He's My Brother's Best Friend and My Enemy, This Can't Be Good!

I hadn’t mentioned the tweet to Parker at all that weekend. I knew he was going to find out about it but I didn’t want him to know I knew about it. Of course he found about it on Sunday afternoon when he was hanging out with the boys, who were bigger gossipers than the entire cheer team. He wasn’t too pleased with what she said.

“She’s goes around talking about me as if I’m her property. I didn’t even really date her,” Parker fumed. He was currently pacing my room in a figure eight.

“I know. She’s just doing it because it’s what she does. She’s always hated me and now in her twisted mind she has concrete proof of why she hates me.”

“It’s so fucked up. She doesn’t like you because of one guy, because of me.”

“Trust me she never would have liked me regardless. Just let it go. If you fight her about it she’ll only make it worse,” I admitted.

Parker wasn’t too pleased with me telling him to leave it alone. He wanted to confront Charlie, he wanted to tell her why she was wrong and that she needed to butt out. Parker didn’t understand how a girl’s mind worked, I did. Telling Charlie to back off would only make her want to gossip more. Winning this “battle” was all about ignoring the bullshit that spewed from her mouth. If someone wanted to know the truth they could ask one of us, other than that it really was no one’s business.

To say I wasn’t dreading Monday would have been a lie. As much as I tried to make myself believe that it didn’t matter what people thought about me, I knew deep down inside those opinions did matter to me. I wasn’t ready to deal with Charlie’s shit but at the same time I knew hiding away would just make it worse.

I had purposely slept in late this morning so that I could drive to school by myself. I figured it was the only time I was going to get by myself today. When I arrived at school, everyone was waiting for my by Jayden’s car. I quickly parked, locked the car and headed over to greet them. By the looks on their faces I knew that they had seen or heard Charlie’s rants about me. They were all looking at me with concern and worry, something I was not fond of. Instead of settling with being angry I put on my best smile and joined them in their circle.

“What’s the plan?” Max asked me.

My smile faded as a wave of confusion rushed over my face. “We’re not at war you guys. It’s really not that big of a deal. Can we just go on like it’s a normal day, because it is a normal day,” I said.

Without a word of hesitation they agreed. Jayden followed Miranda into the school building toward her locker leaving Max, Ava, Parker and I. I could tell Parker was hesitant to leave me but I had been adamant on not making our relationship a giant spectacle. He and Max walked a few paces in front of Ava and I, giving me enough space to feel like attention wasn’t drawn to us and allowing him to still be there to watch me.

I knew today was going to be a rough day I just didn’t think it was going to start the minute I walked through the doors of Mass High. I knew something was up when Parker and Max stopped as soon as they walked in the door. In that split second before I walked in I made the decision that whatever was on the other end of that door wasn’t going to bother me. Without stopping I walked straight into the building, passed Parker and walked straight for my locker.

The scene was that out of a movie. You’d think in 2014 things like this would only occur on social media, but nope. Plastered all over the entrance of the hall, including my locker were sheets of paper with a picture of my face on them with red lettering written over it. There were several variations of these words but they were all vulgar accusing me of lying and sleeping around and so many other vapid one liners.

Before I even spun my combination for my locker, Parker was by my side. I opened it swiftly causing him to retract quickly before placing his forearm on the top of the locker door. He was looking down on me, I couldn’t make out what he was thinking.

“You know you are the strongest girl I know, right?” Parker asked, with one arm still hanging over my locker door.

“I better be,” I said in response. I finished grabbing the books I needed form my locker, pushed Parker’s arm off and closed it shut. This sent the flyers with my face plastered on them all over the floor. Without a second glance I started walking away, I didn’t get far before a familiar hand found mine. I looked up to see Parker smiling down on me.

I had the attention of the entire school on me the whole week. One day was worse than the next. The more I ignored Charlie the more she tried to spread her stupid rumors and the worst they got. There was one thing Charlie hated more than not getting the attention of Parker and that was being ignored by her newest victim. I had hoped that by taking the high rode that Charlie would get over herself, of course I was wrong.

