Today couldn’t have started off any worse.

The foul stench of bacon reeked from the vents in my locker. The smell was so noisome it created some sort of shield around it that people avoided. Dialing the lock, I was immediately nauseated by the scene; a packet of bacon thawing on top of my chemistry book, its condensation staining the pages.

Laughter chorused the hallway as my cheeks flushed in a deep ruddy.

“Oh no,” I breathed, my eyes meeting the group of people that had of course done this to me.
Jackson Trent. His evil eyes turned towards me as he tossed his right hand man a football. He slowly slid over to my side of the hallway, his cronies on his tail.

“Oh what happened here, Mia?” Jackson’s sickening voice cooed. His eyes swept over the bacon and then they met my own. I swallowed, looking down, at lost for words. “Huh?” he added, “Have you always been this stupid or was that pig you kissed dumb-diseased?”

I wanted to run, I wanted to dig a hole and crawl in it. I wanted to die. Laughs echoed throughout the long stretch of the hallway and I suddenly felt faint and small. Everyone and everything was growing as I was shrinking.

The bottle blonde hanging off of Jackson’s arm, Kerry, let out an ear-shattering cackle, like a succubus. The rest of the group erupted into fits of laughter as I took the bacon from the shelf and tossed it in the trash. I slammed my locker shut and took off down the hall as memories of that night came back.

It was one of the first parties I had ever been invited to – looking back at it, one of the last as well. There was a delicious punch on the kitchen’s table. I couldn’t tell what was going on, except that I wanted to dance, and that I don’t normally dance. They were playing a One Direction song - my favorite group. I kept jumping from the makeshift dance floor to the kitchen to get another cup of whatever I was drinking.

“Mia! Over here!” at the sound of my name, my head snapped up. I looked around and my eyes met three waving hands. Steadying my head as I walked, I realized it was actually one hand, belonging to Kerry, the girl who had invited me.

“What?” I asked taking another mouthful of my cup, swallowing down another sip that wanted to escape my lips.

“We’re playing spin the bottle. Want to play?” her blonde hair was flicked over her shoulder. I dreamed of what it would be like to belong to something, to this group more precisely. Not caring about the outcome, I plopped down right next to the guy who has been bullying me all my life: Jackson Trent. “Here, you go first Mia,” he said as I was handed a dish cloth covered in a red plaid pattern.

“What…am I supposed to do with it?” I swallowed another sip while looking at it, moving a bit to get comfortable. My knee hit a red cup and spilled the beer over on the rug. “Whoops!” I giggled holding my mouth.

“Tie it around your eyes, duh!”

I looked down at it, trying to calm my nerves, and tied the cloth around my face. All of a sudden, everything was dark.

“What now?” I asked while adjusting the knot.

“Now we play a game,” I heard a voice say and, for some reason, I felt sick. After a few seconds, I heard a glass bottle roll over of the floor. Someone pulled me up and my stomach shook uneasily. I was brought close to a place where I smelt fire – a bonfire. “Here,” I was dropped down and my knee hits the wooden floor boards.

“Where?” I reached my arms out.

Immediately my lips meet something wet and disgusting. After a second of realization, I pulled away, yanking awaythe dish towel around my head as I heard a loud snort in front of me. A pig… They had made me kiss a pig.

I fell into my seat in the homeroom, biting my lip as tears started to roll down on my visage. How could I have been so stupid? Why did I even go to that stupid party anyway? I just wanted… A group of friends, for once. People to hang with. The bell rang and everyone filed in.

A pair of cold evil eyes met my own and I cowered under the stare, looking away almost a beat after meeting them. “A pig is the only thing you’ll ever kiss in your life.” Jackson snorted and I felt a pang hit me as if they were causing me physical pain.

“You should’ve married that pig when you had the chance,” said Kerry, mimicking Jackson’s attitude and demeanor.

“When you kissed it, I felt so bad for the pig I almost called animal control to report abuse!” Jackson’s gang let out hyena laughs, high fiving each other. All this time, I wished I were dead.