chapter 7: Truth

Sadly, Vanessa and her mother didn't stay here a long time; we would probably see them in about two weeks for Christmas and New Year's Eve. I couldn't wait to be on holiday, I hated high school so much. Sometimes, I wished I was home schooled, that would be heaven. Right now, I was at school, and our old teacher just entered into the room, a cruel smile on his face.

"Today, I'm going to give you back the project you made a week ago."  The old teacher told us with a dark glare and a cruel smirk which made me shiver.

He began to speak with the students about their work, complimenting them when it was really good which was not often. Denis sat next to me, waiting to see if I made a great project. Finally, the old man stopped in front of us.

"So... I'm sorry Denis, I promise you next time you will be paired with someone else." He mumbled trying to hide his embarrassment. Denis looked at me from the corner of his eyes and I could see how much he was angry.  "7/20. This project has an important impact on your marks and will count for the graduation. It will be hard so you should begin to work, especially with a mark as bad as this."

"7/20?! Are you fucking kidding me?! I'm going to kill you before the end of the day. I'll make sure to destroy all the happiness in your life." Denis spat, anger in his voice. All the students were glaring at us as I began to shake. I was ashamed and scared. Right now, I wanted to die.

The teacher glared at me before beginning to speak, a sly smile on his lips. "I don't know what you want to do later but your chances of success are small. Really small. You have the lowest marks and you don't even seem to care about it! Because of you, a great student like Denis failed this project. Couldn't you take a few hours of your time for this project? Do you think you are better than anyone else? If you don't wake up, you will never graduate and have a job." He said putting the paper on the table before sitting behind his big brown desk.

The students were still glaring at me, some of them were whispering whereas the others were laughing at me, saying how dumb I was and making suppositions about my future. The worst was that they didn't even know how many time I spent on this stupid project. Alex and I spent hours working on it! I knew how important this project was, I knew it, and I failed, like everything I did.

"You know you could stop your studies and become a whore." Denis exclaimed with a harsh laugh which made most of the students laugh.

"You're dumb, Denis! Nobody will want him, even as a ship whore! He may as well kill himself, nobody will miss him anyway." A student I didn't know shouted making the others agree.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I was trying to ignore everything around me. But it didn't work; I could feel their stares on me. I could hear what they were saying and it fucking hurt.

"Don't listen to them; you are the smartest person I know. They are just heartless bitches." Alex whispered in my ear, pulling me closer to him as a tear fell slowly on my cheek.

"Hey! The baby is crying! Did we hurt you while we were saying the truth? Maybe you could call your boyfriend to protect you... Oh, wait! You don't have a boyfriend!" Denis shouted with a cold, cruel laugh before moving at his old place.

A small sob escaped my mouth before I put my hands in front of my face, trying to hide how much their words hurt me. I could feel Alex's hands on my back; he was trying to comfort me. Sadly, it didn't work very well.

"I hate them so much..." I whispered in a low tone so only Alex could hear me.

"We will fight and they will see the truth. We will get married and have children. You will have a great job and others friends. They will be so jealous!" Alex whispered in my ear, giving me a small smile full of hope while some other students were staring at me as if I was completely crazy.

When the bell rang, I left the school, saying that I didn't feel great, but nobody cared anyway. Once at home, I went in the living room where my mother was.

"Why are you home that early?" She asked without looking at me. She was working on her computer. As I didn't answer, she finally looked at me; the shock was all over her face. "What happened sweetie?" She asked in a worried tone.

I sat on the sofa next to her and she pulled me into a hug as I began to sob on her shoulder. "What happened? You know you can tell me everything, right?"

"I... I just had some problems at school... But it's okay now. I know I'm safe here. Thank you for being here, you're one of the only people I know you will never destroy me... "I sniffed, hugging her tighter "Do you want to know what Alex told me? He said that one day we will get married and have children. Isn't that beautiful? I'm so lucky to have him." I asked, a smile on my lips, trying to stop the tears.

"Stop that, please." She mumbled, not meeting my eyes anymore.

"But...Why? Aren't you happy for me?" I asked giving her a puppy look, tears in my eyes, ready to fall all over again.

"I... I'm sorry. Sam told me that I shouldn't tell you this because of the consequences but I can't stand that anymore. Forgive me but I have to tell you the truth." She whispered while tears were forming in her deep, tired eyes.

"The truth? About what? Mum... You're scaring me..." I whispered as a shiver went through my body.

"It's about Alex..." She said slowly, staring at me in the eyes, waiting for my reaction.

"Mum, I know you don't really like him but I swear he's a great person! He takes care of me and we are in love! We are happy together, isn't that what everybody wants?" I asked desperation in my voice.

I didn't want to know the truth anymore. I didn't want to believe what she wanted to told me. I was not crazy, right?

"Do you remember the day Alex had an accident?"

"Yeah of course I remember! It was horrible! I was so worried about him! He almost died because of me! Because he wanted to buy a stupid ice cream for me! I don't know what I would have done without him... I wish I could forget this horrible memory..." I shivered, a few tears falling on my cheeks.

"Sweetie... Alex died that day. He died at the hospital..."

That was when my world ended.