Parker had had it with her stupid rumors on Friday. She had conveniently switched lunch tables to one closer to ours so she could hear if we were discussing her. Apparently she underestimated our intelligence. Like we were really going to waste our lunch period talking about her and her stupid rumors. However when she started talking loudly on how she was told that one of the football boys heard that I had wanted to be captain so bad that I’d do anything for the spot, including sleep with the entire team, Parker lost it. To be fair so did Max and Jayden.

Parker had been sitting across from me because it was easier to talk that way. The minute Charlie began telling this story his hands tensed up and his eyes shrunk into slits. No sooner had Charlie started her story did Parker push his chair away and began walking toward her, despite my protests. I was both terrified and mortified by what Parker was going to do. We didn’t need more attention on us. Max and Jayden must have caught on to my anxious face as the two of them got up to follow Parker.

“You’re a really shitty person to get satisfaction by spreading shit rumors about people,” Parker said calmly. By this point the boys were on both sides of him watching him carefully.

“If only they were rumors,” Charlie said with fake sincerity.

“You’re such a conniving bitch.”

“I don’t recall you calling me that when we were seeing each other,” she remarked.

“You’re so fucking delusional! I don’t know what you consider dating but following me around like a lost puppy and trying to get me to sleep with you isn’t dating in fact its borderline illegal!” Parker shouted.

If the whole cafeteria wasn’t listening before they were now. What Parker said was out of line and shouldn’t have been said in public. She did have it coming to her though. I got up from where I sat and pushed passed the boys to get to Parker who was still fuming. Charlie’s face was bright red as her girls whispered around her. I didn’t give her time to think of a comeback instead I dragged Parker out into the hallway.

“What happened to not letting what she said bother you?” I asked.

“Jos I tried, but I couldn’t do it. She’s such a shit person for saying all that stuff. Everyone is so stupid for believing it. Everyone keeps looking at you like you’re a bad person and its annoying. You’re the greatest person ever,” Parker said beginning to calm down.

I pushed up on my toes to place a kiss upon his lips. I stayed on my tip toes teetering has I tried to keep my balance. He quickly grabbed onto my hands to keep me still as I looked up to him.

“I don’t care what they think of me. Your opinion is the only one I care about,” I confessed and kissed him once more.

After Friday’s episode it was no surprise that Charlie upped her rumors about me, she even began spreading shit about Parker. Nothing she said really bothered me but the minute she started talking about Parker as if she knew him I was pissed. It was then I realized how Parker felt when people said negative things about me.

The lies she was saying didn’t even make sense. She was saying things like he was cheating on me and that when they were a couple he slept around and all this bullshit. Obviously she had forgotten that a week ago he had told the entire cafeteria that he had never dated her.

It was in drama though when she really set me off. She was telling some random girl that Parker had gotten a little to forceful with her one night when they were together and she never told anyone about it. She was saying, basically, that he had either abused or raped her, both of which I knew were not true. One because they never even dated and two because Parker would not ever do that, to anyone.

Hearing her talk about it made me angry. Here she was telling some stupid rumor that is a reality for a lot of people, including myself. She wasn’t just lying about Parker but she was making fun of a serious situation.

At the point I forgot all about being the bigger person and not caring what she was saying. I had been sitting with Miranda who was preoccupied on her phone. Parker had told me he was going to be late for class so it had just been the two of us. I got up from where I was sitting in the theater row and walked to where Charlie was.

“Oh jesus here we go again,” Charlie mumbled under her breath in an attempt to get the sympathy of the girl sitting to her right. “What do you want Josylne?”

“I’d appreciate it if you stopped telling people that Parker slept with you when you didn’t want him to. We both know Parker never touched you with or without your consent. Also you’re making yourself look worse by pretending to have a serious thing happen to you,” I said. I didn’t yell by any means, but my voice was loud. Inside I was shaking. I hated confrontation and this was the worst thing to be confrontational over.

“I can’t believe you think I’m lying,” Charlie squeaked suppressing a cry. I underestimated her acting ability. She slowly looked around the room before turning back to me and winking ever so subtly.

