the attention again. But this time, it made me conscious about myself. It made me want to curve myself into a ball. I could hear the murmurings of the student body.

"Can you believe that she is such a fake person?"

"She played well with our sincere love."

"I even heard that she had tried to seduce Emma's boyfriend before."

"Why does she even bother coming to school."

"I still can't believe that she tried to break their friendship."

What are they all speaking about? I couldn't understand a thing. Fake? Break the friendship? Whose? What have I done?

I tried to ignore their words and continued to walk towards my group of friends.

"Hey guys. How was your weekend?" I waved at them with a bright smile. All of them, as if on cue, scorned at me and left me alone at the hallway.

Before I could register what was happening, an egg was thrown on the back of my head. I turned around to see what exactly was happening and it was the worst mistake of my life. A couple of dozens of eggs and rotten tomatoes came flying onto me.

"Stop it! What are you guys doing! Just stop it!" I yelled in between their shots with exasperation. But none of them stopped. I had to run across the hallway and get out of my school with tears running down my cheeks. I couldn't register anything that happened today. But I knew this would continue for a few days and so it did. Each day I was met with rotten eggs and tomatoes and sometimes even the stale chicken from our school cafeteria. They even made sure to use rotten milk as well. But I never let them bully me without a fight. Every time they threw something at me, I would rub it off on them and shower them with colourful cusses. Obviously, they couldn't stand the strong me. They wanted to crush me, break me and tear my confidence apart. But I always found my confidence from Riley's lesson. I always made sure to stand on my ground and look into the eyes of my bullies with a glare and utter 'Fuck off, you shit face'. It did magic. But it never stopped my bullying.

This continued for a couple of weeks and their scale too kept getting bigger. Rather than throwing eggs and tomatoes, they found joy in throwing punches at me. Each day I used to go back home either with a rotten smell or a new bruise on my body. My parents would flare at me for letting them do as they please. They even went to the school and complained about this. But just how many students could the school reprimand? A bunch would be fine. But an entire school? It would be impossible. My parents' visits to the school were in vain. Neither could the school do something about this bullying nor could my family. But they always stood by me, cared for me. They even wanted me to drop out. But I didn't want to leave according to the wishes of my bullies. I wanted to put on a proper fight and then leave the school. And so I decided to know the cause for all of this bullying to begin.