Eliza POV
When we reach Monday everyone has read our article. Now instead of saying hateful things towards Maria and showing, they are quiet. They look after us as we walk through the halls. They all have looks of shame and pity when they see Maria.
Maria hates the pity and also the way everyone turns quiet when she walks by. At least they have stopped calling her slut, whore and pushing her. That has to be an improvement.
I know it's also provoking her that everyone now knows what she's been through and what James has done to her. At the same time she also knows it was necessary to include.
We haven't talked much to Aaron the last few days. He's probably busy with Alex who no one has seen since Friday. We kept Aaron's name out of it and no one knows he helped us. He really did a good job at including Maria's story and also coming with arguments as to why people should stop treating Maria like crap.
***
Alex wasn't seen by anyone except his close friends for most of the week. It wasn't until Thursday he left his dorm. Aaron had made Alex realize the best thing to do was to apologize to Maria.
So Thursday afternoon when classes had just finished Alex came over to Maria and I as we were about to go to our dorm. He looked nervous and like he'd had too much coffee.
"Maria... Could I maybe speak with you for a moment?" he asked nervously.
I looked at Maria to see if she was okay. She seemed fine when she responded.
"Fine. But Eliza will stay." she squeezed my hand tightly.
"O-Okay. I just want to tell you that I am terribly sorry. I should never have written that article in the first place and I'm sorry that I failed to see the signs that called for help." Then he turned to me. "And Eliza I'm sorry. I was the worst boyfriend ever. I know I never deserved you and I'm sorry that I broke your trust." Without another word he left.
Maria and I were both surprised and shared a look of confusion. We were even more surprised when Alex posted an apology on his social medias. To which Maria commented that she forgave him. Especially so they wouldn't start treating him like they had treated her.
Finally our problems seemed to be clearing up. We had even planned a party with the whole friend group this Friday. Everyone in the group wanted to celebrate that they wouldn't have to be split up anymore because of all these problems.