13. Chapter 8
Trending Consequences
Evin
T he morning felt worse than expected.
On her way to school, with the wind tugging at her hair, the events of the trip played out in Evin’s mind. The Video. The Comments.
She hadn't hesitated for long—her anger and disappointment had driven her straight to the boys’ room, ignoring her friends, ignoring everyone else’s reactions. She had stormed in, chest heaving, tears threatening to spill.
“Damn it!” She tried to think about how she would explain it to Bas. What was there to explain to him, anyway, after everything that had happened last weekend and their fight at school?
“This was the last thing I needed.”
What others thought about her didn’t matter much, but this? This pushed her and Bas further back, undoing any progress they might have made. She felt like she’d been thrown back into middle school.
Sit ting alone at lunch while Bas and his friends whispered about her across the cafeteria, their laughter ringing in her ears. She wasn’t part of their world then, and clearly, she wasn’t part of it now.
Her heart raced as she knocked on the door to the room. She didn’t know what to expect, but her fingers trembled with fury. The door opened, and there he was—Dominic, looking guilty.
“Actually... I can explain.”
“Fuck, can you? I knew it was you!” Her voice shook, her face displaying all the rage she had bottled up. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“Sorry, but Bas is my friend. He has a right to know.” Evin shook her head in disbelief, the memory replaying itself as she walked. “A right to what? And that’s why it ended up in the group chat?”
Ben had stood frozen in the doorway, just as she had stormed past him when he opened it.
“How did Cat get the video?” Her gaze darted from Dominic to Ben. Just as Ben opened his mouth to speak, Evin’s anger redirected itself at Dominic.
“And this is what a good friend does? Sends it to his fling so she can post it everywhere? Great friend you are, Dom!”
"Depends on who you think the fling is, Evin. ‘Cause from where I’m standing, you’re the one swapping out Bas for the next guy in line. So don’t act so shocked when people start talking."
Evin’s breathing grew heavier as she glared at Dominic, her fists clenching at her sides.
"Fuck you, Dominic. This coming from the guy who’s been orbiting around Cat like a lost puppy, just waiting for scraps.
At least I don’t pretend to have a backbone while running errands for someone who wouldn't even claim me in public. "
Her breathing was fast and shallow, tears threatening to spill, but she forced herself to stay strong. She wouldn’t break down in front of them.
Ben, who had been standing in the doorway the entire time, took a hesitant step forward, as if to say something, but Evin didn’t let him.
“And you,” she said, turning to him, her voice now icy. “How could you let this happen, Ben?”
He looked at her with a mixture of guilt and regret.
“Evin, I tried to stop it, I swear. But it happened so fast, and then it was already out.”
His voice was soft, almost pleading, but it didn’t reach her.
“Too late, right? Too late,” she muttered, trying to suppress the rising panic in her chest.
Everything felt like too much. The room, their stares, the unrelenting reality of what waited for her outside.
“You two deserve each other. One’s spineless, the other’s careless. Congrats!” she snapped and left the room before either of them could say another word.
The cold morning wind brought no relief.
Her thoughts spiraled chaotically, and the comments from the group chat seemed to follow her, hanging over her head, refusing to disappear.
So predictable...
Wow, Evin’s with everyone now, huh?
Poor Bas...
Bas and Cat are way better together anyway.
Her fingers still trembled slightly as she walked, the words looping in her mind, relentless no matter how hard she tried to block them out. She scoffed under her breath, her eyes burning, but she wiped the tears away before they could fall.
“Screw them,” she muttered under her breath.“They don’t know anything...”
But the sting remained—the fear that, to the entire school, she was now just another girl who had lost control.
As she stepped onto the school grounds, the chat messages played on a loop in her head. Words like cheap and drama queen hit her over and over, but the longer she walked, the straighter her posture became.
The kiss with Ben wasn’t a mistake. Why should it have been? After the fight with Bas, she was hurt. She had sought comfort—nothing more, nothing less. If everyone wanted to turn it into a drama, that wasn’t her problem.
"They’re all just overreacting," she thought, keeping her gaze fixed ahead. "As if a kiss is the end of the world."
It wasn’t her fault she had sought closeness for a fleeting moment. She had felt like she was losing control, and for just an instant, she had tried to take it back. But being made into the scapegoat now? That, she wouldn’t accept.
