Chapter Text
Before Marisol was able to fully register what her best friend just said, Katie’s face turned white in horror at her own outburst. Even she knew what she had revealed in front of the audience was the worst thing she could have possibly ever done.
“I….,” Katie trailed off while Marisol slowly looked around the room. The reactions from everyone were already burned in her mind forever.
Drew’s mouth was wide open in shock, and he looked like a fish that had been slammed on a hook. Simpson’s mouth was pressed in a thin line. There were dozens of people that were just looking at her in either shock or disgust.
Jenna’s reaction was more damning than anyone else’s. At first her face was stark white, only to slowly turn red in rage. If she didn’t hate her before this, she definitely hated her now, and at least some of that anger was directed towards K.C. as well. She got up and left the room silently but steaming at the same time.
As for herself, now that Katie’s words finally kicked in, she now had the urge to throw up once again. She couldn’t believe what just happened.
“Mare…,” Katie called to her with fearful eyes, but she didn’t want to hear her words right now. “Okay ladies,” Simpson cut them both off with a tense smile as he signaled for them to sit back down. Marisol numbly walked back to her seat. “Before we get too far off track let’s meet your final candidate,” he finished as Mo got up to the stage.
“I have two promises: to bring french fries back to the school caf and I am not going to get knocked up by your boyfriend,” Mo vowed with a joking tone, and that’s when Marisol had enough.
With tears in her eyes, she got up and fled the room.
Already, the news of her pregnancy and abortion spread like wildfire around the school.
“I can’t believe she actually got pregnant by him,” Marisol overheard a girl whisper as she walked the halls. With every step, it felt like she was sinking into the ground.
“I can’t believe she actually went through with killing her baby instead of taking responsibility for her actions. What a trashy slut,” another girl said in response.
“Mare, Mare, wait up! The abortion thing it just happened!” Katie tried to explain as she ran up to her, but right now she wasn’t in the mood. Marisol kept walking with no desire to stop. Tears were still flooding from her eyes with no sign of stopping.
“Just like the thing with Drew just happened?” She asked her friend in anger. Unfortunately even if she didn’t want to stop, Katie stopped her anyway by blocking her pathway.
“I’m so sorry, can we please go back to being friends?” Katie apologized and Marisol could see the genuine regret in her eyes. But it wasn’t enough.
“You have already everything, but not only did you take Drew from me when he was the only thing I ever wanted, but you outed my abortion too. Fuck you and your apologies. Go to hell,” Marisol snarled.
“Mare please, I can take it back okay? I didn’t mean to do that,” Katie pleaded.
“But you did, and you know it. When you were binging and purging your guts out last year, I was by your side through the whole thing and never shamed you for it. But the second I’m going through something, you get on your high horse. You’ve always been judgmental of me and talked down to me like I’m your child rather than your best friend. I’m sick of it. You want Drew, you can have him! But don’t call me, don’t text me, and don’t speak to me when we’re in class because this circus between us is over ! Again, fuck you and your apologies. Whatever happens in your life, I don’t want to be a part of it!” Marisol yelled out as her voice got louder with every word. Katie stepped back in fear, and she herself was surprised at the vitriol in her voice but it was needed. Katie had just ruined her life.
“Mare…,” Katie whispered one last time, and tears were starting to well up in her eyes as well. But the damage was done.
Marisol shook her head and silently walked away on her heels.
All eyes were on her once again in class, and once again Marisol felt small to the point it was overwhelming. She wanted to poof into thin air so bad, and if she had superpowers, it would have been to teleport into a remote island somewhere.
It was the last period before school was over, and it couldn’t end fast enough. She was constantly looking at the clock while Mr. Perino was yammering on about shit she could care less about at the moment. She just wanted to go home, cry in her bed, and maybe run away from home so she wouldn’t have to show up at Degrassi for the rest of the school year.
“Marisol, you have somewhere more important to be than class?” Perino asked her sharply, finally getting her attention. Everyone was quiet as they waited for her response.
“No, Mr. Perino, sorry,” she apologized quickly.
“Look at the clock one more time and it’s detention for you,” he warned, and she knew he was serious. She nodded numbly as he went back to teaching. It would be another twenty minutes before class ended, and so her suffering was long and hard.
She thought about the regrets she had in her life. There were a laundry list of them: wearing a tutu to kindergarten for a week, having her first kiss be with some kid who tasted like cabbage, her giving Katie a home Brazilian wax in middle school, that makeover she had freshman year where she basically attempted to dress sexy like Manny Santos in an attempt to get boys, going to Liberty Van Zandt’s birthday party where a senior got stabbed to death, dating Owen Milligan, letting him take her virginity in a tent at the Ravine, taking him back after cheating, being Riley Stavros’ date at the BBQ, going on that awful date with Drew, and hooking up with KC among other things.
