To all the fabulous people out there who wear their crowns with pride.

officialfuryevans

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"Excuse me but I think you just called me a slut."

I had a smile plastered on my face but there was nothing friendly about it, especially by the way I was glaring down at her.

She was visibly a bit surprised that I'd heard her and was confronting her about it. I could almost see the wheels in her head turning as she struggled to give me an answer. When I glanced towards Ace's direction, he was trying to hide his amused smile.

At last, she shrugged at me. "Uh, no, I-I think you're mistaken."

I scoffed. "You know what I think? I think that your parents were mistaken when they thought that they could do a decent job raising you, you lying bîtch."

If I hadn't been so annoyed at her, I would've laughed at the way her eyes grew so wide that it looked like they were about to pop out of her head. I heard Ace trying to cover up his laugh with a cough and my lips twitched.

She looked away first and then back again, at Ace, as if he was going to help her out of this mess, but he only raised his eyebrows at her causally.

"Not so confident now, are you?" I continued, folding my arms across my chest. "I would suggest that next time you better think before you speak or spare everyone the torture, and don't speak at all."

She glared back at me. "There's no need to be rude."

I actually laughed out loud when she said that. "Are you fūcking serious right now? No need to be rude? You're the one who called me a slut and started this in the first place. And when I defend myself t-"

"You're doing more than just defending yourself!" She interrupted me, her voice loud. "You're attacking me!"

Oh, shìt's definitely about to go down now.

"Because you attacked me first," I replied, coolly, careful not to raise my voice. I wanted her to see that I wasn't getting as affected by her as she clearly was by me. "And need I add that you attacked me when I had my back turned on you. Do I scare you that much that you couldn't even say it to my face?"

I saw her jaw clenching and smirked at her. "Be  careful next time about what you say and more importantly, who you gossip about."

I turned and walked away, a triumph smile on my face.

"Meg! Oh, God, Meg! Where've you been?"

I groaned out loud when I heard Tasha's voice. I desperately wanted to go home now.

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When I reached home, it was already past two. I slipped into the house quietly, tiptoeing across the threshold.

I almost screamed when I felt someone's hand on my shoulder and I was spun around. I found blue eyes glaring at me and I squirmed.

"You said that you'd be home before midnight."

"I...lost track of time?"

The accusing eyes closed, frustrated and my mother rubbed her temples. "Megan, I'm very serious right now. This is not the time for jokes."

"Mom, you know how these parties work. It's impossible to get out before twelve."

"It's not impossible. And what were you doing there for so many hours?"

"Certainly not what you were doing," I mumbled under my breath, tired and annoyed.

"What?"

I froze. The words had flown out of my mouth before I could hold them back. I couldn't meet her eyes but I knew that she had heard every word.

"What did you say?" She pressed on and I sighed.

"Mom, please, I'm tired. I really don't wanna do this now."

There was silence for a few minutes and I was afraid to even move. I knew that I shouldn't have said that but I have this bad habit of saying whatever's on my mind, most of the time. As the seconds ticked by, I grew more guilty and shame engulfed me. I kept staring down at my feet, knowing that if I looked up now, my mother would see my tinted cheeks and she would know that I'd regretted it.

"Go to bed," she said softly, her voice shaking.

I bolted up the stairs without looking back and slammed my bedroom door shut. The noise woke up my little sister and I heard her crying across the hallway. I slapped my forehead, angry at myself for having woken her up.

I listened as my mother's soothing voice and footsteps came up the stairs. "Mary, baby, it's okay."

It was only after the sound of the door closing, that I jumped onto my bed and took my shoes off.

"The end of another fūcking day," I muttered as I lay down and pulled the blanket up to my chin, not bothering to take my clothes off.

It was my head's throbbing that woke me up around two in the afternoon the next day. Clutching onto my head with my hands, I staggered to stand up from my bed.

I heard Mary's excited baby talk and my ears rang, causing me to wince. Oh, God, this was going to be a long day.

Straightening up, I pulled open the door and made my way downstairs, keeping my eyes on the steps in case I slipped and fell.

