Chapter 20
Jul 4, 2025
School is hell. No, scratch that—hell would be kinder. Hell would be quieter. This? This is constant noise. Side glances. Snickers. The shift in how people look at me like I’m a thing now. A punchline. A lesson. A warning.
Even the teachers act different. They avoid eye contact, like my disgrace might be contagious. No more smiles. No more encouragement. Just a tight-lipped professionalism that wraps around me like barbed wire. I sit at the back of every class now. And still, I feel watched.
Girls whisper when I pass by. Some look smug. Others look scared. Like they’re wondering if their photos are next. If they’ll be the next “saint” to fall. The boys? They don’t bother whispering. They just smirk, elbow each other, say things too low for teachers to hear but loud enough for me to flinch.
I can hear one of them now—Carter, I think—laughing as I walk by the vending machine. “Hey Juliet, that airdrop still open or what?”
His friends laugh. I don’t stop walking.
Someone else mutters, “Guess she’s not so holy after all.”
I tell myself to breathe. To walk. To survive the day. I’m almost there—just a few more steps to my locker—when I see her.
Brielle.
Leaning against it like she owns the hallway. Like she’s been waiting.
I stiffen. My fingers curl around the strap of my bag. But I don’t run. I won’t give her that satisfaction.
She smiles. Sweet. Sticky. Poison laced in sugar. “You really thought he wanted you?”
I freeze. My throat tightens. My heart slams once against my ribs, then goes still.
Her head tilts, eyes gleaming. “He wanted a challenge. That’s all. Something shiny and new. Something hard to get.” She leans in closer, and her voice drops to a whisper, soft and brutal. “And now that you’ve spread your legs…”
I flinch.
She shrugs, unapologetic. “You’re just another name he’ll forget.”
I force my voice to come out, even if it trembles. “You don’t know anything about him. Or about me.”
“Oh, sweetie.” She steps closer. “I know everything. I’ve seen it before—girls who swear they’re different. Who walk around like they’re untouchable. Like their purity makes them superior.”
“I never said I was better than anyone,” I snap.
She smirks. “You didn’t have to. You wore it like armor. That little virgin vow? The speeches? You made it your whole brand.”
My chest aches. “And you couldn’t stand that, could you?”
Her expression darkens, just for a second. “What I couldn’t stand,” she says quietly, “was watching everyone fall all over you like you were some goddamn saint. When you were just waiting for someone like him to strip it all away.”
I shake my head, voice raw. “You don’t know what we are. What we feel.”
She laughs. “Oh, honey. What you feel is humiliation. What he feels? Boredom. Regret. Maybe even relief now that everyone knows you’re not some impossible fantasy.”
My throat burns. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” Her eyes narrow. “Has he texted you today? Called? Fought for you?” She steps in again, too close. “Or did he run the second it got ugly?”
I try to walk past her. My shoulder brushes hers, but I don’t stop.
She does.
And grabs my arm.
Her nails dig into my skin, not enough to bruise, but enough to burn.
“All that virgin queen bullshit?” she hisses. “You fooled them. But I always knew. The second he touched you, you’d give it all up.”
I yank my arm away, but I still can’t breathe.
Her voice drops lower, like it’s meant just for me. “You wanted to be worshipped. Instead, you became disposable. Welcome to the rest of us, Juliet. It stings at first. Then it ruins you.”
Her eyes glitter. Hungry. Triumphant. “Just to feel like one of us.”
A bell rings.
The hallway starts to clear. People scatter, voices fading into the next class. But I don’t move.
I’m stuck. Right there. Rooted to the tile like the floor has swallowed me whole.
Brielle lets go. Flashes one last smile, like she’s won.
And maybe she has. Because I can’t stop shaking. Not from fear. From doubt.
Because the worst part isn’t that she’s wrong.
It’s that I don’t know if she is.
