EMILY***“Tiffany and I used to date,” Harry said, “and everything was going well for the first few months of our relationship. I won’t lie and say that it hadn't been great when it had, at the beginning. She was incredibly kind, smart, and funny. I had just become the student body president and everything was perfect. I felt like I was on top of the world and like I was unstoppable. With her by my side, I felt like there was nothing I couldn’t do, nothing I couldn’t achieve. But it didn’t last long. Things started happening to us.”“Things like what?” I asked.“Rumors started going around about me. There was a new story every day, about an incident, about how I had treated the workers at the school cafe, about interactions that I had had with fellow students. They all painted me in a bad light. According to the rumors I was rude and inconsiderate. I was selfish and uptight and I had no respect for people. I reasoned at first that they were just mindless rumors that were being spread

Bakersville High School***"I really need your help, Emily, please," Gabriel said.He was at the door of her room. She had refused to open it for him. It didn't matter that he was going through something, that his parents were fighting, on that day Emily was going through something as well, something that Gabriel had caused. She wasn't going to help him. She wasn't going to open the door.She wasn't even going to acknowledge his presence because that was all it took for him to use her and then throw her away when she was no longer helpful. She was done. It was the day he had shown the whole school his 'real' girlfriend. It didn't matter to Emily that she had been wrong, that she had actually been the one that had caused the rumor to start by telling Julie, what mattered to her was how Gabriel had chosen to act.How he had chosen to respond to that rumor had told Emily everything she needed to know about where she stood when it came to him- she was just someone he was holding on a le

GABRIEL***“Emily and I have an idea,” Harry said as he stood and walked towards her.It was yet another day in which we were in my room trying to find out how to get the person who had made the post to confess what they had done. The two looked at each other and Harry nodded at Emily, as if encouraging her to go on.I tried not to read too much into it. They were both helping me, they were no longer together and even if they were I doubted that simply apologizing and crying in each other’s arms had made that much of a difference.“The idea is to get the person to expose themselves,” Emily said, “I know I suggested this last time but Harry helped me flesh out the idea more and this is what I have. I have been interacting with the person more and I need you to know that I have made it so that they think I’m on their side,” she said to me and I nodded, “and I’ve done so so that I’m better able to convince them to make another post saying who they are, telling their names.”“Our reasoni

GABRIEL***Doesn’t it make sense now? That’s why you felt like you didn’t deserve it. Because you didn’t.The voices in my head were taunting me. They were making fun of me, telling me they told me so. I should have been more suspicious of the fact that the people I had hurt were helping me, no questions asked.Of course, they were getting their revenge. Had they laughed with each other after our meetings, marveling at just how stupid I was? Had they wondered how desperate someone had to be to accept help from someone who had hurt them?I was too stunned to even cry. I had no tears. I couldn’t place a finger on how I really felt. I couldn’t feel angry, because didn’t I deserve it? Hadn’t I wronged them? Weren’t they just doing the right thing by getting their revenge? I couldn’t feel betrayed either because I had it coming.Could I feel sad? That was what I felt. I couldn’t deny it. I had gotten my hopes up even if it was a little and I had been disappointed. I had opened my heart up

EMILY***"I can explain," I said to Tiffany. We had been running around so much in such a panic that we had forgotten to be careful. If Harper finding us out hadn't ruined things then this definitely had. I couldn't lie my way out of it. Tiffany had caught me with Harry and to her, it was the same as catching me with Gabriel.She had caught me on the wrong side and there was no explanation that would get me out of the trouble I was in. I knew this, but I still wanted to try my luck. Maybe she would listen."It's not what it looks like," Harry said, "we just bumped into each other.""She wouldn't have said she could explain if that was the case. The both of you look anxious too. What’s going on?" she asked."Can we go somewhere and talk? If you give me a chance I can explain everything to you in detail. I promise I have a reason for meeting with him," I said."I thought you guys had broken up," she said, tears forming in her eyes. "We had and we are broken up," I said, "you have to