Chapter 4: Rumors, Rage, and Ruin

A rumor that Aubrey was a homewrecker started making the rounds at school. After my deskmate and I got back from the bathroom, we saw Aubrey running past us, crying with her hand over her mouth. The fluorescent lights in the hallway made her skin look pale and shaky.

Caleb, chasing after her, suddenly grabbed me by the neck, like he wanted to choke me: “Natalie, didn’t you say you wanted to stay away from me? What are you doing now?”

He was choking me, and I couldn’t breathe. My deskmate tried to pull him off: “Are you nuts? Nat and I just got back from the bathroom! Let her go, she can’t breathe!” Her voice was sharp, panicked.

He let go. I collapsed, gasping for air, exhausted. My knees hit the linoleum hard.

“Natalie, you’re disgusting.”

“Nat, are you okay?”

I squatted on the ground, coughing, tears streaming down my face. The world spun around me. For a second, I thought I was going to pass out. My vision swam, and my ears rang. Did he really just do that to me?

Jessie hugged me, gently patting my back: “Nat, it’s okay. Caleb and his girlfriend are just being ridiculous.” She glared in the direction he’d gone.

I wiped my tears and bit my lip, refusing to cry out loud. Not here, not now.

Just now, Caleb looked at me with so much hate I barely recognized him. He really looked like he wanted to hurt me. I felt like I was seeing a stranger wearing his face.

The boy in my memories was gone. Completely gone.

Later, a classmate quietly slid their phone under the desk to me. The screen was open to the school’s anonymous Instagram confessions page.

Turns out someone had posted an anonymous message accusing Aubrey of breaking up me and Caleb. The school rumor mill worked overtime.

A lot of people believed it. The comments were brutal, full of hate for Aubrey. The kind of words you can’t take back.

The marks on my neck had turned red. I thought, when I got home, I’d post a clarification right away. I wanted to do the right thing, at least once.

But before I could, I got home and found my parents sitting on the couch, faces dark with anger. The TV was off, the air thick with tension.

They were obviously waiting for me. My heart sank.

I had a bad feeling. A glass cup was thrown at my feet and shattered. The shards scattered across the tile.

“What did you do at school to piss off Caleb?” Dad’s face was red, veins bulging at his temple. “Don’t you know our company depends on the Carter family? Are you trying to ruin me?”

I stood there, listening to my mom call me a useless money pit, and my dad telling me to go apologize to Caleb. Mom clutched her mug so tight I thought it might shatter. My hands shook at my sides.

The big house felt so cold I shivered. Every room echoed with their disappointment.

I don’t remember how that scene ended, or how I was forced to apologize to Caleb. It was all a blur—yelling, slammed doors, the quiet defeat of giving in.

I actually wanted to tell him I didn’t make that post, that I’d clear things up.

But when the door opened, he looked down at me, eyes cold as ice.

In that moment, I couldn’t say a word. My throat closed up.

I bowed my head and apologized.

He just glanced at me, leaning against the door frame: “I don’t want to see you at school anymore, Natalie.”

My parents nodded and scraped, promising I wouldn’t show up again. I watched them shrink themselves in front of him, desperate not to lose their standing.

I numbly looked up at him. Under the harsh hallway light, I couldn’t see his face clearly anymore. Shadows stretched across the floor.

At that moment, my self-esteem was crushed.

Only then did I realize that he and I were never from the same world. We never stood on equal ground. Some people are born with everything; others fight for scraps.

The moon doesn’t fall just because someone wishes for it. When the moon lands in the well, it’s only a reflection—just an illusion.

And his kindness to me before was just a boy’s passing phase.

I shouldn’t have had any fantasies. From the start, it was a mistake.

That night, I packed my things. My parents called around to transfer me to another school. I listened through the wall as they pleaded over the phone, desperate to make me disappear.

As the door clicked shut behind me, I realized: I wasn’t just losing Caleb. I was losing the only version of myself I’d ever known.