Sienna had been my friend since we were kids.
We used to share everything—secrets, snacks,
and even our homework. But once I started
sit ing with Leo in the back row
, she changed. It
started with the way she looked at me
. Every
time I came back from class with a smile on
my face
, she would stare at me with these cold,
hard eyes. She didn
't ask me what we laughed
about. Instead, she would just turn her back and
start talking to someone else
. I felt like I was
losing my best friend, but I didn
't know why. I
didn
't realize that Sienna was jealous of the
at ention Leo was giving me
.
21.
One morning, Sienna walked up to me at my
locker
. She didn
't say
"
good morning.
" She just
leaned against the cold metal and looked at my
shoes.
"You know
, Elara
,
"
she said in a quiet,
mean voice
,
"
everyone is starting to talk about
you
.
" My heart dropped.
"Talk about me? Why?"
I asked. She shrugged,
acting like she didn
't
care
.
"They say you
'
re desperate
. They say you
'
re
following Leo around like a lit le puppy. It'
s
making you look really bad.
" I felt a lump in
my throat. I wasn
't following him; we were just
friends. But Sienna knew exactly how to make
me feel small.
22.
Sienna didn
't stop there
. She started spreading
lit le drops of poison everywhere she went. In
the cafeteria
, she would sit with a group of girls
and whisper whenever I walked by. I could see
them leaning in
, their eyes darting toward me
,
and then they would all burst out laughing. It
was the kind of laughter that hurts. It wasn
't the
fun kind I shared with Leo
. It was the kind that
makes you want to disappear
. Sienna was telling
them that I was obsessed with Leo and that I
was writing his name all over my notebooks. It
was a lie
, but people love a good story.
23.
The poison started to reach Leo
, too
. Sienna was
smart. She didn
't tell him I was mean; she told
him I was
"
weird.
" One afternoon
, I saw her
standing by his desk before class started. She
was leaning in close
, laughing at something he
said, but then her face went serious. I couldn
't
hear what she was saying, but I saw her point at
me
. Leo looked over his shoulder at me for a
second, then looked back at her and nodded. My
stomach twisted into a knot. I wanted to run over
there and ask what was happening, but I was too
scared of looking
"desperate
" like Sienna said.
24.
When class started, Leo was different. For the
first ten minutes, he didn
't say a word to me
. He
didn
't make a joke about the teacher
'
s tie
. He
didn
't even look at me
. I felt like there was a
thick glass wall between us. I tried to make a
joke about a bird outside the window
, something
that usually made him laugh. He just glanced at
me and said,
"Yeah,
okay,
"
and went back to his
drawing. The bridge we had built in Chapter 2
felt like it was starting to crack. Sienna was
sit ing across the room
,
watching us with a tiny,
satisfied smile on her face
.
25.
After school, I tried to talk to Sienna
. I thought
maybe if I was nice to her
, she would stop.
"Hey, do you want to go get ice cream?" I asked
her
. She looked at me like I was a stranger
.
"I'
m busy, Elara
. I'
m actually hanging out with
Leo
'
s group today. You probably shouldn
't come
.
You
'd just make it awkward.
" She walked away
before I could even reply. I stood there in the
hallway, surrounded by hundreds of students,
and
I had never felt more alone in my life
. The
friend I had known for years was turning into
my worst enemy,
and I didn
't even know how to
fight back.
26.
Sienna
'
s poison was working on my head, too
. I
started to doubt myself. Every time Leo didn
't
text me back immediately, I thought, Is he
annoyed with me? Does he think I'
m desperate?
I started to change the way I acted. I stopped
being myself because I was so afraid of proving
Sienna right. I stopped making the
"doublemeaning
"
jokes because I didn
't want him to
think I was
"
at racted" to him in a weird way.
By trying to protect the friendship, I was
actually let ing Sienna destroy the very thing
that made it special.
27.
The worst part was the rumors. By the middle of
October
, the whole of Class 8 "knew
" that Elara
Vance was in love with Leo Sterling. People
would make kissing noises when I walked past
them in the hall. Some boys even came up to
Leo and teased him about his
"
girlfriend.
" Leo
hated it. He had a massive ego
,
and he wanted to
be seen as the cool, single guy who didn
't care
about anyone
. The more people teased him
, the
more he pushed me away. Sienna had
successfully turned my biggest joy into his
biggest embarrassment.
28.
One day, I found a note in my locker
. It didn
't
have a name on it, but the handwriting looked
like Sienna
'
s. It said:
"He
'
s only talking to you
because he feels sorry for you
. Everyone knows
it. Just stop.
" I ripped the paper into tiny pieces
and threw it in the bin
, but the words stayed in
my brain
. I spent that whole night crying. I
looked at my phone
,
wanting to text Leo and ask
him if it was true
, but I was too frozen by fear
.
The poison was in my blood now
. I was starting
to believe that I wasn
't worth his effort.
29.
The chapter ends on a dark note
. It was a rainy
Friday,
and the classroom was freezing. I sat
down at the back bench, hoping for a sign that
things were okay. Leo sat down behind me
, but he
didn
't lean forward. He didn
't whisper
. Instead, he
pulled out his headphones and put them on
. He
was blocking me out before he even clicked the
"block" but on on his phone
. I looked over at
Sienna
,
and she gave me a wink. She had won
.
She had poured enough poison into our world that
the bridge was finally falling down
.
30.