Chapter 69 - sixty nine
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Alicia’s POV
I looked outside the car window, watching the city lights blur past. But I wasn’t really seeing them. My mind had gone somewhere else. Somewhere I’d tried very hard to never go back to.
High school.
Jennifer and her friends. The way they’d whisper when I walked past. Loud enough for me to hear but quiet enough to maintain plausible deniability if I ever confronted them.
"Did you see what she’s wearing? Probably from Goodwill."
"I heard she works at that diner on Fifth Street. Serving people like us."
"Why is she even at this school? Oh right. Charity case."
The laughter that always followed. That cruel, casual laughter that said I was a joke to them. Entertainment.
Cassie had been my only friend. The only person who didn’t care that I had secondhand clothes and worked two jobs just to help my mom with rent. She’d sit with me at lunch when everyone else pretended I didn’t exist. Made me laugh when I wanted to cry. Reminded me I was worth something even when the world told me I wasn’t.
Then there was Jason. My crush. The boy with the kind smile who actually talked to me like I was a person. Who helped me with calculus and made my heart race every time he was near.
I’d thought maybe he liked me too. The way he looked at me sometimes. The way he’d find excuses to talk to me.