Chapter Five

Cathy was avoiding Eva.

Luckily photography class didn't have an assignment to do in pairs so Eva and Cathy could both sit on separate sides of the classroom without having to try and talk to each other. But that's what Cathy wanted, not Eva.

Eva needed to talk to her. She had just told a teacher everything. And Cathy didn't even know who had made the website. Eva knew she should have told her the day before. It was on the tip of her tongue but the chance never presented itself and instead she just kept it tucked away.

But now there were no excuses. Eva had to tell Cathy. She had to persuade her that speaking up about the bullying would help. If she could convince her to do that, then maybe Cathy could finally help herself.

The bell rang and everyone left the photography classroom. Eva noticed Cathy hanging back, taking longer to pack things up and so she did the same, taking her time to slide her binders into her bag. She tucked her chair in slowly and when the room was empty, she walked over to Cathy.

Eva stopped beside her desk as Cathy slung her back over her body and tucked her chair in. She looked up at Eva and straightened her back up, glancing away.

"What do you want?" Cathy asked.

"We need to talk," Eva said. "Please, I really need to talk to you."

"If this is about the website-"

"It is," Eva said and held a tentative arm out when Cathy began to move around her. "Wait, please. This is different. Come on, Cathy, trust me."

Cathy looked at Eva for a moment before letting out a long breath and nodding. "I'll listen."

A few people walked into the classroom and started sitting in the seats as another teacher came in and headed for the desk at the front.

"Not here," Eva said. "This way."

The two of them walked out of the classroom and headed down the now packed hallway. People with a lunch period littered the hallways, slamming locker doors and talking loudly to their friends. There weren't many options of places to go. Eva knew no empty classrooms that would be unlocked, the library was probably home to Natasha right now and the cafeteria was a pit of students where they would barely be able to hear each other.

Eva went to the end of one of the hallways that was free of students. The classroom doors were shut tight or side open with the echoes of teachers' voices carrying down the corridors. When she made it to the end, Eva pushed open the door to the girl's bathroom. She held the door out to Cathy who gave her an odd look and Eva just sighed.

"It's the only relatively quiet place."

Cathy nodded and walked in, letting the door slowly shut behind her. Eva walked through the bathroom and to the end where the last stalls were. She didn't dare lean against the wall but instead crossed her arms over her chest and dropped her bag to the floor.

Cathy followed and stood opposite her, mimicking the position. Her bag made a resounding thump as it hit the floor and Eva realized that must have been her cue to start speaking. She cleared her throat and just hoped a girl wouldn't come walking in anytime soon. This bathroom was usually empty during classes, the one on the other side of the school being the popular one during lunches. Luckily, this one also didn't have as pungent of a smell as the other.

"This probably isn't the nicest place to do this," Eva admitted.

"It doesn't matter," Cathy said. "What did you want to tell me?"

Eva took a shallow breath. "I didn't tell anyone about your parents," as she spoke Cathy immediately stood straighter and looked away so Eva quickly tried to continue to lessen the blow. "But I know who did."

Cathy frowned. "How would you know who did?"

"Look, Cathy," Eva said. "I know who spread the rumour because it's the same person who made the website in the first place. I'm not lying and I'm not making this up. This person is my friend-"

"Your friend?" Cathy asked.

"It's Natasha, Cathy," Eva said. "I've known for a couple days. I wanted to tell you yesterday but I just didn't know how to. When you said you thought it was me who spread the rumour, well I couldn't then go throwing the blame on Natasha."

"Well what makes it better now? How do you even know its her?" Cathy shook her head. "If this is some lucky guess."

"She told me," Eva said quietly. "I caught her on the website when we were hanging out together. She had the ability to edit it, Cathy. This isn't a lie, I saw it myself and she told me herself. Admitted to everything."

Cathy blinked a couple times before looking down at the floor. "Well...well I mean what was she like? Was she sorry?"

Eva's lips parted. "No," she finally said. "No, she wasn't sorry at all. In fact, she seemed pretty smug about it."

"Smug," Cathy scoffed and Eva almost winced when she heard her voice crack a little. "What kind of person would be smug about something like that?"

"The same kind of person who would make a whole website just to rip apart another person," Eva said. "I didn't tell anyone about your parents, I never would. Natasha overheard us talking, that's all."

