Taming My Bullies novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Photo

By breakfast, the whole campus had seen the photo.

Delaney had posted it on the Heron Feed, the school's gossip page, at six in the morning.

In the picture, I stood in a hospital kitchen doorway with my hand on Lane Monahan's arm.

His hairnet had been cropped out, and so had his mop.

What was left looked like two people alone in a dark room.

The caption read: *Scholarship girl pays her way. Who knew Maple took payment in kind?*

Under it, nine hundred people had already commented.

I stood in the middle of the Commons with my tray and felt every phone in the room pointing at me.

"Is it true?" a girl asked, wide-eyed.

"Did he pay you?" a boy asked, laughing.

A third voice said, "Gross," and it spread from table to table like a spilled drink.

My face was hot.

My hands were steady, though.

I had cleaned dentists' offices at midnight for six years, and I knew how it felt to be invisible and then suddenly not.

Lane sat at the Quad's table with his head down.

He looked at me once, pale and miserable, and I understood.

If I told the truth, I would have to tell his.

"It's not what it looks like," I said, in the loud, bright voice I'd used on the steps.

"What does it look like?" Delaney said sweetly, from the middle of the room.

She stood by the dessert table with her phone up, flanked by two friends in matching pearls.

"A conduct notice, for one thing." She held up a white slip.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Taming My Bullies from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.