You Were Never There - Mileena Jeffery (the best novels to read TXT) 📗

I was always nervous and anxious for everything. When the teacher blew the whistle, I got up and headed for Betty's office. When I got there, I peaked inside then went in. "Hi, so...I need to report an issue."
"Oh, Eve. What's been going on?" Betty asks. She pulled out her pad of paper, but there was already writing on the page she flipped open to.
"So, today during history, Jeremy, Jackson and Kyle were bullying me. Jackson told me to go jump out a window and if I didn't want to he'd push me." She nodded along with my words as she was taking notes. "During science Devin locked me and Jeremy in the back room and Jeremy pushed me to the ground and called me a slut after he forcibly tried to kiss me. Now he's starting rumors that I gave him a blowjob in the back room, but I didn't. I'm not that type of person...like...God." I sighed.
"Did anything happen during lunch?" Betty asked me without looking up.
"Well, that's when I heard about the rumor he made up. Em told me about it."
She looked up and rested her arms on the table. "Why didn't you come up during lunch when you found that out? Or even before since all of this was a big deal?"
Her questions shocked me. Does it even matter? "Well, I needed time for all this to settle. I mean getting told to end your life is something shocking. The teacher never believed me when I told her what they were doing during history."
"Were you aware that Jeremy came up here and reported you during lunch?"
What? I was so shocked. Did he try twisting this story so he was the victim. I didn't do anything wrong. Why was he so mean this year? Last year he was such a good friend and we had fun. He never said a bad word to me. Wait, was he saying things behind my back? "What did he say? I had no idea."
"He told me that during history you were being rude to Jackson, Kyle and him, saying things like what you told me. He also said that you locked him in the back room in science and you forcibly begged him for a kiss then pinned him down and gave him head. That's rape. Do you know how serious this is?"
"But that's a lie! I did no such thing! I'm telling the truth!" I started shaking. I swear to god if his story goes through over mine....
"He came up first, directly after the incident shaking and practically crying. If your story was true you wouldn't have needed all this time to think it over, would you?"
"But he's lying! Ask Em! She told me about the rumor. If that's true than mine has to be, right?"
"Not unless he has more people backing his side up. But Em is your best friend...so you could convince her to side with you."
I wanted to scream. "But so is Kyle and Jackson!"
She sighed, clearly frustrated with me. "Look, I'll investigate it and have the principle join too. We'll see where we're at by the end of the week, okay? So who else were witnesses, I have Em, Jeremy, you, Kyle and Jackson."
"Well at lunch Jeremy was sitting with Jesse and Matt along with Em. When Em came over and told me Anna was there too. Also, Ms. Morris and Mr. Jones."
"Alright," she sighed, writing them down. The bell for next class rang. "I'll do what I can. What class are you going to so I can give you a note?"
"Math with Ms. Ballard, but for now could you separate Jeremy and I?"
"I'll see what I can do. I can't promise anything." She hands me the note. As soon as I walked out of the room I started bawling. I ran down the hall letting my emotions take over. I hide in one of the bathrooms to sob wishing this would disappear. If they believe Jeremy's story my parents would kill me. I didn't know what to do. I guess I'll wait until Friday and see but the anticipation would kill me until then. I force myself to calm down so I could head to math.
I walked into the classroom and immediately searched for the teacher so I could give her the note. Then she shows me my seat, which happened to be next to Jeremy. Wonderful, I thought to myself as I took the seat next to him. "Hey bitch," He whispered to me as I sat down. I sighed. This was going to be a long class.
Many snarky comments happened that class but I tuned them out as best as I could. I was still too upset from what Betty had told me. Today was the worst day of my life, and it was barely past one.
I checked the clock again to count down the minutes until class was over. Five... four...three... two... one...then the bell went off. I had English after and that teacher scared me. I think he scared all the girls. I walked out of the room and down to the English classroom. It was downstairs on the main floor. Once I got in the room I sat in my assigned seat near the middle. At least Jeremy doesn't sit near me in this one.
