Pride

The day that everything changed started like any other. There was nothing that told Melissa that her life would change drastically and that it would be all her own doing. Her quiet life would come to an end and she would have only herself to blame for this.

It was a long day, the longest of the week and Melissa had been really tired. Maybe that’s why she did what she did. It must have been, because if she had been able to use her brain, she most likely wouldn’t have done it.

Why she did it, however, doesn’t matter as much as that she did. Because doing what she did brought her once quiet life to a crashing halt.

Melissa’s head had still been filled with the image of Zayn picking up the trash can and looking her in the eyes, which made it difficult for her to concentrate on what the teachers were saying. Ashley had to poke her sides a couple of times when the teacher asked her a question and she wasn’t paying attention. Luckily, the teachers didn’t get too mad because up until then, she had always been attentive.

“Where were you with your head?” Ashley inquires, bouncing around her friend as she and Melissa make their way to the next classroom. The brunette is always full of energy and today is no exception.“Were you dreaming about your life as a superhero or were you thinking about a boy? I bet you were thinking about a boy. You had a dopey look on your face. It has to be a boy. Who is it?”

“Calm down, Ash. No need to injure yourself.” Melissa doesn’t answer her friend’s question because she doesn’t want her to know she was thinking about Zayn. Ashley can’t think she’s one of those ridiculous girls who drool over the members of the F4.

“Who were you thinking about?” Of course, Ashley isn’t willing to drop the subject.

“Just a boy,” Melissa answers, shrugging her shoulder. Maybe if she pretends it isn’t a big deal, her friend will believe the lie.

“I thought we were friends.” Ashley pulls her mouth in a pout that looks rather cute on her.

“Of course we’re friends.” It seems the younger girl is trying to guilt trip Melissa. She just hopes the pout won’t make her cave.

“Good,” Ashley smiles. “Then tell me who you were thinking about.”

Because Ashley is facing Melissa, she doesn’t see the stairs. Melissa, however, can and she wants to warn her friend before she falls down the stairs and hurts herself. But before she can warn her to not walk further backward Ashley misses the first threat of the stairs and falls down the rest of them with a crash.

Melissa runs towards the stairs and she can immediately see the damage. Her heart pounds harshly on her chest as if she’s one who has fallen down her stairs instead of her friend, because of the sight she’s seeing. It doesn’t look good, it doesn’t look good at all.

Ashley has landed on someone. She has her foot on someone’s face and that person must surely be hurting really badly. The print of her shoes is going to be on their face for days.

This doesn’t have to be such a disaster if it was just an ordinary boy Ashley landed on. They would be mad at her, but there wouldn’t be any big consequences. Nobody bullies people who didn’t have a red notice.

Melissa had recognized him at once. She can’t count the many times she has seen him strutting around the school with his posy, looking like he owns the place because he does. There was no mistaken who was lying under Ashley’s feet.

Ashley doesn’t seem to have a clue who she has landed on. She looks dazed as she’s laying at the bottom of the stairs. She’s going to be scared shitless when she has regained her senses and sees who’s laying at her feet.

Melissa quickly runs down the stair towards her friend and yells “ Are you alright. Is the other person alright?” Melissa doesn’t dare to call Tomlinson by his name.

The rest of the F4 run to Tomlinson because of course, they’re only a few feet away. They almost never are far away from each other. Melissa has sometimes wondered it’s because they don’t feel as confident without each other or if it’s because they don’t want any other friends. Payne and Styles immediately ask Louis if he’s okay.

Ashley seems to suddenly realize her foot is in someone’s face because she quickly stands up, a look of pure fear on her face. When she sees it’s Tomlinson she’s injured, she immediately starts to apologize, tripping over her words as she does so.

Of course, Tomlinson is unaffected by her words. When did he ever listen to someone who begged him to forgive them? Pity was something the blonde boy could never feel. He’s a vindictive little shit.

“You know what happens now, don’t you?” is all he says as he slowly stands, his voice dangerously calm.

“Can’t you please forgive her?” Melissa lets slip before she can help herself. It just really sucks to see her friend in such a predicament, she wants to help her. “She didn’t mean to land on you.”

Electric blue eyes are suddenly on the small brunette, making her shudder in her cheap vans. His stare is as cold as the snarl in which his lips are formed is. “Aw, how sweet. A display of middle-class friendship.”

Once again, Tomlinson shows how much contempt he has for everybody who isn’t part of his clique. He thinks anybody who isn’t part of the F4 isn’t worth neither his time nor his breath. Money doesn’t actually make someone a better person, of course, but the wealthy inheritor thinks it does. As per usual, it rubs Melissa the wrong way. Up until now, she hadn’t voiced her irritation. However, it appears today her filter isn’t working because she doesn’t stop herself from hissing “You and the rest of the F4 are just a bunch of frogs who hide behind their fathers’ wealth. You’re nothing without it.”

As soon as the words are out of her mouth, she regrets them because she knows what the consequences are. People have gotten in trouble for a whole of a lot less. She’s going to get a red tag, there’s no doubt about it. She has just signed her own death warrant.

And then there’s that she has not only insulted Tomlinson, but the rest of his friends as well, or to be more specifically Zayn. She just called him a frog, what must he think of her? Is he now mad at her? She doesn’t want him to be mad at her.

Melissa chances a look in Zayn’s direction and is confronted with a disinterested look on his face once again. It seems as if nothing bothers him. It’s half his charm but it also makes him hard to figure out.

Tomlinson appears to not want to waste any more words on either Melissa or Ashley because all he does is look at the former with a look she hasn’t seen on her face before, before turning his back on her with a lot of ceremony and stalks away, leaving behind two very scared girls.

The fear is still cold in her bones when Melissa opens her locker the next day. Her stomach drops when she looks inside.
She knows what’s going to happen now. Her life is going to be hell.

The tag inside the locker is a bright red so nobody can miss it, the text on it a large font so everybody knows from whom it is.

Soon, other people will see and they will know Melissa is a persona non grata. They can do what they want with her because there will be nobody who will stop them. They are going to put her through the same things they’ve put the teacher through as well as many others before him.

Melissa hears shuffling behind her and she turns around in fright, scared that it’s a fellow student who has seen the red tag and is going to shout the news throughout the whole school. But it’s not, it’s Ashley. She looks Melissa with big, scared eyes, before turning around and running away.

Melissa just lost the only friend she had in this school.

Notes

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