Chapter 6: The Party

“So, what are you doing on New Year’s Eve?” Sabrina asked Lottie, walking towards their literature class together.

“Probably just watching some movies and eating crap, my parents will be out.”

“Seriously?” the white-haired girl sighed. “Lottie, you need a social life. Come partying with me.”

“No, you’ll just leave me for some guys.”

“Yes, and we can find you one too,” she insisted.

“I don’t want a guy.”

“You want a girl?”

Lottie rolled her eyes. “I’m into guys. But I don’t want one…”

“Because of Thomas? Are you guys like dating now?” Sabrina asked with a smirk.

“No…”

“You’re literally the worst liar ever,” she giggled.

“We’re not dating, Sab. I’m just… I don’t know. I like him. And I feel like he likes me too, so maybe if we’ll meet some day…”

“So, you don’t wanna get guys. Still, come to the party,” Sabrina pleaded.

“I can’t. I promised my mom I’ll babysit.”

“Your sister is 11,” she sighed.

“Exactly. I’ll just have a movie night with my eleven-year-old sister. That’s what I like,” Lottie smiled, making her friend roll her eyes, kind of aggressively.

#

Thomas: U really staying home?

Lottie: Yep

Thomas: Ugh I feel bad

Thomas: Can’t you like come here?

Lottie: Thom, I’m fine

Thomas: Lottie I don’t want to be an ass or anything, but you really need to get friends

Thomas: I feel bad

Thomas: I want you to have a good life

Lottie: I’m having a perfectly fine life without parties and drinking

Lottie: But if u are so concerned…

Lottie: I agreed to go with Sabrina tonight at like 10 or sth

Thomas: Good

Thomas: Text me when u want to talk or something, okay?

Lottie: Okay

Thomas: Love u

Lottie: I love u too

#

“Come on,” Sabrina smiled at Lottie, dragging her into the house party where only Sabrina had been invited to, but was allowed to bring friends as everybody. Lottie scrunched her nose up at the half-naked girls trying to grind their hips against some jocks. Somewhere it smelled like puke and everyone was drunk. She felt uncomfortable.

“Sab I don’t like it here,” she murmured.

“Come oon, be fun for once,” she said, pulling Lottie with her into the kitchen. She felt sad at that. Be fun for once? It was a whole insult and hurt her a lot.

Sabrina started filling two red solo cups with alcohol and Lottie held her mouth shut, accepting it and planning to leave it somewhere a few minutes later. She took a small sip from the beer though and followed the blonde, trying to not pump into anybody.

“Let’s join them?” Sabrina smirked at Lottie, pointing at the mean cheerleaders who were all smirking at the two.

“Uh, no…” Lottie said with raised eyebrows, looking at her friend questioningly. She placed her cup on the bookshelf quickly just before Sabrina grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards the three mean girls; Samantha and her minions. “Sab,” she murmured protesting against it, and pulled her arm free from Sabrina.

“Ew. Sabrina. You let her call you Sab?” Samantha asked with a disgusted grin.

“I know. It’s gross,” Sabrina rolled her eyes, stepping to join the three girls, all of them holding a drink. So now there was four of them and Lottie felt scared, confused and more and more annoyed with every single second she had to stand there, loud music ruining her ears.

“You couldn’t even put a dress on?” Samantha snorted, observing her broken jeans and the black long-sleeved stretch shirt, hugging her curves perfectly.

“Of course, she didn’t, someone so fat wouldn’t fit in a dress,” Sabrina sneered, making the other three laugh with her.

Lottie’s jaw clenched, turning her head a bit towards right to look away from them, hoping to find a sight of her sister and ask for car keys to leave. Small tears were pricking up in her eyes, her whole body hurting from humiliation and shame. (She didn’t know why these particular emotions, but they were there.) “Why do you hate me so much?” she asked Samantha, understanding Sabrina must’ve been on their side from the very beginning.

“You remember that day in sixth grade? Bobby McLoone’s birthday?”

“Yeah…”

“You kissed him.” Lottie started to open her mouth to disagree, but Samantha kept going. “You knew I liked him. But you kissed him anyways.”

“I was 11,” Lottie frowned. “It was spin-the-bottle and if I remember correctly, you were the one suggesting we all play it.”

“Well you’d be happy to know I’m dating him now,” she smiled. “And he thinks nothing more of you than of the fat slut that you are.”

