CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
AND IT GETS WORSE
Saying today is not going great, is the understatement of the year. How did I go from people barely knowing my name to this? Just the beginning of last week, I was ok. Then I just had to turn seventeen and the s**t show began.
I walk through the hallway like I’m wearing a target on my back, and maybe I am. Every whisper, every glare, every badly concealed chuckle feels like a slap to the face. A part of me regrets snapping at Theo earlier. He was only trying to help. Sure, his explosive reaction probably escalated things, but he didn’t have to step in at all. He chose to. And even though I shut him down, I know it wasn’t out of malice. It was just... too much.
I haven’t seen Derek anywhere. Yesterday had only been his reporting day, a brief introd
