Page 131 of Our Secrets and Lies

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Kelly pulled out her Kindle. It was the only piece of ‘technology’ she had left. She was hoping her mum would give her phone back soon. The three days at home on suspension had been awful, with Lucy not talking to her and no screens or any means of communicating with the outside world, but at the same time Kelly had been so glad not to be in school. She’d come back yesterday to find that everyonewas freezing her out. No one spoke a word to her. In a way it was easier than the verbal abuse, so it wasn’t too bad. At least today was Friday, just another few hours and she’d be out of there for two days.

Lucy had softened a little bit, but Sean calling over had definitely made things worse. Her mum now knew she’d been lying about that too. She’d gone mental. Kelly was sick of everything andeveryone. Why couldn’t they see she was only trying to help?

School and home were now a complete nightmare and she didn’t even have Sean to call or text to make her feel better. She knew he’d move on to someone else. He had queues of girls waiting to go out with him. Her life was about as awful as it could get.

Kelly’s tears splashed off the screen of her Kindle. She couldn’t concentrate onanything these days. She couldn’t sleep and was constantly exhausted.

She pulled her sandwich out of her bag and took a small bite. The cubicle door burst open. Kelly fell sideways in shock, but put her hand out quickly enough to steady herself.

‘Look at this loser,’ Melissa sneered, holding up her phone. ‘Kelly the scholarship girl eating her lunch in the loo. Say hi, Kelly, you’re live onFacebook. FYI, in this school we actually have a canteen. It’s where normal people eat. Obviously someone like you, a freak, liar, shamer and loser, has to eat in here. Everyone in this school hates you, Kelly. Everyone knows what you did to my sister and they think you’re scum. But look at you, Kelly, who’s the loser now? You. St Jude’s doesn’t want lowlifes like you dragging the school down. Weall hate you – even your own brother does. Why don’t you do us all a favour and die?’

Alicia and Chloë tittered beside her.

Kelly stood up from the toilet and shoved Melissa out of the way. She bolted past the girls, running as fast as she could. Tears of anger, shame and humiliation streamed down her face. They had put it live on Facebook – people would see it and know she was a complete loser.Everyone would see it. Oh, God, what if Sean saw it? Kelly let out a sob.

She ran into the yard and tried to find somewhere to hide. She gulped back tears and ran towards the sports hall – she could hide behind the wall there.

‘Kelly?’

Damn, it was Dylan. He was with Taylor. They were wrapped around each other. Kelly turned and ran the other way.

She heard footsteps behind her. ‘Hey, Kelly.’Dylan reached out and turned her around by the shoulder. ‘Jesus, what’s wrong?’

Kelly couldn’t control her tears. ‘Your girlfriend’s sister just put a live video of me eating lunch in the toilet on Facebook.’

‘What?’ Dylan’s face darkened.

Kelly sobbed. ‘Everyone in the world now knows what asad loser I am. It should make you happy seeing as you hate me too. Everyone hates me. I hate me.’

‘Come on, Kelly, I don’t hate you. I was just really pissed off with you. I’m sorry. I’ll find that little bitch and sort her out.’

‘Don’t. You’ll just make it worse.’

‘I’m not letting her get away with it. But why were you –’

‘What?’ Kelly interrupted. ‘Why was I eating my lunch in the toilet? Oh, let’s see, because I have no friends. Because going to the canteen is a nightmare. I end up sittingon my own, listening to people whispering about me, laughing at me, slating me …’

Dylan looked at her kindly for the first time in days. ‘I’m sorry, Kelly. I had no idea it was that bad.’

‘It’s always been bad but since … well, since the Taylor thing, it’s much worse.’

‘I’ll sort it out, I promise. Leave Melissa to me. No one hurts my sister.’

Kelly began to bawl, but this time they were tearsof relief. Dylan didn’t hate her. The person she loved most in the world was still on her side.

Taylor came over to them. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Your sister is bullying Kelly,’ Dylan said.

‘What did she do?’

Dylan filled her in.

Taylor looked at Kelly and raised an eyebrow. ‘Kind of like what you did to me but not as bad because you had your clothes on.’

Kelly felt her face go bright red.

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