Who We Are

Infamous.

It seemed like everyday another person or two joined in on our walk to school. Although today they didn't walk behind us like they didn't know us. Riley and Max walked on either side of Gwen and I while Ronnie trailed behind us, his eyes glaring at the ground.

Max rambled on about not wanting to go to school and egged me on relentlessly, telling me to "live a little" and experience what the world was like outside of the over-crowded school building.

I shook my head at him. "You're crazy," I said flat-out, "School is important."

That's when Max and Riley cracked up laughing, even causing Ronnie to smile a bit, although he tried to hide it and erased it from his lips before anyone could notice. When we made it to school Riley, Gwen, and Max went their separate ways, leaving Ronnie and I to head off to Chemistry in silence, him staying a couple steps behind me at all cost.

Ronnie wasn't the popular kind of guy, he was more infamous. Girls often bragged about how they'd managed to sleep with him, like it was some kind of honor that he'd chosen them for a quick lay. And I knew that most of the girls that bragged about sleeping with him were just trying to make themselves seem cooler, more infamous too.

Over the years I'd only seen a few girls stay the night at the Radke household, and that was how I knew many of them were lying. They'd talk in hushed excitement with their friends about how nice his room was, how they'd had to sneak out in the morning, and obviously, quite a lot about how Ronnie was in bed, although they were making everything up, knowing that Ronnie would never "choose" their own friends if they hadn't actually chosen her.

Ronnie didn't have people yelling out to him in the hall, he didn't have girls blushing when he looked their way. Because he didn't look at anyone, he just walked on glaring at the world. That was until he saw someone in his little group of friends. Then he'd stop to greet them before continuing on, telling them he'd meet up with them later.

His frienda were more likable than him, but still, he was the one everyone wanted to be friends with. It was the dark charm that had people so intrigued and trying to figure out for themselves what it was about him that made them metaphorically bow-down to him.

It was his secrets.

His secrets kept him in an air superiority over everyone else. Except Max, and his next door neighbors, nobody knew anything about his home life. The rest of his friends knew where he lived but they didn't know about his abusive father or tyrant big brother who'd seemingly dropped off of the face of the earth after dropping out of high school before Ronnie had even gotten there.

Ronnie's secrets kept him safe. If people would've known about his home life, he wouldn't have maintained the same status as before. He'd be seen a charity case, a weak person, and poor kid who was unable to take care of himself. That was what Ronnie didn't want. So he kept his mouth shut about everything, which made people think that he just didn't have anything to say to them because they weren't "worthy" enough.

At the same time though, I could tell that his secrets also held him back. They kept him sick, trying so hard to keep his home a secret, trying incredibly hard to fade into the background, when in reality his harsh demeanor only made him stand out more. I'd learned by now that there was something about infamy that drew people in whether you wanted them or not. And Ronnie surely didn't. But he was bold and bright like a flame and they were small and meager like his moths. They circled him restlessly, clinging onto him for some sort of twisted high school survival.

The more he withdrew, the brighter he got, the more they swarmed him. He couldn't win and he'd been hyper-aware of that fact his entire life.

In Chemistry he sat in his usual chair, in his regular position, ignoring the world as Vanna and Monica grinned at him and glared at me.

Vanna sat to my right, in the chair next to mine, and every time I looked up from the notebook her eyes were trained on mine, deadly. I realized then that Monica had blabbed about the bathroom and I was about to be in for a world of hurt if I couldn't explain. And I couldn't explain.

Ronnie's home life wasn't mine to tell, so when Vanna cornered me after class, I had to think up something to tell her.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I murmured, looking to the floor as I mentally yelled at myself, knowing I was a terrible liar.

Vanna rolled her eyes and licked her cherry-stained lips. "Did you sleep with my boyfriend?" she asked slowly, like I was an idiot.

I looked up to me with disbelief. "What?" I asked automatically, meeting her gaze as she laughed.

"You really are stupid," she shook her head, "I don't know why you're in junior classes, you're honestly not the brightest person."

Monica, who was standing next to her, laughed and nodded her head in agreement.

"I didn't," I told her, crossing my arms over my chest as the warning bell rang, signaling we had just one minute to get to class.

"Didn't what?" Vanna questioned, her eye staring at my face.

"I didn't sleep with Ronnie," I shouted, getting fed up with being treated as dumber than her.

She and Monica folded their arms over their chests. "Then what was going on with you and him in the bathroom?" she asked, disbelieving.

I rolled my eyes. "He had to pee and the boy's bathroom was full," I said sarcastically before going around her and walking down the hall, knowing I was late and realizing that meant I'd have to stay after school for detention, leaving Gwen to walk home alone and check up on Lisette, Octavia, and Gianna.

I growled and glared at the floor as I pushed the door to my second class open and charged to my seat, waving my hand at the teacher as she mentioned a detention.
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Hey guys. I've been having a bit of a problem with one of my other stories. Someone is stealing it and rewriting it so I'm not going to be updating too often, until this gets resolved. But I had been writing this and figured I'd post it anyways, just so I could tell you guys.

This is what I wrote in one of my journals, explaining everything:


One of my readers sent me a link to a story that has the same name as mine, and the same plot, and the same things happen in the story, as in mine.

I don't know what to do about it, because if I knew this chick in person, I'd hit her, but obviously I can't do that over the internet.

So I commented on it and made it known that I knew she'd stolen it, although someone else had already reported her for stealing it. One of my readers.

I feel like Mibba is tainted now that someone's ripped off my story. This website used to be my safe haven, where I could write what I was thinking and be honest with you all & myself. But after today I don't even feel like I can write on here anymore.

Now that I've found someone rewriting one of my stories, I feel sick to my stomach when I think about posting anything else, and that really sucks because without mibba I don't have anything. Writing is the thing that gets me through my days.

When I'm at school I'm planning out new ideas for my stories, coming up with character names, picture the houses, the cities, the people. Writing is the only thing in my life that I can control, and now even I can't control that.

I know some of you are probably thinking, "Move on, who cares if this girl rewrites your story." But it's harder than that. She's taking my ideas, changing a couple things (like names), and calling it hers, all the while denying even knowing about my story.

I put all my trust in people here on this website and I feel like someone just shoved me off a hundred foot building and laughed when I splattered on the ground. Dramatic, I know, but honestly I feel let down and pushed around.

Writing is my entire life. It's how I express myself and live, but I feel like I'm just writing it for someone else now. So someone else can take credit.

I'm just deflated. I've done all I can do to have "her" story taken down, but even if it ends up getting taken down, I still feel like trust has been broken. She can just copy someone else's. And someone else can copy another of mine.



If you want to check out the stories and see for yourself, they are:

Mine:
Mystery Boy

"Hers":
Mystery Boy

A few of my Mystery Boy readers, who know the story, have left comments on hers backing me up, that makes me feel incredibly lucky to have such supportive readers.

A few people have told me not to post the link to the other story, but I feel like I should be allowed to tell you guys why I won't be updating for awhile.

I hope this gets resolved soon so I can continue updating ALL my stories. Because I'm going to post one more chapter on each one, so people know what is going on, then I'm waiting until this gets resolved, if it doesn't, then I think I'll be taking all of my stories down.

I'm really sorry.