Lottie’s arms wrapped themselves unconsciously around her body, shoulders raising up a bit. “I’m sure you have something better to do than to insult me,” she murmured. “Can you let go of me? Why are you doing this?” she frowned, looking at Sabrina who was still holding her on the place, hand on her shoulder and the other one gripping her wrist.

“Sabrina, tell her why you talked to her in the first place,” Samantha ordered.

“To get you to a party. To humiliate you. But your dumb shit of a body wouldn’t come. So, I had to keep faking being your friend.”

“Great, I don’t care,” Lottie huffed, pulling her shoulder away with a strong yank.

Suddenly all the four cups full of beer moved in the girls’ hands, throwing it all over Lottie; her clothes, her face, the hair, everything. She gasped quietly, jerking at the cold smelly feel, her eyes squeezed shut. The girls in front of her laughed as the whole room got silent, and she could see even from behind her closed eyelids the flashes that were going off, noting that somebody was taking pictures of her.

Her eyes slowly opened in shock, feeling like a piece of dirt that annoyed everyone and everybody hated. She was kind of frozen for a second until the others in the room (all very drunk) started laughing too. That’s when she ran out of there; out of the house, far away from the street, towards her home.

It was almost snowing outside when she got home, smelly and cold. She had left her coat to Sabrina’s car and felt like she was never going to get it back. So now she was like a cube of ice, her hair frozen because of the beer and the icy air. She was shaking and almost 100% sure she was going to be sick now. But Lottie still ran upstairs, the first sob escaping once she was safely in her room, the door closed.

#

After having a long hot shower, she had curled up in her bed, wearing the long-sleeved Christmas themed pajamas, fluffy blue socks and a hoodie. She had wrapped herself under all her covers and duvets, snuggled up in between her pillows. Her only comfort springs being her room and bed, she was hugging a soft pink pillow to her chest, imagining it was somebody she really loved and wanted to meet. Someone who she didn’t have the guts to call right now.

Her phone kept buzzing, people she didn’t even know kept tagging her on Instagram and writing shit about her just because some bitch hated her for kissing a boy back when they were kids. She hated her life when she picked up the phone, seeing a familiar name on the screen.

“Lottie?” Thomas’s anxious voice asked. “Lottie are you okay? Why aren’t you answering my texts? Where are you?” There could be heard some music and noise on the background, but he was obviously out of the building at the moment.

“I’m at home,” she said in a small shaky.

“Why? Is everything okay?” Thom asked in panic, hearing her sniffling on the other side of the phone.

“I thought she was my friend, Thom,” she whispered, tears filling her face. “I’m never going to trust anybody ever again,” she cried.

“Why? Lottie, what happened?” Thomas asked, the desperation in his voice not being left unnoticed.

“My Instagram. Look at my Instagram,” she cried.

Thomas sighed. “Don’t end the call.” The boy lowered his phone in front of the bar his dad owned, leaning on his motorcycle. His first thoughts were nudes. Lottie had taken them and had gone hacked somehow. The reality was much better. While also being much worse.

He gulped, seeing so many accounts tagging Lottie on posts, pictures and videos. He held his breath while clicking on a video. There were four girls standing in front of Lottie, insulting her. She asked something, and the leader of the group seemed to answer it before every single one of them threw the liquid from their cups at her. Her nose was scrunched up and body tense, but when she opened her eyes, she looked disgusted. Once everyone started laughing, her eyes changed, getting glassy. Thomas could see her lower lip trembling when she glared the girls down and then ran out of there.

Which was the worst thing for him to watch was how polite the brunette kept being while the others just insulted her. Thomas’s heart broke when the video started again and his shaking hands brought the phone back to his ear, tears in his wide eyes now too. “Baby?” he asked softly in a few seconds, it being the first time he used that kind of endearment with her. He had used ‘hon’, ‘sweetie’ (while joking), and ‘babe’ (which had made Lottie’s heart flutter more times and longer than she could count). “I’m sorry,” he just whispered, not having better words.

“Can you come here?” Lottie cried. “I need somebody here.”

“Baby can you try to call your sister?”

“No, she’s still at some party, she won’t hear the phone.”

“What about the other one?”

“I took her to her friend’s place before I went away,” she murmured, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand, his voice calming her.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Lying in my bed,” she said quietly, throat aching from the crying and the cold. “I think I’m sick.”

“Maybe you’re just shaken up,” Thomas said quietly.

“It was beer, Thom,” she whispered. “I walked home without a jacket, covered in beer. I’m so cold and I have like five covers on and two layers of clothing,” her shaky voice said.