After making it to the dinner table in the kitchen without any casualties, I sat down from across Mary's baby-chair, the furthest seat from her. She was painfully loud in the mornings.

I watched her chew on her stuffed toy and when her big blue eyes found me, she squealed in delight.

Normally it was this tiny gesture that always made me smile but today, I groaned out loud. "Mary, ssshhh."

I put my head on the table for a few seconds, wishing the throbbing pain would go away.

"Here," I heard my mom say as she walked in. I glanced up to find an aspirin on the table in front of me with a glass of water. I swallowed the pill eagerly.

I was still avoiding my mom after last night and simply nodded when she asked me if bacon was okay for breakfast.

She seemed to be back to normal and she kept asking me if my head still hurt. I told her that it did and she just nodded. She didn't bring up anything about last night for which I was relieved and a bit weary too, to be honest. I kept wondering if she's waiting to talk about it at the right time or if she will keep pretending that it never happened.

"You'll look after Mary, won't you?" She asked casually, as she brushed back Mary's golden curls. 

"No," I replied sarcastically, putting my plate in the sink. "I'll starve her and you'll find her corpse when you come back home from work."

I felt her kiss the back of my head, a gesture she hadn't done in a long time and I stiffened. "Be nice," she said in an affectionate voice, "otherwise your aggressive sarcasm might rub off on your sister."

And with that, she left, locking the front door from outside. I walked back to Mary and picked her up. "I think mom's trying to emotionally blackmail me," I told her. "I know what I said was wrong and I'm sorry about it. I'm pretty sure that she knows it too..."

I only received an incoherent murmur from her.

I heard my phone ringing upstairs and I put Mary in her baby-chair and handed her another stuffed toy to keep her busy. I ran up the stairs, not wanting to leave Mary unguarded, and found that it was Lottie calling me.

"Hey girlfriend!" She enthusiastically greeted me.

"Lottie," I grumbled, "I'm too hungover to deal with you. Call me several days later."

"Oh, hush up! I ain't hanging up without you telling me what went down between you and Jesse last night."

"The fūck is Jesse?" I frowned, climbing back down again. Mary was still playing with her toy.

"Girl, it's the bìtch hanging around Ace these days. You know, bleached hair with those whack lip injections."

"Ah," I chuckled at her description. "Charming."

"Yeah, so what happened between the two of you last night? Tasha was about to spoil me but I wanted to hear it first hand from you."

I sat down on the sofa, sighing loudly. After telling her what exactly 'went down between the two of us', Lottie hollered loudly. She had the kind of laugh that made you laugh with her. It was pretty contagious.

"So what's up with you?" I asked her after a while. "How's Dubai?"

"Girl, it is hot here. I'm gonna come back looking so fine and tanned. All them boys better watch out."

Lottie was probably the only person I would willingly choose to hang out with, even though I was a bit jealous of her lavish lifestyle and her rich parents who traveled the world, occasionally taking their daughter with them.

"When are you planning on coming back? I mean, the New Year holidays have already ended."

"Say what now?"

"Yeah, we have school on Monday. Don't tell me you didn't know that."

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds and I chuckled. "Oh my God. You really didn't know that, did you?"

"Girl, why didn't you tell me earlier? We were planning on coming back in mid-Jan but that ain't an option anymore."

I laughed at her.

"Don't you laugh at me. I gotta run and tell my folks that we're gonna have to cut our trip short." She hung up and I smiled at my phone. Rich 'folks' were really careless sometimes.

But then again, what would I know about having that privilege. My mom had to work even on the weekends to make sure that we had food on the table and to keep us from getting evicted from our apartment. I worked part time too at a Zara store, juggling my studies and social life at the same time. When mom worked, I would babysit Mary and when I worked, mom would look after her. But when I was at school and mom at work, one of our neighbors would babysit her.

No one at my school knew that I worked part time. And I intended on keeping it that way otherwise I'd be labeled as 'poor'. All my so-called popular friends would eat me up alive if they ever found out.

This is why every time I'm working, I keep my head bowed most of the time, afraid that someone from school might see me and recognize me.

And honestly, how wouldn't they recognize me?

I was basically the Regina George of our school.

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