Being the outcast.

I didn't know the severity of my actions until I stepped into my classroom the next morning. Things weren't so bad, people still spoke to me and about me behind my back but that had become a norm since Maureen. 

On Monday, I had put on my nicest white uniform shirt and had stuffed myself into my cutest skirt, the one with the highest slit and curvier shaping. I was going to act like the break up hadn't affected me one bit, it shouldn't have. We were playing, after all, nothing was real.

But yet for some reason, when Daniel walked into my class with this deep frown on his face, I couldn't help but feel a weird pang in my chest. Almost like I missed him, his smile and his jokes and his constant urge to hold hands with me.

Daniel walked past me like I was transparent and he hadn't seen me. He moved right ahead to Maureen who sat at the first seat in front now and barely acknowledged my existence. Then another pang hit me. Was this how things were going to be now?

"Stop looking at him like that, his head will grow bigger."

Mercy had not hidden her satisfaction over the fact that Daniel and I had split up. She was overjoyed and spent every second of the day pointing out one thing she had always hated but never pointed out, about him.

"His shoelace were never tied correctly. One side longer than the other, it was so weird!" She would moan.

"What guy wears ¾ socks? It should be short but his were always long. And then he would roll it down? What's the point? Why not buy short socks instead?" She'd whine.

"-was always touching you. Like, didn't you want to smack him? Boyfriend or not! I would have-"

The school bell, signalling it was time for lunch, cut into another of Mercy's rants and I was beyond grateful to step out of the class.

I had a bag full of goodies as usual but my classroom felt so suffocating. I could hear them mumbling my name and Maureen's, alongside Daniel and Joseph. The rumours were a nightmare.

The most trending had been, I had ruined Maureen and Joseph's relationship, so Maureen had retaliated and done the same to Me and Daniel. It made a lot of sense but was very much wrong. No one could possible get the situation right, not a soul.

I strolled past our school's hall and walked down a hallway that had several classes on both sides. Students were moving all about, some had food items in their grasp and others looked to be heading towards the kiosk to get theirs.

I took a left turn and wounded up beside the music room which was on the way to the kiosk. Knowing fully well that I had a free period after lunch that I could use to eat, I decided to hang in the music room for some time.

"-me how it happened. I know you didn't fall off a bike. These would have been scratches,"

"I already told you! What more do you want guy?"

"Relax. Ah. No need to chop me raw."

I pulled open the gates of the room when the conversation had been brought to a halt and stepped in. The moving of the iron must have been loud enough to catch both their attention because the moment my head emerged out of the short hallway, both girls were already staring.

Lovelyn Utere was shooting the hardest glare I had ever been unfortunate to receive, while Glory Walter on her left side was hiding her face behind a novel.

My eyes did their best to avoid Lovelyn's gaze and I attempted to exit the room when I noticed Glory's thigh. It looked purplish and sore, like a bruise. I trailed my eyes up to her body to her arm, I noticed a little scratch on her left hand. Taking my eyes higher, I landed on the bullseye. Right on her chest, red splotches that look like the after effect of clawing.

The novel that Glory must have assumed covered her chest, was pressed so deep against her face that I was sure she didn't notice what I was staring at.

I contemplated asking about it, as Glory and Love were both still angry at my relationship choices. Ignoring the small voice of warning in my head, I allowed my conscience to take over and began to push forth my curiosity.

Seconds before I could utter a word, Glory sharply spoke up. "Did you come looking for us? Now that Daniel dumped you? If we look like the second choice to you, then you have made a big mistake."

"What?" That was all I could say as I started at the lot of them in confusion. What was she going on about this time?

"Water." She childishly retorted.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as my eyes moved from Love to Glory, who had now realized how the book was doing her no justice and was scrambling to put on her sweater, which had been discarded on the table behind the girls moments before.

"Glory, what happened?" My voice seemed to ooze confidence as both girls seemed taken aback for a second, shocked that I could still question her. Glory luckily was first to snap out of the trance and mumbled a response. Something that sounded like a "None of your business."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes once again and took more steps into the room. The music room was very big, with ¼ of it separated from the rest by a half glass from the top, half plastic from the bottom wall.