And Bas? He had never cared before. Not when she had kissed someone at a party.
Not when she had flirted with other guys in front of him.
He would just laugh it off, roll his eyes, make some careless comment.
But now—now it was different. Now, he was acting like she had betrayed him.
Like this was something new. Like he hadn’t already done worse. Over and Over, all these years.
She felt the stares like needles on her skin. The air was thick with rumors and whispers. A few girls, who had never paid her any attention before, looked at her as if she were a character in a reality show—the kind where she was the latest scandal.
Her heart pounded in her chest, and the memory of the video brought a mix of shame and anger bubbling to the surface.
She spotted Bas. He stood there, surrounded by his usual group—Cat, his boys, a few others. But he said nothing. No glance, no reaction. He was right there, yet he felt further away than ever.
How could he ignore her like this? How could he act as if nothing had happened? Every second of his silence felt like a slap in the face.
“Hey, Evin, heard the news? You’re the hottest story of the week!”, one of Bas’s friends called out with a mocking grin. A few others joined in the laughter, as if they’d scored front-row seats to the drama of her life.
Evin’s breath hitched.
How had it come to this? How could Bas allow this to happen?
Of course he’s not going to defend me. He never does. He never has.
It wasn’t like she had expected him to stand up for her—not really. Not when it came to things like this. But a part of her, a stupid, stubborn part, had still hoped he wouldn’t just watch. That he wouldn’t let them all laugh at her like she was nothing.
The silence between them was deafening, but his silence hurt more than any words could. Her thoughts raced. Was this the moment he truly gave up on her?
She bit down hard on her lip, tasting the salty sting of tears she refused to shed. But her anger, her disappointment—they all pushed to the surface.
She shouldn’t care. She should’ve known better. And yet, it still felt like a knife to the ribs.
“You know, Evin,” Cat said with a smug smile, “Ben’s a real catch. Maybe you should’ve gone for him in the first place.”
Her eyes gleamed maliciously as she turned toward the boys. “Bas doesn’t seem to care, anyway.”
She heard Dominic snicker. Of course he’d enjoy this. He had always been more of a spectator than a friend—watching, waiting, stirring the pot just enough to see things explode.
Each step felt heavier than the last, every stare, every murmur slicing into her skin like tiny cuts. She could feel them watching, waiting for her to break. But she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. Not here. Not now.
Finally, she reached the far corner of the courtyard, where her friends were waiting.
The moment she saw them—Milka’s concerned expression, the quiet understanding in Hannah's gaze—some of the tension in her chest loosened. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to remind her that she wasn’t completely alone.
___________
"I swear, if Mr. Brunner gives me that condescending look one more time today, I’m going to lose it," Hannah said, yanking her cap lower over her forehead.
"Th at guy seriously has it out for me."
"For you? He looks at me like I ran over his cat every single time ," Evin shot back.Hannah snorted, twirling her pen between her fingers.
"Pretty sure he doesn’t even have a cat. Too bitter. He probably strokes his gradebook at night instead."
"Maybe that’s his only friend," Evin added with a grin, leaning back in her seat. "Mr. Brunner and his lonely nights with the gradebook."
Milka raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like the saddest Tinder bio ever. 'Looking for someone who loves me as much as my gradebook does.'"
The girls burst out laughing.
Evin laughed along, but it didn’t feel genuine. Her thoughts drifted, and for a moment, a sense of heaviness settled over her. She took a deep breath, trying to focus on the chatter around her.
"Honestly, sometimes I feel like I’m just pretending to have it all together," she murmured, pulling her jacket tighter around herself. A flicker of unease swept through her chest.
Milka turned to her with a grin. "Oh, come on, Ev. You’ve got it more together than most of us. I mean, you never even had an embarrassing emo phase in middle school. That’s something."
"Yeah, and you never got one of those cringe ‘live, laugh, love’ ankle tattoos," Hannah added, nodding subtly toward Cat, who stood not too far away. "That definitely counts."
Evin smiled faintly as the others laughed, but despite the warmth of their conversation, the heaviness remained, lingering beneath the surface.
They had been sitting together on a bench at the edge of the schoolyard, the scent of cigarettes and stale coffee clinging to the cold air.