Not Your Diner Girl Anymore

Not Your Diner Girl Anymore

Gavin

5.0
Comment(s)
4.4K
View
11
Chapters

For two years, I, the quiet girl from the town' s greasy diner, nursed a secret, pathetic crush on Ethan Hayes, our school' s golden boy and star quarterback. He embodied everything I admired, a perfect hero from a storybook. Then, one day, I collapsed at a noisy pep rally, and when I came to, he was kneeling beside me, offering a hand, his voice laced with concern. But a chilling, disembodied voice pierced my mind – his actual thoughts: "Ugh, she' s always staring. So clumsy. Probably smells like that greasy diner her parents own." The boy I' d idolized, the kind, perfect Ethan, was instantly replaced by a sneer I hadn't seen but had devastatingly heard. His disgust became a physical weight, overshadowing the relentless bullying from Brittany, his queen-bee friend, which he passively allowed. The final blow came when I was publicly accused of cheating on an exam, and he, the one person who knew Brittany' s true intentions, remained a shameful, silent observer. How could my hero be such a snob, such a coward, letting me be publicly ridiculed and unjustly branded a cheat? The overwhelming unfairness of it all ripped through me, leaving me shattered and utterly alone. But in that deepest pit of humiliation, a scorching resolve ignited within me. I decided then and there to turn all that pain into raw fuel, to outwork everyone, especially him, and secure my escape to a future where my worth wasn' t dictated by their petty judgments.

Introduction

For two years, I, the quiet girl from the town' s greasy diner, nursed a secret, pathetic crush on Ethan Hayes, our school' s golden boy and star quarterback. He embodied everything I admired, a perfect hero from a storybook.

Then, one day, I collapsed at a noisy pep rally, and when I came to, he was kneeling beside me, offering a hand, his voice laced with concern. But a chilling, disembodied voice pierced my mind – his actual thoughts: "Ugh, she' s always staring. So clumsy. Probably smells like that greasy diner her parents own."

The boy I' d idolized, the kind, perfect Ethan, was instantly replaced by a sneer I hadn't seen but had devastatingly heard. His disgust became a physical weight, overshadowing the relentless bullying from Brittany, his queen-bee friend, which he passively allowed. The final blow came when I was publicly accused of cheating on an exam, and he, the one person who knew Brittany' s true intentions, remained a shameful, silent observer.

How could my hero be such a snob, such a coward, letting me be publicly ridiculed and unjustly branded a cheat? The overwhelming unfairness of it all ripped through me, leaving me shattered and utterly alone.

But in that deepest pit of humiliation, a scorching resolve ignited within me. I decided then and there to turn all that pain into raw fuel, to outwork everyone, especially him, and secure my escape to a future where my worth wasn' t dictated by their petty judgments.

Continue Reading

Other books by Gavin

More
When Love Rebuilds From Frozen Hearts

When Love Rebuilds From Frozen Hearts

Short stories

5.0

On the night of my career-defining art exhibition, I stood completely alone. My husband, Dante Sovrano, the most feared man in Chicago, had promised he wouldn’t miss it for the world. Instead, he was on the evening news. He was shielding another woman—his ruthless business partner—from a downpour, letting his own thousand-dollar suit get soaked just to protect her. The headline flashed below them, calling their new alliance a "power move" that would reshape the city. The guests at my gallery immediately began to whisper. Their pitying looks turned my greatest triumph into a public spectacle of humiliation. Then his text arrived, a cold, final confirmation of my place in his life: “Something came up. Isabella needed me. You understand. Business.” For four years, I had been his possession. A quiet, artistic wife kept in a gilded cage on the top floor of his skyscraper. I poured all my loneliness and heartbreak onto my canvases, but he never truly saw my art. He never truly saw me. He just saw another one of his assets. My heart didn't break that night. It turned to ice. He hadn't just neglected me; he had erased me. So the next morning, I walked into his office and handed him a stack of gallery contracts. He barely glanced up, annoyed at the interruption to his empire-building. He snatched the pen and signed on the line I’d marked. He didn’t know the page tucked directly underneath was our divorce decree. He had just signed away his wife like she was nothing more than an invoice for art supplies.

You'll also like

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book