Once everyone had filed in, Mr. Price announced we were starting book groups today. "Okay, I'm going to be choosing popsicle sticks out of this box. I have to your names written on them. There will be four people to a group and one group of three. Okay let's start." I blocked out the names until I heard mine called. "Group three is... Eve, Winter," Good, a quiet girl who would do work. Who next? "Em," Cool, one of my good friends. She wasn't really a worker but I can deal with that. "Last but not least for this group, Jeremy." I can just tell that Jeremy had a huge grin upon his face when he heard that. Fate was not favoring me today. Hopefully it was just today, but I have a feeling it won't be. Everyone moved into there assigned groups when Mr. Price was done naming them off. Jeremy sat across from me, Em next to me and Winter across from Em. At the end of class, I was definitely talking to Mr. Price about this setup.
It was awkward silence between us all until the teacher dropped the books in front of us. "Read up to chapter five and then write a summary of what happened in each chapter and about the characters on a google document."
I grabbed a book from the pile. Winter and Em copied that motion. Jeremy sat in his seat unamused. "So how should we read? Individually or as a group?" I asked.
"I prefer by myself because that way I can read at my own pace," Em answered.
Winter shrugged and uttered out a quiet, "Doesn't matter."
"Well definitely alone so I don't have to hear that stupid voice of yours." Jeremy smirked in my direction. I just sighed and started to read. During that time Jeremy kept kicking my leg and was just being annoying. I also kept checking up on him to see if he had read and was reading and he wasn't, just as I thought. He had the book in his hand, probably at a random page, and would turn chunks at a time pretending to make progress. I sighed and continued to read. Once I was finished I wanted for everybody else to then we started discussing.
We each hopped on to the google document Winter had made for the group and each chose a chapter to summarize, except Jeremy of course. Jeremy kept whispering to Winter distracting her as she would listen and mutter replies back. I could just tell they were talking about me. "Hey, guys," I sighed clearly agitated, "We have work to do."
Winter looked stunned then quickly calmed down. She nodded. "Right. Jeremy stop, do your own part," She said quietly but loud enough so we all could hear.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jeremy scoffed. I'm pretty sure he rolled his eyes too.
I didn't bother telling him what he should be doing. I knew he wouldn't do it anyway. Winter, Em and I finished up the summaries while Jeremy sat twiddling his thumbs. Mr. Price came over and checked our work. Once all that was done and settled with we had about ten minutes left in class and the teacher explained our homework, which was to read the next three chapters. The bell rang and I walked over to his desk preparing what I was going to say. "Hey, so about my group..." I trailed off.
"Everything alright with the setup?" He asks.
"Well, no. Me and Jeremy have some issues."
"Jeremy and I, Eve," Mr. Price corrected.
"Right, Jeremy and I. Um, can you switch me into another group or him out of my group. We can't really work together."
"In life you won't get to chose who you work with and you have to get along with others even if you don't like them." Great, another lecture about that.
"I understand that but he bullies me kinda badly. It's kind of hard to work when he's being mean and rude to me."
"Well like I said before, even if you work in an office building and have a group project, let's say making a movie poster. You will be working with some people who share the same goal, but who might not like you, or someone else. You just have to deal with it. Luckily this isn't permanent. In a couple weeks you will change groups, so just hang on until then."
I silently sighed. "Thanks anyway." I walked away and to my final class. Health. Luckily for me, Jeremy didn't have this class. Once that class was over, I got on the bus and rode home. Once I got home I immediately crawled into bed and started bawling. Today was horrible but I knew that wasn't gonna be the last of it. I couldn't wait until Friday came. I hoped my story was taken over Jeremy's. Who could I confide in right now, in my time of need. I didn't have any true and real friends. All of them have turned on me at one point or another. I could talk to my sister, but who knows if she'd tell. Siblings never have a great relationship. I mean they do have an unspoken bond as relatives, but you never know how it could go. And she always picked on me, in a sisterly way. We've been through a lot together, but separated. I just laid in bed and prayed for this to end.

The rest of the week was a blur. Sleep, school, and more sleep. With bullying in between. I tried to block out the comments, but it was hard since I value others opinions above my own, and more so since I have issues with self confidence. As the week kept dragging on I sunk lower and lower with each passing comment. By the time Friday came along, I didn't even want to show up. I knew I had to though. For the results of the investigation. I had a feeling I knew what they were going to be. Even though throughout the week I brought short voice clips of Jeremy insulting me. I secretly took them in history when he was being rude to me, for proof. Even with those, things were not in my favor.
Friday afternoon in health class, I got pulled out to meet privately with Betty for the results. "I'm sure you know why you are here," She started off with.
"Yeah," I quietly muttered. I just wanted to