“Did you take a hot bath or something?”

“A shower.”

“Are you feeling better?”

“I feel worse with every minute,” she whispered. “I think I’m gonna throw up,” she added quickly a few seconds later, dropping her phone as she jumped up and ran into the bathroom.

“Lottie?” Thomas asked anxiously. “Fuck,” he said louder, hitting his bike with his foot. The girl returned a few minutes later, sobbing and feeling like she was going to do it again.

“Lottie calm down,” Thomas said with a sigh. “Call your parents. Please. Or maybe your grandparents can get there sooner?”

“I don’t wanna tell them what happened,” she cried.

“You have to. And they have to do something about it. Tonight, just tell them you’re sick. Please,” he begged.

“I don’t want to disappoint them again.”

“Lottie,” Thomas sighed. “How could you disappoint them? You’re sick, you’re vomiting. You need help. Like right now. I can’t help you through the phone.”

“They’ll come home soon anyways,” she protested.

“Lottie,” the boy said with a strict voice. “There’s still half an hour until midnight. They won’t be home until a few hours. Please, Lottie, call them.”

“Okay,” she finally gave up.

“Okay. Text me when they’re there, okay? And you can call me any time you want; I promise I’ll pick up.”

“Okay. Thank you, Thommy.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “Call your parents, baby. Bye.”

“Bye,” she murmured quietly, heart beating 200 beats in a minute. She dialed her mom immediately and as a good mother and a really overprotectively strict parent, she answered almost on the first ring.

“Yeah honey? Everything okay?”

“No,” Lottie murmured, hearing Eleanor walking away from the small noise. “I went to that party I told you about, but they bullied me and threw beer on me, so I came home, and I’m cold and I just threw up,” she explained quietly.

Eleanor was taken aback from all the information but was already hurrying to get her things. “Honey, I’ll be home in about fifteen minutes, go to bed and get yourself warm.”

“I am in bed,” Lottie said tiredly.

“Alright. I’ll be there soon. I love you.”

“I love you too,” she said.

#

“Here,” Eleanor sighed, sitting on the edge of her middle daughter’s bed and helping her sit up a little as well. It was past midnight now, Lottie had been disappointed that she couldn’t even enjoy a movie now, only needing to throw up and sneeze every second. Her mom handed her the cup of hot tea. Lottie relaxed immensely, finding that Eleanor had added sugar, knowing her daughter liked it. This was always the best part about being sick; Eleanor didn’t have to pretend either.

“Are you feeling better?” the older woman sighed, stroking Lottie’s hair gently.

“A little, yeah,” she said quietly, placing the cup on her bedside table and sinking back into the pillows with a quiet sigh.

“Honey I need to know what happened, exactly. If these girls are going on bullying, you—”

“It hasn’t been that bad,” Lottie murmured. “They’re just really stupid.”

“Tell me what happened, please,” Eleanor sighed.

Lottie frowned a little but reached out for her phone. She made sure to ignore the notifications she had gotten, knowing there was also a text from Thomas for sure. She opened her Instagram and pulled her lower lip between her teeth to keep it from trembling. She opened her tags and mentions, choosing a video from some person she didn’t know and doubted went to their school.

Her mom had to watch the video twice before placing the phone back down and looking back at Lottie. She had turned her head away to face the wall next to her bed, arms around herself under all the duvets once again. “Honey,” Eleanor sighed, touching her hair again. “You’re not fat,” she said with a sad tone.

Lottie half scoffed, tears in her eyes. “Mom even you say I’m fat.”

“No, I don’t,” her mother insisted. “I’m not letting you eat sugar or junk food because it’s not good for your own health.”

Lottie rolled her eyes and quickly wiped the new tears away that kept leaving trails down her pale cheeks.

“Do you know those girls’ names?” Eleanor asked, making the girl tense up. “I want their names, honey. Are they the same ones who have insulted you before?”

“I thought Sabrina was my friend,” she said honestly, her own heart aching at the thought of losing that girl too now. “But the others, yes.”

“Okay,” Eleanor sighed and planted a soft kiss onto her forehead. “Do you want something more to eat or drink? Or maybe you could just try to sleep?”

“Yeah, I’m tired,” Lottie murmured, not turning away from her mom this time, enjoying the way her hand felt on her hair. It was so motherly, and she felt like she was a kid again, enjoying it until she drifted off to sleep.