"I know that I can fuck up your whole life with one look. But I can't stop myself."
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Mia Rose McHenry tries her best to live her life under the radar, never having been one to enjoy the spotligh...
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"So, you and Thorne, huh?"
Yes, that's really the first thing Saige says to me since our feud weeks ago. She leans against the locker next to mine as she sneers at me, looking too smug to just be curious. Still, I'm not in the mood to go at it with her. I'm not in the mood for games.
"Uh, yeah," I say, closing my locker and facing her. "We're together, if you must know."
"No wonder you were always defending him." Saige's blue eyes regard me coldly, as if this is the last place she wants to be right now. "It's just so weird, don't you think?"
I stiffen, wondering what she's getting at. "What do you mean, Saige?"
"That a boy like Thorne Baxter would want someone like you, Lil M." Saige says the words like she genuinely doesn't understand how the two of us wound up together. She doesn't need to know that her tone makes the whole sentence hurt even worse. "I mean, look at him and then look at you. You're like, complete opposites. He could have anyone he wants, and yet he chose . . . you."
Since I met Thorne, I'd like to say that I've gained more confidence than I've ever had before. I've learned to speak up for myself. I've learned how to love myself in ways I never did before. I've learned how to handle situations like the one I'm being put in right now. But, as Saige—a person I used to trust and love—says these horrible things about me, I can feel that confidence faltering.
"What's wrong with me?" I mumble the question, not really wanting to know the answer. I know that she's just going to hurt me worse with the answer. That doesn't stop me from asking the question.
"You just don't seem like his type, is all," she says smugly, sensing what I'm feeling. "Until you met him, no one even knew who you were." She walks off after that, as if she were never here at all.
I don't know why, but that last sentence is the cruelest of them all to me. I used to think of myself in that very way. Until Thorne, I'd thought I was invisible. That nobody really saw me. That I hardly existed. It hurts to hear someone say that to your face, regardless. And I know she knows that.
I storm off, deciding that if I'm going to cry, it's not going to be in front of everyone else. I beeline toward the girls' bathroom, passing Thorne on my way.
"Hey, Sun—" he doesn't even get to finish his sentence before I'm brushing past him, not bothering to stop. I don't quit moving until I'm in the safety of the girls' bathroom, leaning against one of the three sinks and glaring at myself in the mirror. Suddenly, those old feelings and thoughts are back. That feeling of not being as good as everyone else; those thoughts that I'm not a person worth getting to know. I don't realize I'm crying until my hands are wet, and even then I just mindlessly think that the sink must be on.
"You've seriously got to stop running away from me," Thorne's voice says as he wanders into the girls' bathroom. I know that he knows something's wrong. I would never ignore him the way I did unless otherwise.