But now, her biggest regret was befriending Katie Matlin.
When school was finally over, Marisol quickly ran to her locker, got her things, and ran to her car to get away from Degrassi as far as possible. She spared no time in talking to anyone.
She was just about to turn her car on when there was a hard knock on her car window. She turned around, and to her horror it was K.C., who was looking like he had just been through a bad argument with somebody. She had an educated guess on who it was.
“You were pregnant?” K.C. asked her, and the anger pouring off of him made her uncomfortable.
“Not anymore,” she replied as casually as she could.
“How when we used a condom every time?” He demanded.
“There was one time we didn’t, remember? It was right before work, and we were in a rush. I forgot to take my pill that day,” she explained, which made him scoff.
“I doubt it was mine,” he replied coldly.
“Why would it not be yours?” She questioned with an raised eyebrow.
“Well everyone knows about you and your long string of romantic entanglements, Marisol. You’re open to any guy who even smiles at you. There’s no way I was the only guy you were sleeping with this semester,” he reasoned while folding his arms.
She thought nothing more today could break her, but what K.C. just said made her feel like someone punched her in the face. She couldn’t believe what she just heard.
“I only had sex with two guys my entire life and you are one of them. Considering I hadn’t had sex with Owen since last year, it was yours,” Marisol argued.
“Yeah, sure. You have caused nothing but trouble for me since I met you, and you’re the reason I don’t have a family anymore,” he said with a scowl. She glared back.
“I didn’t know that you were forced to have sex with me when you unbuckled your pants for me immediately that first night we had sex in my car,” she replied venomously. The eagerness he had to cheat surprised her, since she thought he would be more conflicted.
“Well why wouldn’t I when one of the school sluts was offering?” He asked, and she almost jumped out of her car to slap the shit out of him. The audacity of what he was saying had her boiling in rage. She was the slut in this situation when he was the one who cheated? It was bad enough that the whole school was trashing her, but now this asshole was too after claiming they had a special connection?
She reached her breaking point.
“K.C., you’re the school slut. You dumped Clare Edwards as soon as a perky blonde cheerleader sprayed some water from a hose on you. You dumped Jenna after she got pregnant and was trying to get with Jess Martello immediately afterwards. After you got back together with Jenna, you started fucking me after she had your baby. You made the choice to cheat on Jenna, not me. I only helped you cheat. I wasn’t the one who was in a relationship and had a fucking baby at home, you were. You made the active choice of spending more time with me than your family because you claimed Jenna was a nag that was stressing you out. It was your responsibility to not cheat but you did, because you are fucking weak. You’re clearly not husband material if you step out on your girlfriends as soon as some other girl comes along and flutters her eyelashes at you. You’re sad over giving your kid up for adoption? I don’t feel bad for you at all, because Tyson deserves better to be raised by a deadbeat whore daddy,” she snarled as she rolled her windows up and turned her car on. She could see K.C. protesting her words but it was all silence to her.
As she backed out of her parking spot, and drove off she could see K.C.’s angry face but she didn’t care. At this point, there was nothing more someone could do to hurt her. Two people that claimed they cared about her just shitted on her in the worst ways possible.
When she got home, she didn’t even have the energy to cry anymore.
She coped with the horrible events of the day the best way she could, by taking care of her body. She was going to take a nice bath, exfoliate her face, give herself a mani pedi, and then wrap her body up in a fuzzy blanket while watching her favorite chick flicks. She might order comfort food too. It was all going to be a good distraction from the mess going on in her life.
After filling up her bathtub with rose water and petals, Marisol snapped a picture with her phone of it to post to Facerange. “Sometimes the best remedy to a bad day is a nice bath,” were the words she used to caption the pic. Before getting into the tub, she put some music on from her iPod to help her relax even more.
Her mood was already getting better just by her sinking into the tub. She sighed in bliss as she immersed herself into the rose water. For the next hour or so, she could feel good about herself despite the world working hard against her. She closed her eyes as a Beyoncé song softly played in the background.
She didn’t need Katie, as she had her own girl posse at school that would never harm her the way her bestie did. She didn’t need K.C. or Drew as she was attractive enough to pick up another guy by next year. However, she was going to take a break from boys for the time being. All they did was hurt her after getting her to open up to them. In all honesty, she didn’t need anyone as she could be awesome all by herself. She could be her own best friend, her own girlfriend, and her own parent. She was that amazing.
After fifteen minutes, there was a ding on her cellphone. She ignored it in case it was Katie begging for forgiveness yet again. Then there were several more. Confused, Marisol dried her hands with a towel before checking her phone. There were multiple notifications from her Facerange post. She unlocked her phone to read the comments in hope that they were all positive.
Instead every comment was full of people calling her a slut, a whore, or a baby killer.