The bartender handed Misty her drinks and she turned to head back to the table. As she turned a trio of girls brushed past her, bumping her shoulder. A cold shiver went through her body and a whisper of a word crawled into her ear. Slut. The chill came and went, leaving Misty stunned and confused. She looked around for the source of the whisper, but everyone was laughing and talking just as they were before. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

Determined to not let it rattle her, Misty took a deep breath and went back to her seat. Scottie arrived at the table just moments after Misty. As he took his seat, he self-consciously rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. He noticed something was off with Misty right away. She seemed a bit shaken and withdrawn. He put his arm around Misty's chair and leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"You, uh," he said and then paused to sniffle and rub his nose again. "You okay?"

Just as he noticed something was off about her, she noticed something was definitely off with him, as well. He was drumming his fingers against her seat rapidly and he couldn't seem to sit still. He was on high-alert, turning sharply towards every minor sound. When his eyes finally landed on Misty's, she could see his pupils were the size of dinner plates.

"Me? What about you?"

Scottie forced himself to blink and his face broke into an overly jovial smile. His leg started shaking in an attempt to release a surge of energy that was rushing through his body.

"I feel fucking fantastic."

Misty kept her eye on him, but her thoughts were interrupted by Thomas clearing his throat. All eyes turned to him as he stood from his seat and clinked his knife against his wine glass. The room grew silent and the air was heavy with anticipation. The portion of the evening everyone was waiting for was upon them. Recognition.

Thomas began a long-winded speech about what an honor it was to be chosen and gave a history of the night that seemed to go on forever. Misty held her breath, anxiously awaiting her big moment. Misty shifted in her seat when he finally began calling student's names. He started alphabetically by first name. By Misty's count, there were 12 students being recognized. Her name was right in the middle, so she would have to be patient. Misty waited, listened, and clapped as her classmates were pulled up to the podium and showered with praise. With each student, Misty's heart beat faster as her turn came closer and closer. She had been waiting her whole life for her accomplishments to be recognized and she was itching to get up there.

Finally, Maddison Pritchard was called to the stand, the last person before Misty. Misty did her best to appear as if she was listening, but she was too excited to contain herself. When Maddison's turn was over, Misty clapped louder than anyone. Immediately after Maddison sat down, Misty folded up the napkin in her lap and placed it on the table, preparing herself to stand. But...they never called her name. Misty's heart sunk into the floor when he continued on to Nash Redford, completely skipping over her.

Unable to accept what happened, Misty began rationalizing it in her head. It must have been an honest mistake, she thought to herself. They'd come back around to her eventually. Either that or they were saving her for last. She was the top of the class, after all. They probably wanted to close with the best. She had the most accomplishments out of anyone there, so obviously she would need more time. It'd be unfair to the other students if they slowed down the whole middle section for her.

Misty convinced herself it was true and awaited her turn. She held onto that hope until the bitter end when Zachariah Stafford stepped down and still, her name wasn't called. A lump formed in her throat and her chest constricted. This has to be a mistake, she thought to herself. She repeated it over and over in her head, willing it to be true. But all the wishes in the world couldn't change the truth. This was no accident. This was deliberate.

"They didn't call my name."

She said it mostly to herself, but it was just loud enough for Lady Katina to hear.

"Well, of course not, dear," she said with a pompous laugh. "We don't honor whores."

Lady Katina eyed Misty with a smug smile while she sipped on her wine. In an instant, the entire table turned on Misty. They exchanged smirks of agreement and laughed at her expense. Misty looked around, disoriented by the crass accusation.

"...what?"

"We all know why you're here," Lady Katina said, her eyes pointing towards Scottie. "And spreading your legs isn't exactly an accomplishment, now is it?"

"I -" Misty stuttered to defend herself, but she was at a loss for words.

Two tables over, she saw the girls that had bumped into her snickering amongst themselves. Confusion turned to heartbreak as Misty realized the hateful words hadn't been an imaginary whisper in the wind. It was clear what everyone thought of her. That she was desperate enough to try to sleep her way to the top. That they could believe such preposterous lies made her sick to her stomach. What made her even sicker was that the lies had to come from somewhere.

Misty turned to Scottie and he was frightened by the accusatory look in her eyes. He shook his head as if to say "I had nothing to do with this," but she didn't believe him. It had to have been him. No one else knew about the time they had spent together. Heartbroken by the betrayal, Misty wondered how deep it went. How much of it was really real? Did he ever have feelings for her or was it all a plot to humiliate her?

Misty could feel the sting of tears biting at the back of her eyes. She pushed her chair back and ran out of the hall before they could see her crying. She fled into the nearest empty room and locked the door behind her. She fell to the floor, tears falling down her face like waterfalls.

The walls were closing in on her and she was finding it hard to breathe. The harsh truth that she had been willfully blind to all these years had brought her to her knees. She was never going to be accepted by The Assembly. No matter what she did or how hard she tried, in their eyes, she would always be beneath them. She was a joke, a punching bag, and a scapegoat for their every flaw. She had wasted years of her life on a dream that would never come true.

Misty curled up in a ball and wrapped her arms around her knees. She tried to console herself, but the heartbreak and embarrassment were too much to handle on her own. She was tired of being strong, of feigning confidence and doing it all on her own. She couldn't do it anymore. She needed warmth and comfort. She needed someone to wrap her in their arms and tell her everything was going to be okay. As she sobbed all alone, she longed for protection from her broken heart. There was only one person she wanted, only one person she could rely on to be her protector. Her big brother.

***

Let's put it to a vote...

Was Scottie playing puppet master or was he as blindsided as Misty?

😈 = Scottie's the culprit

😇 = Scottie's innocent