The Other Hailey

33| the other hailey aka veronica gates

"it's my world, everyone else is living in it"

Veronica Gates pov:

    To be honest, I love being visible.

And that's how it has been my whole life. I've been noticed, adored, and treated as important by everyone around me. But, if there's one thing this year has taught me, it's that not everyone loves you and not everyone wants to see you shine; people are snakes.

So, fuck everyone, fuck my life, and fuck this bitch who pretended to be me for months while I was gone.

The human species never cease to amaze me.

My parents have their heads too far up their butts, blinded by selfishness and greed to really connect with me. My classmates are pitiable slugs who envy the littlest thing about me. It could be the least attractive thing about me and they would still spread untrue rumors about me, their words constantly drip with jealousy. My so-called boyfriends would eventually end up cheating on me like every other hormonal male specie that walks the face of the earth. My friends... my friends are the worst.

Humanity is a joke.

I sit cross legged, behind everyone else, observing the baffling scene in front of me. The biggest hallway in my home has been cleared out, and transformed into a Gala ball. I can barely recognize the room where I played Princess Tea Party when I was six. There are various round tables pushed into the room, and all of them have been filled with various faces I don't recognize, some I do recognize. Adam's family is sat at a round table at the front, beside my parents. I'm sat at the very back, at an empty table with the press a few feet away from me, on the left.

No one has noticed me yet.

How would they? They seem to believe that the girl on stage, giving a speech is me.

It seems to be an important event since my parents involved the press. But that's the thing, I'm the important event that they need to collect the press for, but I've not been here for three months. So, who replaced my importance?

I lean back and listen to her speech. It's a bunch of eloquently made up words about her remorse for getting into a fight. A shiver runs down my spine whenever she uses the words, I, Veronica Gates. Is this a nightmare? Did I accidentally fall asleep on a bus, and I'm having the worst nightmare? Having my identity, importance and value taken by another, or simply being replaced. No, I've pinched myself a million times when I first stepped into the Gala ball. This is real.

While I was gone, someone replaced me.

Imagine my surprise when I found my face on banners and posters around the town while I was in a cab, driving back home. I couldn't recognize the photos. And that's because I've never worn that particular dress, or posed that certain way. Also, why the hell would my parents throw a Gala ball that's all about me in the absence of, well, me? But as soon as I stepped out of the cab, and saw the shocked looks on the security guard's face, I knew someone had fucked up. And it wasn't me.