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Helena

I grasp the hem of my dress, stumbling over it as I run. My fingers clutch the fluttering fabric as I race through the echoing halls, fighting back the need to cry. The stubborn hem of my dress seems determined to hinder my efforts to escape this suffocating place.

“Stop, Helen!”

My eyes fill up with angry tears. That asshole! He doesn’t even know my name. I have corrected him a thousand times, but he keeps getting it wrong. My name is not the only thing he’s gotten wrong tonight! I let go of my dress to swat angrily at my wet cheeks, hating the tears that spill.

“Helen!”

“Stop following me!” I cry out, my eyes locked on the exit. I push open the double doors, nearly tripping on my way out but I manage to catch myself. Barely. Then I am back to running, but I don’t make it far before a hand grabs my elbow and I am spun around, my teary eyes locking on the man set on making my night hell.

A day ago, if someone had told me that I would look at this man and hate him with every fiber of my being, I would have firmly denied it. Nico is the most popular guy in our school and for months, I have been hiding my crush on him. When he asked me out to Prom a week ago, I was over the moon.

The most popular guy in school asking the school nerd out to prom felt like a novel. Na?ve as I was, I thought he had feelings for me too. Up until a few minutes ago, I was sure this was the man I was going to give all of me to and it seems he was banking on the same outcome. In the most literal way.

How stupid of me to think Nico would go out with me simply because he liked me. How… na?ve.

“Can you stop and listen to me?”

“If you don’t let go of me, I am going to scream!” I threaten him and he quickly pulls his hand from mine to run it through his dark hair in a show of frustration.

“What the hell is your problem?”

“My problem?” I sputter at the nerve of the man to ask why I’m reacting this way! “You think I don’t know why you asked me to prom?”

His face goes stony and something dark crosses his eyes. Annoyance? Not guilt for ruining my senior year prom and embarrassing me but… Annoyance! Is he seriously annoyed that I found out about his little bet with his friends?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says, his voice suddenly cold, showing me a side of him I’ve never seen before.

I’ve heard things about Nico. That he was a jerk and bully who cared little about other people’s feelings. I just never believed any of that because he showed me a side of him that was charming and kind. He would open doors for me when I walked to class and sometimes surprise me with my favorite drink. Nico was always attentive to my needs, offering me his jacket when he thought I was cold, and sometimes he would offer to drive me home after school. He was charming and I dropped my guard. I ignored all the rumors of him being a jerk and fell for him.

I fell for a lie.

Learning that all those beautiful moments we shared were calculative sends bile climbing up my throat. This man played me like a fiddle. He never meant all those things he said to me. Not a single one of them.

“Just leave me alone,” I whisper, turning around to leave but he grabs my arm this time and spins me back around to face him, annoyance plain on those cold eyes I thought were beautiful when they picked me up from my house earlier in the evening. They are ugly now. Cold and ugly.

“I don’t know what you’ve heard…”

“Everything but the price,” I choke out, tugging my arm from his grip but this time, he doesn’t let me go. “I wonder how much you bet on my virginity, Nico. Ten, twenty bucks? Fifty?”

“Helen–”

“That’s not my name, Jesus Christ, Nico! My name is Helena. When will you get it right?” I rage, welcoming the anger that takes the place of self-pity. “If you and your asshole friends are going to bet on someone’s virginity then at least get their name right!”

“Fine, whatever, but don’t you think you are overreacting? Leaving the party like that because your heard about some stupid bet?”

I didn’t think I could get even more surprised than I already am, but Nico just keeps outdoing himself. “At least try to deny it,” I plead. “I won’t believe it, but could you at least try and look sorry?”

“Look Helen…”

“Helena for Christ’s sake!”

“…If I didn’t do it, someone else was going to. People have been betting on you since junior year and maybe if you weren’t so stuck up, then guys wouldn’t have to bet on you to get in your pants.”

"Junior year?" I stutter, my eyes shifting to the doors as if expecting someone to storm out and tell me that he is lying. They've kept this going for two years? Betting on me like I am some kind of sport. How many people know about this? I bet they've been whispering about it behind my back.

I hug my arms and shake my head, refusing to believe that the people I considered my friends would do this to me. That Nico – the one guy I allowed myself to like – would betray me in this way!

I need to go.

“It’s not a big deal!”

Right, then maybe they wouldn't have kept it a secret if it wasn't a big deal like he claims. I had to hear it from his friends who were complaining about how Nico was going to win the bet tonight, and the worst part is, he would have. If I hadn't learned what I did tonight, I would have let Nico take my virginity. With my father working late tonight, I had everything planned out, and now…

“Let go of me!” I grind, yanking my hand away, and this time he lets me. “You are a jerk, Nico. You and the losers you hang out with. One day you will know what it feels like to have someone treat you like cheap trash!”

I turn around to leave when his words stop me. “I wouldn’t exactly call you cheap. You just cost me a hundred bucks!” he sneers, a voice I once adored grating at my ears and chipping into my heart. “You think you’re that special, huh? Well, you’re not. I will go back in there and I’ll have fifty girls begging to go home with me. You are not special!”

He is already walking away when I turn around and a part of me wants to make him hurt. I lean down and tug at my shoe, ready to fling it at his back when my phone starts ringing before I can. I watch as Nico walks back into the building, without looking back at me once, and the doors close behind him.

I collapse to the ground, letting the ringing die down as I sniff back tears. Nico's words play over in my mind, reminding me what a fool I’ve been for weeks. That boy could have ruined my life tonight. I was going to give him something precious. A part of me that I have held on for that special moment with that special person.

He couldn't even get my name right!

My phone starts ringing again and a frustrated sound slips from my lips as I dig into my purse and search around for the annoying device, intent on flinging it across the pavement and into the flower bush. I hesitate when I see the unfamiliar number flash onto my screen. With a sigh, I slide my finger across the screen to take the call before bringing it to my ear.

“Hello,” a soft feminine voice breaks through the speaker. “Is this Helena Jerkins?”

“Yeah,” I sniff, running the back of my hand over my wet cheeks and sitting up. “This is Helena, who’s this?”

“Hi, we need you at the hospital. St. Peters Memorial Hospital.”

“Wait, what? Why?” I cry out, sitting up as my mind runs a mile an hour. I hold my breath for her answer and when she speaks, whatever shreds of my heart were left after Nico’s betrayal, shatter into a million pieces.

“It’s about your father.”