“How do you live with yourself knowing your lying about something horrible that happens to one in five girls?” I said a little to hotly.

“I can breathe now that I know someone knows. I really should have told people about it but I didn’t want to hurt Parker like he hurt me,” she said.

My hands were forming into fists by my side as each word left her mouth. This wasn’t about me anymore this was about her accusing Parker of raping her.

“Why do you still go after him then? Why are you so insanely jealous of me then? If he really did do what you say he did then you wouldn’t want him around you, but you always want him around you,” I said menacingly.

By this point Miranda had realized what was going on and had without a doubt sent her brother a message. Just as I had let the words leave my mouth I saw Parker rush into the theater. He had this look of fear on his face as he made his way over to me. Once again Ms. Evens was no where to be found.

“Jos, babe, come on,” Parker said trying to drag me away from Charlie. I wasn’t budging, she needed to know how wrong she was being.

“No. You didn’t hear what she was saying about you. She needs to understand its not right,” I said looking at him before turning my attention back to Charlie. I could tell she was thoroughly amused with herself.

“I’d be careful if I were you Josylne. I wouldn’t want what happened to me happen to you,” she said with a secretive smirk in her voice.

“What’s she talking about?” Parker asked.

“She’s accusing you of basically raping her,” I cried out. I hadn’t realized how upset I was about this until the first tear fell from my eye. I hated crying especially in front of the person who was making my life hell. I felt so weak.

The minute the worlds left my mouth and the first tear fell Parker grabbed me and pushed me closer to him. I hid my face in his shirt as tears fell from my eyes. He wrapped his arms around me before pushing me closer in the hopes of calming me down. My crying didn’t distract him from the subject at hand.

“I never touched you and you know that. If you think something happened then you’re crazy and we can go to a doctor and prove it didn’t. You’ve always been a horrible individual but accusing some of raping you that’s low even for you. Don’t ever mention either of our names ever again. I wish you the best of luck in your fucked up life, I don’t want to hear you talk anymore,” Parker stated.

He slowly pushed me away from his body, exposing my red face and swollen eyes. He quickly turned both of us around before stepping in front of me, grabbing my hand and ushering my out the theater doors and out the main doors of Mass High. I had driven with him to school today so he ushered me into the passenger side of the truck before climbing into the drivers side. I had stopped crying by this point but was still upset. I instinctively pulled my legs close to my chest as Parker buckled me into my seat from where he sat.

“Hey, you’re okay,” Parker said taking my hand in his. He ran his thumb along the outside of my hand trying to soothe me.

“Guess I’m not as strong as we thought I was,” I confessed. My voice was still shaky from all the crying and tension that had been going on minutes ago.

“You’re crazy,” Parker said shaking his head. “Josylne you are still the strongest girl I know. You confronted Charlie without the two of you yelling at each other. What she was saying was totally wrong and a lie and horrible. You confronted her about an issue that you’ve gone through. Babe, that’s the hardest thing anyone can do and you did it,” he said smiling at me.

I couldn’t help but feel better. Parker was right. Charlie wasn’t just spreading a rumor about Parker but she was making a statement that it was okay to accuse people of doing something to you when you know for a fact they didn’t. It was the reason so many people struggle with telling someone that someone has sexually abused them. It was what I had feared. I couldn’t sit there and let her tell lies. Not when I had experienced what she was saying first hand.

“Where were you anyways?” I asked.

“I was in the office telling them the shit Charlie’s been saying. Apparently our faculty was pretty oblivious to the fact that there were about a thousand and one flyers everywhere labeling you as a slut. Pathetic,” Parker sneered.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said. Parker never was one to go to the office for stupid things. This was just petty high school drama, it would eventually blow over.

“I know, but I couldn’t stand watching you walk around on egg shells. It’s your school too Josylne. They’re going to handle it.”

“I love you,” I said. Despite being buckled into my seat I leaned over and kissed him. Despite everything that had happened I was happy again. Just knowing that Parker really would do anything to keep me safe made me feel so good. He really did care about me.

“What’d you say we go get something to eat and then head home?” he asked starting the car.

“I’d love that,” I smiled.