CH.2

TESSA

The crowd can smell blood in the water now, and their whispers turn cruel as knives.

"Look at her face!"

"She actually thought he could love her!"

"This is better than a soap opera!"

"Someone please tell me this is being livestreamed!"

"Tessa, I never meant for you to get the wrong idea about us. I thought I was clear that we were friends. I thought you understood that what we had was beautiful and pure and perfect exactly as it was." Derek's words come measured and careful.

"You were so generous to help us build our love," Maya adds. "Even when it meant taking money from your parents. Even when it meant risking everything. That's not just friendship – that's sacrificial love."

The words are kind, supportive even, but they land like hammer blows to my already shattered heart. Because everyone can hear them. Everyone can understand what they mean.

I've been exposed as the pathetic girl who stole from her parents to fund her crush's relationship with someone else, and it's being presented as an act of beautiful, tragic friendship.

"I trusted you," I breathe finally, unable to hold back the tears streaming down my face now. "I loved you both more than my own life."

"And we love you too," Maya says, reaching out to squeeze my hand with apparent desperation. "That's why we're telling you the truth now, instead of letting you live in a fantasy that could only hurt you more. We love you too much to let you destroy yourself with false hope."

"Please understand we never wanted to hurt you. I never gave you any false hope. Everything you did for me was your own free will." Derek sounds genuinely remorseful. "You mean too much to us. You're too precious to lose."

The damage is done. The crowd has heard enough, seen enough, recorded enough. Their laughter grows louder, more savage, as they realize they're witnessing the complete destruction of someone who thought she was loved.

"Did you really think someone like Derek could want someone like you?" a voice calls out from the crowd, dripping with mock sympathy. "I mean, come on… look at yourself and then look at him. Even if he's had his little falling out with his family, he's still Derek Salvador. Old money, generational wealth, a trust fund that could buy and sell your entire existence. He's got Harvard calling his name, Fortune 500 companies already courting him, a future so golden it could blind the sun."

The voice grows stronger, more vicious, feeding off the crowd's energy.

"And what are you? The chubby little charity case who thought she could buy her way into his heart with Daddy's credit card? You actually believed a god like Derek, with his perfect face and his perfect body and his perfect pedigree, would choose you over someone like Maya Castellano?"

Cruel laughter ripples through the crowd.

"Maya, who looks like she stepped off a magazine cover. Maya, whose family might not have your money but has something you'll never possess… actual worth. Beauty, grace, the kind of effortless perfection that makes men write poetry and start wars. She doesn't have to steal money to make people love her. She doesn't have to beg for scraps of attention like some pathetic little dog."

"Even if Derek was broke," another voice chimes in with savage glee, "Even if he lost every penny tomorrow, he'd still have his face, his charm, his breeding that runs in his bloodline. And you? You'd still be the desperate little nobody who thought money could transform her into something loveable."

"He's too bright to be tied down to someone like you."

"Honey, Derek's future is so brilliant it could power cities. CEOs, politicians, socialites – they're all gonna want a piece of him. And you thought he'd choose the girl who had to fund her own friendships? The girl so pathetic she didn't even realize she was paying for her own heartbreak?"

The words hit like physical blows, painting a picture of the vast, unbridgeable chasm between Derek's golden destiny and my worthless existence.

"How delusional can one person be?" another voice adds with vicious glee.

"She actually thought she could buy love!"

"This is the saddest thing I've ever seen!"

Maya finally turns to the crowd after letting me absorb every cruel word, and her face morphs into a mask of protective fury. "Stop it!" she shouts. "That's enough! Tessa is our family, and we won't let you talk about her that way!"

But I don't miss the slight curve of her lips.

Her defense only makes the laughter louder, because everyone can see through it now. They understand that Maya and Derek's loving concern is just another form of cruelty, that their gentle words are more devastating than any insult could be.

"Tessa, there's something else we need to tell you. About your parents."

My blood turns to ice water in my veins. "What about my parents?"

"We sent them copies of all the receipts," Maya says with fake pity. "We thought they should know where their money was going. We were so worried about you, bestie. Taking that much money... it's not healthy. It's not safe." She wipes away her crocodile tears. "We care about you too much to let you keep stealing. Your parents needed to know so they could get you the help you need."

My parents. Oh God, my parents are gonna know. They're gonna know that their daughter is a thief, a liar, a pathetic fool who stole from them to fund her own public humiliation.