Cathy let out a shaky breath and wrung her hands together. "It's scarier now, knowing who it is," Cathy took a few steps to the side then turned back to Eva, biting nervously on her lip and eyes stinging. "I didn't think any of this would actually make me scared."

"I'm sorry," Eva said. "I went to Mr. Colt yesterday after school. I told him everything I knew. About the website, about Natasha...he knows everything."

Cathy's eyes widened. "That wasn't for you to tell! You're just going to make it worse now."

"Someone had to," Eva said. "Cathy you would have never told anyone and you know it. You would have just let this go on and every night at nine past ten you would be sat at your desk reading all those lies. It has to be stopped and if that means that I had to be the one to tell then I'm not ashamed of that."

"There's no point!" Cathy scrunched her face up in worry. "What can anyone do? It's a website, a page on the internet, what can be done about that? It will always be there, people probably saved them, and the pictures! People have probably saved all of them."

"But the website could be taken down, Natasha could be suspended or something," Eva said. "Something could be done."

Cathy shook her head sadly. "It won't do anything, Eva. People will still think the same things. They'll still back up what's being said."

"No. No, the whole entire school can't all be thinking the same thing as Natasha. So what, people found it funny for a bit. After a while something has to click. People have to be realizing that it's no longer something they should laugh about, that it's actually got out of hand."

"No one's doing to do that," Cathy mumbled.

"I did," Eva said. "I laughed at first, and I'll always be sorry for that. But it's not funny anymore, it never really was. This is getting ridiculous, you're scared Cathy, you said it yourself! No one should be scared because a girl decided that she was going to make your life hell for fun."

"If I start telling the school then things are just going to get even worse, Eva," Cathy pleaded. "Please, it's just going to turn into a mess."

"It already is," Eva said. "It's gone too far. You shouldn't be this upset, Cathy. Look at you, you're literally about to cry, this isn't right!"

"What can the school do?" Cathy asked. "There's no point in reporting Natasha if nothing is going to happen."

"If you tell the school everything, if you report this to them then if they can do something, no matter how little, then it's enough. It's something and that's all you need to stop this. It's bullying, Cathy. You can't just let it keep going. And I know you're worried and afraid that it will get worse, but nothing's going to change if you sit and do nothing. The school already knows; you just need to confirm it."

Cathy looked away. "I can't," she whispered.

Eva put a hand on her shoulder. "Yes you can. What have you got left to lose? I've certainly got nothing. Natasha's angry with me for confronting her yesterday so if the school doesn't get the chance to do something about it then she'll probably take it into her own hands. You can do this, Cathy. Rise above everything else and do this for yourself. You have a chance to stop it, take it."

Cathy sighed and put her hands in her pockets. She wouldn't look Eva in the eye but she thought over her words as Eva's phone went off in her pocket. She took it out and Cathy watched as she read the text over.

Cathy frowned. "Is it Natasha?"

Eva looked up and gave her a small smile. "No, just Telus telling me I can upgrade my phone."

Cathy usually would have laughed up instead her body just felt heavy and sluggish. Her eyes were dry but she had the urge to just cry. But she knew that she'd done more than enough crying this past week and that doing more wasn't going to help anyone, especially herself.

"Okay," Cathy said in such a quiet voice that Eva almost didn't hear. "I don't know if it will work. But you're right. Anything is better than this. But if people find the website funny, how do you change that?"

"You get them to stop laughing."

***

Cathy told the school everything. Eva repeated everything she told Mr. Colt and things seemed so simple. All they had to do was speak. Cathy was still hesitant as the two new friends walked to the main office. But that fear left quickly and instead a burst of relief hit Cathy as she spoke. It's out there. No taking back, no regrets.

Eva was proud of her. She'd only known the girl just over a week but it was enough to understand how hard it was for Cathy to say something, to admit that she was being bullied. But she did it, and Cathy walked out of the main office with a weight off her shoulders. Her body was no longer heavy and sluggish but a little lighter.

Eva left the office a few minutes later than Cathy and as she walked out and turned to head down the hallway, she saw someone from the corner of her eye. Eva turned back and watched as Natasha headed to the office door, a teacher behind her. Natasha looked up to grab the door and her eyes caught Eva's from the end of the hallway.

From one look Eva knew Natasha had guessed it. That she had told them it was her who made the website and spread rumours about Cathy. She knew she would never be able to call Natasha a friend after this.

