Rak
The screen of my phone felt heavy in my hand, the blue light reflecting off Goya's wide, horrified eyes. One video after another—the laughter, the pointing, the way they caught her at her lowest and turned it into a viral punchline.
I watched her spirit break in real-time.
Goya looked like she'd seen a ghost. "What did just happen to you?" she whispered, her voice barely audible over the ringing in my ears.
I sigh heavily and burry my face in the pillow as I try to not scream.
"I don't ever wanna show my face in that place again," I mutter into the fabric.
Before I could find the right words, Ih stepped forward, his face set in a hard line of frustration.
"That's impossible," he snapped, crossing his arms. "You gotta fight back, Rak. They're literally bullying you."
"Period!" Goya yelled, pointing a finger toward the door as if the bullies were standing right there. "Don't let those bitches play with you like that!" Goya gets distracted by a notification on her phone and then says
"Lin is holding a masquerade ball at her place tomorrow night," she says, her voice trailing off like she's already halfway there.
I can't help it—I scoff. "So what? Fuck her and her parties."
It seriously pisses me off, Everytime I hear her name. I used to be interested in who she is, I even saw her as some kind of "hero" that saves me when I'm in some dangerous situation, she was fascinating to me.
But after what happens in the school's cantine I figured she's just a fucking nepo-bitchy mean girl "
"How did you find out, anyway?" I ask, trying to keep my voice steady.
Goya flips the phone around. It's a LINE group chat, the messages scrolling so fast I can barely read them. "It's the university group chat," she says, a bit of pride creeping into her tone. "The most popular people are in this."
Oh looks up, totally deadpan. "So why are you in there?"
The silence lasts for a split second before Goya snatches her pillow and nails him right in the face.
"Shut up!" she yells, looking legitimately offended even if she's laughing "She always manages to stick her nose everywhere" I say as I lay down in bed.
"You guys should go," Oh says, totally nonchalant.
I spin around and hit him with my deadliest stare. If looks could kill, he'd be a corpse on the floor right now. I'm about to go off, but Goya holds her palm up, cutting me off before I can even get a word out.
"He's right," she says.
She's back on her phone, thumb tapping away at the screen with terrifying confidence.
"I voted 'yes' for both of us in the group chat," she adds.
My eyes just about pop out of my head. "You what?"
I can't believe she's doing this. After everything, she's dragging us back into Lin's orbit. I sigh, the frustration bubbling up, and look over at Ih. "Fine. Whatever. But why aren't you coming too?"
Goya doesn't even let him answer. She jumps right in. "His Tawan hardly lets him out of the house. There's no way he'll let him come to a party like that."
Oh just waves her off, looking a little embarrassed but mostly just tired. "He just worries about me," he mutters.
He always says that but he reality is that Tawan is toxic and he hates all of Oh's friends "Just come with us, tell him that you're sleeping over at my place." I tell him.
"See this as an opportunity to show them that you're not afraid of them, so they'll leave you alone." Goya adds.
I roll my eyes.