Cornerstone

She's A Slag

We walked back to mine in silence. Sometimes I would look up to see Nick's eyes darting around as if he was looking for someone.

"You alright?" I look up at him.

"Yea, just making sure that creep isn't following us," he replied, looking back.

"Thanks again...for tonight," I said, breaking the silence.

"You need to stop thanking me, Charlotte," he sighed.

"No but actually. God knows what would've happened if you didn't come," my bones chilled at the thought of what could have happened.

"I'm glad your alright. It's what friends do. We look out for each other," he gave me a half-grin.

"Well this is it," I said, as we stopped in front of my house.

"Nice place you've got here," he said, as he walked in and looked around.

"Yep, looks just like every other house in Sheffield," I joked.

"Well, who is this young man?" I turned around to see mum standing by the stairs. I wasn't expecting her to get home until later.

"Hi, mum. Um, you're home earlier than usual," I awkwardly stated.

"Yea, they let me off early today. But that's not important. Aren't you gonna introduce me to your little friend?" she said, looking at Nick. This was the first time my mum was meeting any of my friends since we had moved. It was also the first time I had ever boughten a boy home. I hoped she wouldn't get the wrong idea.

"Uh, this is Nick...from school. Nick, this is my mom," I said.

"Well hello, Nick. A pleasure to meet you," she grinned.

"Hello, Miss...Thom-" but before he could finish I nudged him in the shoulder.

"Brown. It's Miss Brown...divorce," I whispered.

"Ah," he muttered under his breath. "Hello, Miss Brown. A pleasure to meet you two," he awkwardly grinned.

"Well, would you like any tea? Oh, we haven't eaten dinner yet either. You could stay for that if you want," My mum offered.

"Oh no, it's okay. I should be leaving now really," he said, checking the watch on his wrist.

"Do you have to," I frowned.

"Yeah sorry. I'll see you tomorrow though...at school?" He said.

"Yea I guess," I replied as we both walked back outside. "See you tomorrow."

"Bye, Charlotte," he waved.

"Bye. Stay safe," I called out.

Tonight's incident definitely made me and Nick way closer than we were before. I didn't tell mum though and had no plan on telling her any time soon. She was already stressed enough and I didn't need her eyes on me at all times right now. Alex and I also seemed to be on good terms now. Although life wasn't exactly where or how I wanted it to be, I was pretty content with it.

                                                                                    ***

"I really don't want to be here right now," I whispered to Louisa and Olivia as we walked into the school building.

"C'mon you can do this. At least you have us now," Olivia joked. Today we didn't miss the bus but after entering the building I kinda wished we did. Everyone was staring at us and for me, that was pretty normal since I was new but today the stares just happened to be excessive. I didn't know if this was because I was hanging out with Olivia and Louisa or for other reasons. I said goodbye to both of them as they walked to their classes and I walked to mine.

As I was walking I could feel people's stares burn into me. I even looked at the reflection on my watch to see if there was something on my face.

"Slag," I heard a group of younger girls whisper from a bench as I walked past them. Were they talking about me? What had I done?

"I heard she's the new girl sleeping with Alex Turner," someone whispered.

"I heard she's the reason Alex and Alyssa broke up," I heard another voice say. They weren't even trying to make sure I didn't hear.

My walking pace began to speed up along with my heart rate.

"I heard she'll blow you off for five quid," some guy snickered.

"I heard that Nick O'Malley is her new toy," someone laughed.

I basically ran to English and a wave of relief washed over me when I saw Alex sitting in his usual place, beside me. At least I wouldn't have to spend the day alone. He waved but I ignored him and fell into the seat next to him.

"Y'alright?" he asked, concerned.

"No, not at all," I replied putting my head down on the desk.

"Oh no. So I'm guessing you've heard about...well everything," he said.

"Of course, I fucking heard. It's all everyone seems to be talking about this morning," I whisper-yelled.

"Just ignore them Charlotte. It's just a bunch of stupid rumors that will die down by the end of the day," he put his hand on my shoulder. "I promise." he half-smiled

"I'll try," I tried to smile back. I had only missed one day of school and now there were rumors going around about me. I realized, pretty quickly, that in a small town anything new is bad. And since I was new I got quite a few stares and dirty looks. But this. This was on a completely different level. Was this all because I had started hanging out with Alex and his friends? I couldn't focus at all during class. I couldn't stop thinking of what had happened in the morning. What people had said. Everything the teacher said went in one ear and out the other. Slag, slag, slag, was the only word that seemed to repeat in my head. Even in class, I would catch students staring at me. Never in my life had I wanted to crawl up into a ball and disappear more.

As we walked through the halls everyone's eyes seemed to be glued on me. Luckily I had Alex next to me, whispering in my ear to ignore them. As I walked to my locker to gather my things for next period I saw a crowd of students gathered around staring at something. Some were snickering while others had their mouths wide open. A few kids were even trying to take photos. I shoved past them to see what was so interesting about my locker and stopped dead in my tracks. Written in bold, bright, red ink, the word S L A G was printed on my locker. I could feel a burning lump in my throat and my vision started to blur from the pools of tears that were forming in my eyes. Remember when I said that I had never wanted to crawl up into a ball and disappear more? Well, I lied. Right now was when I most wanted to crawl up into a ball and disappear.

I shoved past the group of people as I tried to escape. The last thing I needed right now was for everyone to see me cry. Alex tried to stop me and calm me down but I pushed him away and basically ran through the halls. I needed to get away. I needed to get away from everyone. From everything.

A/N: sorry if this chapter was ass 😬
the entire thing deleted so I had to rewrite it all and it's just not as good ☹️