CHAPTER 4
1149 Words
I didn't know how long I was l standing there, listening to one confession after another—each one worse than the last.
I didn't even know how I endured the insults, the mockery, the sheer betrayal if Lily hadn’t suddenly appeared and pulled me out of there, maybe I would still be standing in that room, frozen, watching the man I had loved for three years humiliate me and kiss another girl right in front of my eyes.
"Are they insane?!" Lily shouted beside me, her voice shaking with rage.
She could barely believe what had just happened—what they had done to me. And as if to make things even worse, it wasn’t enough that they had toyed with me, lied to me, and shattered my heart.
No, they had to take it a step further.
They had broadcasted the entire thing live on the school's private group forum.
Lily’s hands trembled as she gripped her phone, scrolling through the countless comments flooding the screen.
"Holy sh*t, did that really just happen?"
"Poor girl, three whole years wasted."
"D*mn, Tyler really played the long game."
"LMAO this is brutal."
"She actually thought he loved her? How pathetic."
Lily let out a sharp breath, her fingers curling so tightly around the phone that I thought she might break it. "This is sick," she seethed.
"This is beyond cruel."
I swallowed, my throat burning just by listening to Lily mumbling all those comments from the forum.
I hadn't even seen the video yet—I couldn’t bring myself to look—but just hearing Lily read the comments made my heart twist painfully as tears blurred my vision
Lily turned to me, her expression torn between fury and heartbreak. "Clara, let's report this and have it taken down. You can't just—"
My breath hitched as I finally met her gaze and shook my head
“It’s no use, Lily.”
She frowned. “What do you mean? Of course, it’s not!”
“It doesn’t matter.” I let out a hollow laugh, my arms wrapping around myself as if that could hold me together. “Everyone’s already seen it. Even if we take it down now, the damage is done. They’ll just keep talking about it re-upload the video”
Lily’s lips parted as if to argue, but I didn’t let her.
“And even if I say something, do you really think they’d care?” My voice trembled, but I pushed through. “They don’t see me as a person, Lily. To them, I’m jus an entertainment. A joke they can laugh about for a few days before moving on to the next scandal.”
Lily’s expression darkened. "That’s what pisses me off the most," she muttered. "How could they just sit there and laugh? How could they treat someone’s pain like a joke?"
I had no answer. Maybe because, to them, I was never a person to begin with—just a nameless face in the background of their glamorous, privileged lives.
The realization was crushing, I know, but what can I do?
No matter how much it hurt, the truth was undeniable—this wasn’t something I could undo and I would have to live with it.
Lily sucked in a sharp breath before exhaling slowly. Then, without a word, she reached out and rubbed my back in slow, soothing circles.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this.”
The gentle warmth of her touch made my chest tighten. I hadn’t realized how much I needed it until now.
“I can’t believe him,” she continued, her voice laced with disbelief and anger. “I thought Tyler was different from all those handsome and wealthy guys,"
I let out a shaky breath while my hands clenched tightly at my sides.
"He wasn’t," I whispered. "I was just stupid enough to believe he was."
Lily shook her head, her grip on my arm tightening. "No, Clara. You weren’t stupid. You just trusted the wrong person."
I let out a bitter laugh, blinking away the tears that threatened to fall. "Trusting him was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done."
Lily stayed silent for a moment before exhaling sharply. "So what do you plan to do now if you didn’t want to report this?”
I exhaled painfully, the weight of everything crushing my chest as tears continued to roll down my cheeks. I wiped at them weakly, knowing it was useless—they just kept falling.
“I’m leaving,” I said finally
Lily’s brows furrowed. “What?”
“The school year is ending soon anyway,” I continued, swallowing hard. “I’ll just…skip our graduation. I won’t attend.”
Lily’s grip on my arm tightened, her eyes searching my face as if trying to make sense of my words. “Where will you go?”
I let out a shaky breath, staring at the ground. “Home. Far from here.”
For the first time since we had walked out of that nightmare, Lily didn’t have an immediate response.
The anger in her eyes softened into something else—something close to heartbreak.
“…Are you sure?” she asked quietly. “You don’t have to run away because of them, Clara. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
A bitter laugh escaped me once again before I could stop it. “Maybe not. But staying here? Waking up everyday knowing that I was played by Tyler for three years? Knowing that I was humiliated in front of the entire school for blindly loving someone out of my league?” I shook my head. “I can’t do it, Lily. I just can’t.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but the words never came. She knew I had already made up my mind.
Instead, she let out a sigh before pulling me into a tight hug.
“Then I’m coming with you.”
I stiffened. “What?”
“You heard me.” She pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes. “You think I’d let you leave all alone after what just happened?”
I blinked, a fresh wave of tears spilling over. I hadn’t expected this—hadn’t even considered the possibility that Lily would want to come with me.
“But… your family, your life here—”
She shook her head. “My family will understand. You’re my best friend, Clara. I’m not letting you go through this alone.”
Something inside me snapped, and before I knew it, I was sobbing into her shoulder, gripping her as if letting go would shatter me completely.
Lily didn’t say anything. She just held me, rubbing slow circles on my back, and for the first time since my world collapsed, I felt like I wasn’t drowning alone.
- Writer
