Accusations: School Rumors

Accusations: School Rumors
Amelia’s POV
My heart jumped, and I turned and saw Clara. Of course it was her—her smug smile, her sharp eyes flashing with malice, her clique flapping behind her like vultures over a kill. It was almost exactly the same insult she’d shouted at me months ago, the one that had dug into my skin and festered there. Slut. Hypocrite. Mistress. I breathed out, clenching my teeth.
"Clara," I barked, my voice slicing through the air. “What the hell are you talking about?
She began to strut towards me, her hips rolling, her lips twisted into a mocking smile. “Oh, come on, Amelia. Don’t play innocent. We all know you’re a homewrecker. Taking your best friend’s boyfriend? That’s low, even for you.” Her friends sniggered, whispers followed and next the emtirecourtyard spun, students slowing to see the show.
My blood was burning, I was clenching my fists. “What are you talking about?” I asked, moving closer to her, my voice soft and cold. “Quit using words you can’t support. Explain yourself.”
Clara giggled, a sharp, high pitched sound that got on my nerves. “Oh, please. You think you’re some saint? The whole school’s talking about how you screwed Sophie over. Poor girl’s heart brokenbecause you wouldn’t keep your hands off Joel.”
The name hit like a punch. Joel. The boy who had attempted to assault me, whose treachery had cost me Sophie. I felt my vision collapse, Clara’s face washing out in rage. Before I could retort, Liam shoved his way to the front with a serious look on his face. “Amelia, wait,” he added, lowering his voice. He thrust his phone at me, the screen lighting up with a post on the school’s gossip platform. The headline went: Amelia the Man-Stealer: How She Broke Her Best Friend’s Heart.
I read the post, my stomach clenching. It was a venomous cocktail of lies and half truths, that I’d one night standed Joel behind Sophie’s back, that I’d rubbed my “affair” in her face out of spite. Then there was an avalanche of anonymous comments — that I’m a mistress, that I’m a liar, that I’m a whore. My hands were shaking and I could barely hold the phone. “This is bullshit,” I muttered, my voice shaking with rage.
Liam’s gaze grew gentler, but his jaw was still clenched. “I don’t buy it,” he said softly. “But it’s spreading fast. You need to deal with this.”
I didn’t wait. My feet took off before my brain, stomping across campus to the arts building that held Sophie’s classes. The post lingered in my mind, Clara’s laughter reverberating in my ears. Sophie. She had to be behind this. After that fight, after she’d picked Joel like I was chopped liver over me, this was her revenge — making me looked like a liar, turning the truth inside out to make me the bad guy. My heart raced as anger and betrayal drove each step. Elena was somewhere to my rear, her existence a dull promise, yet this was my battle.
I found Sophie in the courtyard outside her lecture hall, flocked in the giddy gaggle that had gathered around her in the past couple of days, glossy hairedfollowers with sharp tongues. She was laughing with her head thrown back, like she hadn’t just set my world on fire. The image of her being so at ease while my world collapsed around me broke something in me. I pushed my way up, smashing Liam’s phone in her face, the page was still open on it.
“Does this make sense to you? Explain this." I whispered tensely my voice full of stirring wrath. “Why are you peddling this shit, Sophie?
She looked down at the phone, her lips flicking up into a smirk. She flipped her hair in a flick and turned away from me, as if I was no longer there. “Oh, Amelia,” she said, contempt dripping from the words. “Why don’t you just leave? Nobody wants you here.”
Her friends encircled me, huddled in a tight circle, their eyes glimmering with joy. “Mistress!” hissed one, her voice such that students around me turned. “You fucking ruined Sophie’s life,” another spat. “Joel broke up with her over you. You’re disgusting.”
My heart ached, and I stopped breathing when the crowd amplified, rumors turning to truth. I chuckled, a sharp, bitter noise that surprised even me. “Are you serious?” I said, pushing past the girls, my shoulder grazing against theirs as I approached Sophie. “When’s the last time you even saw Joel, Sophie? Have you spoken to him since our fight? Have we been in touch since then?”
Sophie’s smirk wavered, but she stiffened, fire in her eyes. “Then why did he break up with me?” she yelled, her voice broken. “He used to compare me to you all the time! I wasn’t as pretty, wasn’t as smart, wasn’t as perfect as Amelia. You didn’t play with him — I mean, what did he do that for?”
I laughed once more but this time it was louder with a jagged, angry edge to it. “Because he’s a scumbag, Sophie! I told you what he’d done to me at his party. He attempted to rape me, and I ran. I told you he was dangerous and you wouldn’t listen. You chose him over me and now you want to blame me for his garbage?”
Rage and pain flickered in her eyes as her face contorted. “You’re a liar!” she shouted, stepping closer, her friends encouraging her. “You’re twofaced, Amelia! You pretend to be my friend and go fuck my boyfriend behind my back! Wouldn’t he have other things to obsess over?Why else would he bother to love you?”
The accusation was like a slap, and for a moment, I saw red. The lies, the betrayal, how she’d used my pain as her weapon—it was all too much. My hand flew up, the ring on my finger glistening in the sunlight as I shoved it in her face. “Your man? C’mon, girl, I’m married!” I yelled, my voice loud, bitter and sharp.