But then Eva had to ask herself who she thought was a better friend in the end.

Natasha or Cathy?

Eva knew the answer. And after that day, everyone else would too.

Natasha walked into the office and the door slide closed behind her. Eva stayed in the middle of the hallway for a few moments. Only a couple days ago she was at Carmen's house, being Natasha's friend. The likelihood of her ever doing that again was slim. Eva knew Taryn and Carmen would probably pull ranks around Natasha after they found out what had happened. They would expel Eva completely and a part of her wasn't hugely bothered – she was always the outsider with the three of them. But another part of her felt bittersweet that things had to end up the way they did. Eva never thought she would be in a position where Natasha might end up hating her as a result.

But then again Eva never thought Natasha would be capable of doing such a thing. Capable of tearing someone to pieces anonymously from behind a screen. Out of everyone, Natasha would have never been a suspect. A witness to it maybe, but for her to be the actual bully was beyond Eva. She couldn't even wrap her mind around Natasha justifying it by saying that it was just a joke and something to laugh over.

None of this had ever been a joke. Natasha might have had a twisted humour and thought that this somehow made her feel better than everyone else but at the end of the day, it was wrong. Eva saw what it did to Cathy, how upset she became, how hurt she was. She wouldn't wish that on anyone, not even Natasha.

But letting this play out by itself would have only made Cathy cave in more and more. Eva saw a chance and she took it. And if nothing happened then fine, at least she tried. But it was better than nothing.

A few hours later, Eva stood at her locker door packing books into her bag. She closed it up and headed down the hallway to the buses. Cathy was there, walking in the opposite direction to get to the parking lot.

Cathy smiled at her.

Something so simple yet meaning so much. The tightness in Eva's chest lessened until it was almost non-existent. She gave Cathy a smile back and suddenly everything was easy. No lies, no secrets, no hidden agendas; just a normal, truthful friendship.

Eva could do that.

***

The living room was quiet when Eva walked in and saw her mom with a book perched on her lap and a steaming mug of something on the coffee table. She walked over and sat on the couch beside her mom, glancing down at the words in the book before her eyes blurred over and she blinked, looking away.

"You know that girl I told you about, the one who was getting bullied and I was doing nothing to help her?" Eva asked and her mom nodded, putting the book down and turning to face her. "Well I got her to go to the school and report everything."

Her mom gave her a soft smile. "And did you tell the school everything you knew?"

Eva nodded. "Everything. No secrets left."

"Good," her mom put a hand on her shoulder and rubbed gently. "I'm proud of you."

Eva smiled a little and looked down at her hands with she locked together on her lap. "It's just...why didn't you go straight to the school yourself?"

"Some battles my kids go through, I have to be there to step in. This wasn't one of them. It was yours. If I walked into the middle of it and fixed all your problems as you sat to the side then I'd be doing no one any favours, especially you. If it really went that bad, then you know I would be there. But this was for you to sort out yourself."

Eva sighed. "The person that bullied her is going to hate me now."

"You don't know that," her mom said.

Eva shook her head. "She's not a very forgiving person. I doubt she'll ever talk to me again."

"Well then think of it this way," her mom said. "Is this girl worth it? The one you think you'll never be able to talk to again. Is she worth worrying over, worth getting stressed just because your friendship with her is now broken?"

Eva looked down. "I guess not."

"Then there you go. She's not worth worrying over. You did the right thing and you helped that girl who had no one else coming to her aid when she needed it most. You were there for her, so stay loyal to that."

Eva gave her mom a smile as she was pulled into a hug. She gripped her mom's cardigan tightly, letting the fabric sift through her fingers. She let out shaky breaths and stayed within her mom's stable presence for a few moments before footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. The mother and daughter pulled away just in time to see Hailey come walking in.

Eva blinked in surprise as she saw her sister adorned in her bright pink graduation dress.

"It's definitely not graduation tonight so why are you wearing your dress?" Eva asked.

Hailey walked around the side of the sofa so she could be seen better. "You've seen the dress, but not on me," she said. "And also, you haven't seen me in the new shoes I bought."

Hailey whipped out a pair of shoes from behind her back and Eva was almost blinded by how much they sparkled under the lights. The entire shoe was silver but then seemed to be covered in sparkle after sparkle. The whole thing shone like a disco ball and was the most entrancing and distracting thing Eva had never seen. The actual heel was around five inches high and Eva just knew that her sister was going to walk up onto the stage during her grade eight graduation and fall flat on her face.

