Gnarly Grape #4

Finally. After her 6 years spent at a boarding school, she would finally get to see new faces as she arrived at college. She would finally be around people more like her, people that wouldn’t prejudge her, and people that would help her grow. And she would finally escape that label she carried as an albatross through her middle and high school years, “bitch.”

In 9th grade, she caught the eye of Max, the football quarterback who was almost universally considered to be the social alpha. But when he wrapped his arm around her near her mailbox, she instinctively elbowed him right in the side of his ribcage, breaking one of his ribs. As he hunched over in pain, he screamed, “You bitch! If you weren’t a girl, I’d break your fucking face in!” But he didn’t need to hit her to cause her agony. Within an hour, the school loathed her for injuring the team’s quarterback. Her name was no longer Zoe. It was, “Stupid bitch!” Other students knew that in order to have any chance at going anywhere in the social hierarchy, they must not have anything to do with her. As she went up in grade level, she tried to socialize with the new students each year, but to no avail. When they found out she was the Zoe that had heard about, they didn’t want anything to do with her. Hating her became part of her high school’s culture.

But she would soon be in college, with the ability to escape her prior torment. Her perceived identity would finally be in her own control. She walked onto her freshman floor with confidence and soon began to busily socialize with all she could find. She knew she was strong enough to get over her past. She was going to make these 4 years the best year of her life, and no lecherous football creep would stop her.

On her floor, there were four students, three girls and a guy, who would constantly hang around each other as they went to the same high school. Because she went to a lot of the same classes, she began to hang out around them a lot and considered them as friends. She finally fit in. She had beaten Max.

But soon thereafter, the male friend had groped her after what was supposed to be a simple dinner. Convinced that her friends would support her in her time of need, she quickly walked to one of her female friend’s room and asked her to come outside, since she didn’t want everybody knowing. She then told her about the whole situation. As Zoe ended, she expected her friend to get angry and begin to raise hell. But after a long pause, the only response was,

“Well, if you were wearing that, you were kindly asking for it. It really wasn’t his fault.”

Zoe immediately slapped the girl without hesitation, disgusted that she was being blamed. She was so angry that she didn’t notice the retaliatory fist that slammed in the side of her head so hard that Zoe collapsed into the ground. She wasn’t only able to hear the words, “Crazy bitch!”

As the salty taste of her own tears mixed in with the dirt on the ground, she came to the conclusion the four were always just friends with each other and not her. Her name would always be “bitch.” No escape.

The more things seem to differ, the more things have truly stayed the same.