In the quarter compartment were the music instruments. Things like steel drums, for the school's steel drum team, a piano, a guitar and various instruments I couldn't even name were present.

The other ¾ of the room was occupied by some wooden table and chair sets and some plastic chairs. At the forefront was a blackboard with some song lyrics scribbled on it, from the last school choir rehearsal.

"Are you guys seriously going to keep hating me? I broke up with Daniel, can't things go back to-"

"No! They can't!" Bellowed Love. She was now on her feet, her eyes shooting daggers at me. She moved out of the set of chair and table she had been occupying and took long strides over to where I stood.

"If you didn't hear me before, clean your ear and hear me now. We're nobody's second choice, not one bit. Now run along to your new friends and leave us alone. You didn't seem to miss us when you were around them."

Not leaving a chance to respond, Love heavily rammed her shoulder into mine, not so accidentally and angrily trudged out of the room, slamming the gate behind her.

Glory got up and picked up her purse, which was beside her on her chair and attempted to exit like Love but paused right in front of me. "If you haven't figured it out, it's not nice to move on just because a good friend is mad at you. But maybe the word apology isn't in your dictionary."

With that, she hurried off after Lovelyn, probably to calm her down. Both of their statements leaving me dumbfounded.

I recalled apologising to them at least once but received no response. What else had they expected of me? To come crawling? And they had been buddy-buddy with Maureen. How could I hang around them when they were always around her?

Letting out a deep sigh, I let my shoulders slump. The whole situation was tiring and the only thing I was beginning to crave was the comfort of my bed, my laptop filled with movies and a nice full plate of Spaghetti.

The sound of the gate being closed caught my attention as Love has opened it on her departure. I spun around on my heel to see who had come to give me some company, on first glance, my lips fell into a frown.

"Glory told me I could find you here and so here I am..." She trailed off.

I had done my best to keep a poker face. I didn't want to be graced with her presence. I didn't want to hear her voice or see her face or even worse, see her hang around Daniel as she had recently been doing. It took almost all I had to keep myself my tackling her to the ground and taking all her hair out.

"Is there a reason you're looking for me, Maureen?" It wasn't a question. It was more of an effort to seem civil. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing she could get to me.

"Yes." She paused for what seemed like a year, twiddling her fingers like she was a preschooler who had been caught doing something wrong. It was irritating and was getting on my nerves.

"Joseph. I want to talk to you about Joseph." Oh. Of course, it was Joseph. She was probably here to get me to back off, maybe she assumed he still had feelings for her. I suddenly felt sorry for her, if only she was aware that he had only used her to get to me.

"What about?" I slipped up for a second, the annoyance I was keeping at bay had taken a little breath of air. But Maureen didn't seem like she had noticed, she didn't seem like she would notice if Aliens had walked into this very room and started twerking.

Pushing aside the burning hatred I had towards her, I took a close look at Maureen. This was the first time in a very long time, that I paid attention to her up close.

Her eyes were glazed over, she looked to be lost in thought. There were bags under her eyes, darker than a normal stressed-out teen. She looked shabby and a bit jittery, nervous you could say. Where had the bubbly social butterfly gone? Was this some sort of karma for the hurt she had inflicted upon me?

"Could you stop hanging around him?"

"Why?"

"I can't explain it properly-"

"Why?"

"It's not something you could understand-"

"Why?"

"I'm just trying to help you wi-"

"Why?"

Maureen's eyebrows were scrunched up in annoyance at my interruptions. So she had come here to stop me from interacting with her ex. This was low of her, something I would never have seen coming.

"Look, Joseph isn't someone you can trust."

"And how would you know? You barely dated him for a term."

Maureen's face displayed so many emotions clearly that for a second I was shocked at how I could notice such things. There was fear and confusion which battled for the spotlight eagerly and in intervals, there was pain and anger.

She looked to be having an inner fight with herself, battling for a way to get her message across probably.

Fed up with the wasted time, I took one last look at her face and shook my head. Brushing past her, I headed for the gate but was brought to a stop as Maureen softly uttered the last thing, no, something I could never have expected her to say. 

"Joseph tried to rape me."