Hailey slid the shoes on with minor difficulty and clung onto the side of the sofa as she stood up in them. Hailey towered over her sister and mom and wobbled every now and then. But the smile on her face was one of the biggest Eva had ever seen. She knew she couldn't live with herself if she said anything to dim it so Eva looked at her sister and a smile slowly came to her face.

"You look beautiful," Eva said.

Hailey's smile, if possible, may have become bigger.

Eva pictured how Cathy must have been at that time, if she had a smile as big as Hailey's, if she was as excited. The more she pictured it, the more she wanted to make sure that Hailey knew just how beautiful she was on her graduation day. She never wanted her to go through what Cathy did and Eva would tell Hailey she was beautiful every day if it helped her be as strong as Cathy just was.

Eva pulled her sister into a hug, ignoring the sequins digging into her arms and the hair grip sitting very close to her eye.

"I love you," Eva spoke into Hailey's hair and tightened her arms.

***

Eva thought the next day was going to be weird. But strangely as she got off the bus and walked towards her locker, things were as expected. None of the girls came to her locker in the morning. Carmen ignored her during first period, Natasha was nowhere to be found.

Walking to photography class, Eva actually found herself a little excited for the class. It was the only one that wouldn't have one of her friends hovering over her shoulder and making her question where she stood with them.

Seeing as the classroom wasn't completely full and had many empty spaces. Eva walked over to where Cathy sat and took the spare desk beside her. Mrs. Campbell said nothing and Eva assumed that she just no longer cared about anything that was going on in the class.

When it came to lunch, Eva stopped at her locker as Mr. Colt was walking down the hallway. He stopped beside her and gave her a smile.

"How are you?" he asked.

"Good," Eva said. "Much better."

"That's good," he said. "I'm happy with what you did, how you handled everything. You did a great job helping Cathy out."

Eva smiled a little and the teacher walked away into his classroom not too far from her own locker. Eva looked down the hallway and nodded to herself. None of the trio were coming. None of them would probably ever end up stopping at her locker to go out for lunch or to study in the library. And weirdly, that didn't upset Eva as much as she thought it would.

She headed towards the cafeteria, binder in one hand and a lunch in the other. She dodged a group of grade nine boys who once again tried to trample her over and shivered a little as a gust of cold wind blew in front of front doors that were constantly being opened and closed.

Eva walked out into the loud and crowded area, taking in all the empty spaces. She made her way further inside the room and slowed down when she saw Taryn and Carmen sat at a table. Carmen saw her first and suddenly picked up her bag and placed it on the empty chair beside her. Taryn glanced back, saw Eva and did the same thing.

Eva didn't react, it was what she expected.

She instead gave them a smile and turned, heading over to the empty seat opposite Cathy. A seat that was left especially for her.

"Hi," Cathy said, eating her sandwich.

"Hey," Eva replied and opened up her binder, flicking through the pages until she could find the sheet she was working on.

"So did you hear?" Cathy asked and Eva shook her head.

"Hear what?"

"Apparently Natasha got suspended," Cathy said. "She won't tell people what for but a couple know."

"We know," Eva said. "And I'm pretty sure Taryn and Carmen do too."

Cathy smiled as she looked down at her book and Eva gave one back.

"You're happy," Eva said.

"I'm not happy she was suspended but I'm just happy that something happened. You were right, anything was worth it."

"Scared anymore?" Eva asked.

"It'll take a little bit but I'm definitely feeling way better now," Cathy breathed out.

Eva suddenly took out her phone and typed in the website she hadn't looked at in a while. It began to load and she passed it towards Cathy who took it gently. Cathy immediately knew what it was and clutched the phone a little tighter as it finished loading.

"Gone?" Eva asked.

Cathy's eyes roamed over the screen before her face broke out in a smile as she turned the phone and showed Eva the error screen.

"Gone."

_________________________

Thank you so much for reading this short story, I hope you liked it! And the biggest thank you to TELUS for giving me the opportunity to write this for their amazing campaign with WE Day to encourage youth to #riseabove cyber-bullying. Stand up to bullying and help each other - a bystander is just as responsible as the bully. If you have a chance to help, take it. <3