Chapter 9

Precious' P.O.V

Imagine the world crumbling down on you, humiliation and hate becoming slowly becoming your fate, doubt devouring your whole faith, confidence fading away and low self-esteem crawling through the back door of your mind. I thought I had experienced all kinds of bullying but this time it was worse, I went to school thinking that I was going to face reality and Samantha was going to be the last person to break me down but the minute I fixed my eyes on my pictures on those walls, I realized that the fact that I was strong was just a fantasy.

Both Angela and my mom kept on asking who was doing all those things to be but I refused to tell them. Angela was the only one who knew who the half-naked girl on the picture was but I still couldn't tell her who did those horrible things to me. When we came back from school, Angela didn't go home but instead she went to silently lie on my bed with me because my mom was not yet back from wherever she went. She kept on glancing at me she wanted to say something.

"Spit it out," I said.

"Okay, friend please don't get angry," she replied.

"Just say it," I said.

"Okay, I uhm," she replied "I told Josh about what happened to you."

I sat up on the bed "you what?"

"I had to tell him," she replied "the guy likes you."

"This is my business Angela," I shouted "I didn't tell you so that you could go on broadcasting about it. Yes, I'm the naked slut on those pictures but you don't have to spread the news about that."

Angela jumped of the bed and stood opposite me.

"Do you think that I love seeing you like this?" I asked.

"That doesn't mean that you should try and add to my humiliation," I replied.

"How else can we help you if you don't want to reveal the perpetrator?" she said "your mom wants to help you, I want to help you and Josh wants to help you, but how are we going to do that if you are not letting us into your world Precious?"

"You want to help?" I replied "leave me alone, all of you."

I then put on my headphones, played music loudly then lied down again leaving Angela with no choice but to leave my room. I closed my eyes, imagined myself in a different world, a world where Samantha and her friends didn't exist, a world where my dad was around and my mom wasn't crying every night wishing my dad was still alive. A world where Joshua was finally mine and no one was hindering me from being with him. But I realized that it was all an illusion when my mom removed my headphones and I was back to this dysfunctional world that I hated so much.

"You have a visitor," mom said.

"Tell them that I am not around," I replied.

"No, not today you lady," mom said "get up, and go see your friend in the kitchen. I'm tired of this long face and moods."

"But ma…" I mumbled.

"Get up," she replied.

I dragged myself out of bed, put on a hat since I had to shave my head completely bald, because of that stupid Samantha my beautiful afro was gone. It took me two years to nurture and groom that afro and now I was back to zero. As I walked behind mom going to the kitchen and sitting there, was Joshua. He glanced at me with a smile, and his big cerulean eyes always mesmerized me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Angela told me what happened," he replied.

"Yeah, so?" I said with a mean tone.

My mom poked me on my shoulder.

"Stop being rude," mom said "he took his time and came here to check up on you and you give such a nasty attitude? What's wrong with you?"

I just glanced at my mom without a word coming out of my mouth.

"I was hoping we could go for a walk," Joshua said to me.

"Only if you promise to keep quiet," I replied

"I promise," Joshua said.

"Okay, let me put on my shoes," I replied.

I didn't know why I agreed to go for a walk with him but I hoped that he wouldn't ask me about the picture or why Samantha did what she did to me. After putting my shoes on, we walked out of the house and then we went to the park where we decided to seat on the spot that Angela and I love so much. Joshua was quiet as I told him, and that starting to bother me.

"Why are you quiet," I asked.

"Because you told me to keep quiet," replied.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked "if you're not going to give me an honest answer don't say yes."

"It depends on what you're going to ask," he replied.

"It's not that complicated," I said "have you had sex before?"

I can't believe that I just threw that question at him, with a laughter he glanced at me.

"Yeah, I have," he replied "and you, have you had sex before?"

"Uhm…" I replied.

"No?" he said.

"No, I've never had sex before" I replied "I'm a 20-year-old virgin, you can laugh at me is fine."

I don't know why I felt so embarrassed after saying that but he looked at me as I tried by all means to look away and not make an eye contact with him.

"Wow, I'm impressed," he said.

"By what?" I asked.

"How many 20-year-old virgins do you know?" he replied "it means that you're actually taking care of yourself."

"I guess," I said.

So being a virgin was still a big deal but it felt like I was the only virgin left in the world and the boy that I was staring was the perfect candidate to take it. As I remained silent, he glanced at me.

"I like your new hairstyle," he said.

"Are you mocking me?" I asked jokingly.

"No, you look good with no hair," he replied.

I giggled and he smiled probably trying figure out what to say next.

"So, what happened?" he asked.

"What happened?" I replied.

"With the pictures and everything Angela told me," he said "who is doing all this to you and why?"

I coughed "I can't tell you who it was," I said "but they stripped me naked in the toilet"

"What did you do to them?" he asked.

"They did all that because a boy that they like, likes me," I replied.

"Did Samantha do all these things to you?" he asked.

His guess was spot on, but I couldn't confirm to him that it was Samantha and her groupies because I was afraid that he would make this such a big deal.

"I want to go home now," I said.

"I knew it," he said "Samantha cannot get away with this, I'm going to report her tomorrow morning."

"You can't do that," I replied "that's I didn't tell my mom or Angela that Samantha did these things to me because the last thing I need is drama."

"But we want to help you," he said.

"By humiliating me?" I asked.

"How is confronting your perpetrator, humiliating you?" he replied "I don't care if you're going to get upset or what, I am going to the management office tomorrow morning, and I am going to report that trash called Samantha."

"If you do that, never come near me ever again," I replied.

"No problem," he said.

Without a word coming out of my mouth I just walked away and left him behind, he followed me since he left his car my place. Every time I reported bullying in high school, nothing would get better, in fact the bullying would be so intense that consider changing schools sometimes. Right now, I was already facing the biggest humiliation of my life and everyone was so obsessed with knowing who was responsible for my humiliation.