Fix My Heart

Chapter 5

Veronica's POV
"Is that why you asked me if any guy would want you?"

"Y-yeah."

"Well ignore them. You're prettier than them anyway."

My face started to heat up. I looked at Jacob's face and saw he was red.

He-

He called me pretty!

"Plus they might be pretty on the outside and they're probably not on the inside."

"He's right. Most of them are cruel. Especially Nancy Peters. She's like the Regina George of this school."

"W-who's Regina George?"

"She's a movie character."

"I've never heard of her."

"You've never seen "Mean Girls"?"

"N-no. I only watched what I was allowed to."

"Ew. Here she comes."

This girl with purple hair walked over to us.

"Hey Jacob!"

I looked at Jacob and saw he rolled his eyes.

"What do you want?"

"I know it's not your type of thing but..do you wanna go out?"

"With you? No."

Nancy gasped.

"How dare you?!"

"What?"

"No one rejects me!"

"Well I did. Can you like leave now?"

"How can I make you change your mind?"

"You can't. I know someone that's probably better than you."

"Oh do you?"

"Yeah. I do."

I should throw out my garbage now.

I grabbed my garbage and went to throw it out. I could still hear the stupid conversation that was going on.

"Is it her?"

"Huh?"

"The new girl."

"What about her?"

"Do you think she's better than me?"

"You want me to be honest?"

"Duh!"

I started walking back to my seat.

"Yes. She IS better than you. She's kind. She's trustworthy. She's prettier than you. Hell. She's actually beautiful."

He's talking about me?

"But look at her! She's skinnier than a twig!"

"So? What does her weight have to do with her personality?"

"What if she's anorexic?"

"Then I'll help her get better."

"What if she eats too much she gets fat?"

"I don't care. Where are you going with this?"

"At least I wasn't abused and raped by my parents like she was!"

My heart sunk.

H-how does she know that?

Rape?

What's that?

I've never heard that before.

Jacob stood up.

"If you want to talk to the both of us there's a time and place. Now it's none of those. Now are we done here or do you have any other personal matters that you feel like discussing right here in front of other students?"

"Well yes! I do!"

My eyes widened. My feet were frozen.

"She's just a filthy whore who probably lies about everything. Maybe her parents didn't do anything. Maybe it was an ex boyfriend? What if...what if she was sex trafficked?"

"Stop! You don't know a bloody thing about her!"

"The look at her face says otherwise."

Jacob turned around.

"Ronnie..."

I started crying.

"How can anyone love someone that's damaged goods?"

"Her trauma is none of your business!"

Gotta run!

Gotta go!

Feet move!

Jacob started to slowly walk up to me. My feet thawed out and I started running. I ran to my locker and opened it. I put all of my things away. I texted my aunt and told her what happened. She told me to wait in the main office. I shut my locker and ran again. When I was home I ran up to my room and slammed the door shut. I sat against the headboard with my knees up to my chest. My face was in my hands. I grabbed my phone and looked up what everything Nancy said was.

All these things..

Is this how people think of me?

What am I talking about?

It's clear now that this is how I see myself.

I must've cried for hours. I saw my bedroom door open and saw Jacob and his sister. They walked up to me. They sat down on my bed next to me.

"D-did you tell her about me?"

"No! I didn't tell her a thing about you."

Jacob carefully put his arm around me. He pulled me closer to him. My head went on his shoulder. I thought the next day at school it would be better. But I was unfortunately wrong. Everyone watched me go whenever I went. Slurs had been spray painted onto my locker. At lunch I didn't really eat.

If I stay skinny then I'll be called "Anorexic."

But if I gain weight I'll be called "Fat."

What am I supposed to do?

How am I supposed to handle this?

Maybe I should just focus on what Jacob thinks of me.

I ended up staying after school to watch football practice. I looked at the cheerleaders and saw Nancy.

Can't do that now.

Noted.

This world hates me.

I took my book out of my back and started reading.

Hm.

This is actually good.

Mom and dad would've never let me read something like this.

It's a bit dirty but it's fine besides that.

"NEW GIRL!"

And now's when I bring out my ear buds.

I took my phone and ear buds out of my bag. I put the ear buds in and started playing Jacob's music.