GIRLS

I finally understood what this place was about. Run if you can't fight. Hide if you can't run. And never hesitate to move in for the kill or you'll be the one getting killed. My first few years in a boarding school had taught me that much. It wasn't really a school, not the way people imagined. It was a place where power mattered more than kindness, where weakness was something people could smell on you, and whatever advantage you were handed had to be held onto with both hands. Let go of it for even a second, and someone would be waiting to take it from you. learned that lesson the hard way also a few years in but apparently not as well as I thought. I was lying on the cold floor of my room, staring at the ceiling while the dull hum of voices drifted in from the corridor. My body ached, but somehow it was the humiliation that hurt more. I had lost. Worse, I had allowed myself to lose. I was still trying to swallow that when the door opened. I glanced toward it, expecting one of the girls I'd gotten into trouble with. Instead, a girl I barely knew walked in. She was the kind of person you could forget was even in the room. Mousy. Quiet. Always keeping to herself, as though she had mastered the art of becoming invisible. I couldn't remember ever hearing her speak more than a few words. She crossed the room and stopped beside me. “Mind if I sit?” I shook my head, mostly because I didn't have the energy to argue. I turned my face away from her. “Do I even know you?” “No,” she said, sitting down anyway. “But we shared a room once, and we attend the same chemistry class now.” I frowned. I looked at her properly for the first time. “I never noticed.” “Yeah,” she said calmly. “You were too busy hanging out with shallow girls who got you into trouble.” My head snapped toward her. For someone who barely spoke, she certainly had a talent for saying exactly the wrong thing. “Excuse me?” I pushed myself up slightly, ignoring the protest from my bruised ribs. “Who do you think you are?” She didn't flinch. “Nobody, really. But I know for a fact that I haven't uttered a single false statement since we started this conversation.” For a moment, I just stared at her. The nerve. The absolute nerve. “You need to leave. Now.” She stood. I expected her to say something defensive or perhaps throw another insult at me. Instead, she simply looked down at me with an expression I couldn't quite read. “I'm not your enemy, Margo.” My irritation faltered. “I see a lot of potential in you,” she continued. “You just have to get your s**t together. When you're ready, come talk to me.” Then she walked to the door. And left. I stared at the empty doorway long after it had closed. What annoyed me most wasn't that she'd insulted me. It was that she was right. Every word of it. I had been careless. I had surrounded myself with people who made me feel powerful without realizing they were dragging me into situations I couldn't control. I'd mistaken attention for loyalty and confidence for strength. And now I was on the floor because of it. I let out a slow breath and rubbed a hand over my face. Then it hit me. I didn't even know her name. I stared at the door again. For the first time in a long time, I wondered who exactly I'd just met.