"We also thought your college applications should reflect who you really are," Maya continues, her voice still gentle, still concerned. "So we sent them some information too. We thought they deserved to know the truth about who they might be accepting."

Each syllable of her words is a nail in the coffin of my future.

My vision blurs from pure, unadulterated rage that rises from somewhere so deep I didn't know it existed.

Every dream I've ever had, every plan I've made, every hope for redemption… they've poisoned it all with their "loving concern."

My hand moves before my brain can stop it, before rational thought can intervene, before the part of me that's been trained to be grateful for their friendship can hold me back.

The slap connects with Maya's perfect porcelain cheek, whipping her head sideways with such force that her styled hair flies across her face like a golden curtain.

Five perfect finger marks bloom across her flawless skin, a brand that mars her untouchable beauty for the first time in her fake life.

"HOW DARE YOU!" I bellow. "HOW DARE YOU!"

The crowd goes dead silent for one perfect, suspended heartbeat… the kind of silence that comes before earthquakes, before tsunamis, before the world splits apart at the seams. Then the room explodes into chaos.

"OH MY GOD!"

"SHE HIT HER!"

"TESSA JUST SLAPPED MAYA!"

"SOMEONE GET THIS ON VIDEO!"

"HOLY SHIT, DID YOU SEE THAT?"

But I zone them all out, my entire universe narrowing to Maya's shocked face and the red handprint I've left on her cheek.

For the first time in three years, Maya Castellano looks genuinely surprised, hurt, and affected by something I've done.

"You did this because you love me?" My voice breaks like my heart.

Maya finally snaps out of her shock and her hand flies to her cheek, tracing the burning outline of my handprint with disbelief.

For a moment, the mask slips. I see something raw and ugly flash across her features, something that looks like satisfaction mixed with genuine surprise that her pet finally grew claws.

But then the mask slides back into place, and she transforms before my eyes into the perfect victim.

Her eyes fill with tears and her lower lip trembles as she cradles her cheek as though I've mortally wounded her.

"Tessa," she breathes. "Oh my God, Tessa, what... why would you...?"

Derek's face contorts with fury. His hands clench into fists at his sides, and for a moment I think he's gonna hit me back, make me pay for daring to touch his precious girlfriend.

"How dare you put your hands on her! How dare you hurt someone who's only ever tried to help you!" he snarls, taking a step toward me with murder in his green eyes.

But Maya's hand shoots out, catching his arm with surprising strength and holding him back. "No, Derek," she says tearfully. "No, don't. She's hurting. She's lashing out because she's in pain, and pain makes people do terrible things."

The crowd watches in fascination as Maya plays her role to perfection. The gentle victim, the understanding friend, the saint who turns the other cheek even when attacked by the monster she's tried so hard to save.

"Look at her," Maya's voice carries clearly through the room as she gestures toward me with her free hand. "Look at what pain has done to her. This isn't the Tessa we know and love. This is what happens when someone refuses help, when they let their demons consume them instead of accepting the love that's offered."

Derek's chest is heaving with barely controlled rage, his perfect features twisted into something almost unrecognizable. "She hit you, Maya. She hit you. In front of everyone. After everything you've done for her, after all the ways you've tried to help her, she repays your kindness with violence."

"Because she's sick." Pity laces Maya's words. "Because she's so consumed with self-hatred that she can't recognize love when it's offered. Because she'd rather destroy the people trying to save her than face the truth about herself."

The crowd's murmurs grow louder. I can see the narrative shifting in real time, watch as Maya's perfect performance transforms me from victim to villain in the span of heartbeats.

The girl who hit her best friend. The unstable rich kid who lashes out at anyone trying to help her. The dangerous, unhinged monster who repays kindness with violence.

"I forgive you," Maya looks directly at me with eyes that shine with unshed tears. "I forgive you, Tessa, because I know this isn't who you really are. This is your pain talking, your sickness, your refusal to accept the help that could save you."

The words are perfectly calculated to paint her as the saint and me as the sinner. Even my moment of rebellion, my single act of defiance, has been transformed into evidence of my instability, my unworthiness, my need for the very salvation she's offering.

But then Maya's mask finally slips completely. Her tears dry up in an instant, and she steps closer to me with a smile that's pure venom.

"You want to know the truth, Tessa?" she whispers loud enough for the crowd to hear. "Every time you came crying to me about being fat and ugly and unwanted, every time you begged me for advice on how to make Derek notice you, I was texting him screenshots of our conversations. We've been laughing about your pathetic desperation for months."