"What is this?" A well-manicured hand, with Heather's trademark pink nail polish, places a Polaroid on the table in front of me.

I gasp in shock and snatch it away, "how did you get this?" I look up at her, clearly mortified.

"My boyfriend," she says accusingly as if she believes it was him I was posing for.

"You don't honestly think I would hookup with Jace, do you?" I narrowed my eyes at her. We haven't been the best of friends recently. We haven't been as close as we used to throughout the years, but how could she accuse me of this?

"I don't know what I think, Alison..." Heather crosses her arms and looks away from me. I hope she feels gross for this.

I stand up from the bench so that we are face to face. "Get over yourself, Heather," I hissed and pushed past her.

Jace must have stolen it...

He's always seemed sleazy to me.

Ethan must have misplaced it...

He wouldn't just give the pictures away.

He wouldn't do that to me...

My chest tightened, and I could practically feel my lungs shrinking when I tried to breathe. I felt dizzy, but I kept walking until I was too lightheaded to see straight. I leaned against the lockers I was passing and let my back slide down them as I crouched onto to the floor.

"Ali?" The familiar voice sounded fuzzy under the sound of my heavy breathing.

I haven't had a panic attack in five years. "Sweetie, come here..." Audrey lifted me up, throwing my arm over her shoulder as she guided me through the hall. My vision was too blurry to make out the faces staring, but their eyes on me only made me feel smaller and weaker. "Out!" Audrey shouts at the other girls when she brings me into the ladies' restroom.

I pull away from her quickly, rushing into a stall, pushing my hair back and proceeding to lose my lunch. I heaved as I cried, coughing up whatever was left in my stomach before flushing.

"Audrey?" I breathed out through the tears.

"I'm right here, honey." She walked over to where I was kneeling and placed a damp towelette on my head to cool me down. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I sobbed at her question, shaking my head in response. "I'm just-" I choked out, "so dumb." I continued to cry. "so stupid."

"You're not, sweetie. Don't say that." Audrey cradled my head to her chest.

"You were right about Ethan the whole time," I confess. "I should've listened to you."

"Well, it wasn't up to me. I had to let you make your own mistakes. Heaven knows I did," she sighs.

"I let him take pictures of me," I say shamefully, "he showed his friends, of course. I almost expected that...but I didn't think he'd start handing them out."

"Alison...you're joking?" Audrey says in shock.

I shake my head again before reaching into my pocket to hand her the photo I took from Heather. "He gave this one to Jace, and Heather thinks I did it," I speak resentfully.

"They're both worthless," Audrey scowls.

"I'm so sorry, Audrey." Tears run down my cheeks faster than I can wipe them away.

She gives me an endearing kiss on my forehead, "they'll get what's coming to them, Ali." I look up as she smirks, "Karma's a bitch, but she's nice to me."

"Are we ever going to actually go into the school?" I raise an eyebrow at Danny as he takes another drag from his cigarette before passing it to me.

"Why are you so eager to see these posh fucks? It's Monday," he scoffs.

"I'm not eager to see them. I just don't see why we're sitting in front of the school instead of in it." Besides, I only want to see one posh fuck today. Heather hasn't spoken to me since I ditched her at that bullshit luncheon she forced me to go to. I'm starting to think she's upset...

It's not like I care, but I don't think my tutor is supposed to avoid me.

"Fine," he huffs. "We'll go in then."

I nod and toss the cigarette out the window before rolling it up and stepping out of his van. He followed behind me, complaining the whole way to the door.

We missed our first three periods, but it doesn't matter. I can just catch Heather when the classes change.

I have nothing to be sorry for, and I don't plan on apologizing. I'll ask her how things went after I left, and then ask her to come by sometime next week to help me cram for my test. Things will be fine after that...I hope.

"What do you do when Val is mad at you?" I look over at Danny and pull him out of his bitch fit.

"Why?" His eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"Because...there's this girl I've been hooking up with recently," I lie. "I made her mad, and now she's dodging me."

"You found a new Cherry, huh?" He says slyly with a smile.

"I wouldn't go as far as to say that," I chuckled.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want a Cherry...new or old," I can't deal with the Cherry Marshall's of the world. I don't want a girlfriend.

"Well," Danny sighs, "It depends on how mad she is. When I fuck up big time and Val is pissed at me, I buy her flowers or candies and stuff, you know, romcom shit," he tries to explain, "but if it's something small like ignoring her calls or forgetting about a date, and she wants to be all crossed armed and pouty, I just fuck her brains out, and we're good again."

I raise my eyebrows in response before laughing, "okay, let's say you agree to go somewhere with her, and then you leave without telling her. Did I fuck up big time or is that a small thing?"

"...you left her alone?" He asks in concern.

"No, she was with her friends." If you can even call them that.

"Oh, then you're fine," Danny says in relief. "That's a small thing. Fuck her brains out."

"Not really an option, but thanks anyway." I pat him on the back.

Let's hope Heather also thinks it's a "small thing."

I really don't want her to hate me again.

"Tough luck, Heath, I guess Jace prefers even Alison's goods to yours." Audrey purses her lips as she looks down on me.

"Excuse me?" I glare at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry...was that not clear enough for you? Okay, Jace does not want you anymore...no one does," Audrey enunciates her every word. "Face it, Blakely, you're washed up," she smirks.

"What's your problem, Audrey?" I scowl. By now, we've stolen the attention of everyone around us.

What did I do to deserve this? It's humiliating enough that my boyfriend felt the need to have a picture of Alison to...do whatever with, but now Audrey wants to make it a public service announcement? This can't be because I defended Lisa at the lacrosse game, that was nothing compared to what she's doing here.

"Do better, Heather. You can't keep a man or any of your friends." She shook her head disapprovingly before walking off, or should I say sashaying?...More like strutting on the catwalk of my mortification.

And here I am, stunned, surrounded by muffled laughter and people making small comments to each other, hoping I don't hear them as they stare directly at me.

"Sure, Audrey, you're right..." I say before she gets too far to hear me, "I couldn't keep him...and you couldn't keep the baby. Life's a bitch, but aren't we all?"

Now, we can both strut...

I held my breath as I turned in the other direction, trying to walk as quickly as possible without it looking like I'm running away. I didn't want to give her time to think of another response to shoot me down with, so I panicked when I heard my name.

"Heather, what the fuck?" I calmed down when I recognized the voice as Leo's.

"What?" I bite back.

"That was a really shitty thing to bring up. You are better than that," he scolds me. He really has the nerve to scold me...

I laugh in his face, "Oh, my god. You think you've got me all figured out, don't you?" I narrow my eyes at him, "you don't know me, Leo. And who are you to take up that holier than thou attitude with me? You're just as dirty and criminal as your burnout friends," I motion towards the boys he's standing with, "and I am just as pretentious as the rest of the people you hate so much, no matter how different you think I am." I watched as the empathy drained from his face and was replaced with an unreadable expression, it was almost intimidating enough for me to forget how angry I felt.

"Alright," he nodded, "then why are you still standing here? Piss off, already," he spat. I glare at him as he shoos me away, "Go on, fuck off."

"Screw you."