CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

Hannah had awoken the next day in a flurry of panic, having forgotten to put on her alarm the previous evening. After her long day of acting like tourists around the city with Rayne, she had spent the remaining of her evening watching movies with Cameron.

Or at least, her cousin was trying to watch movies.

Hannah was too busy grinning like the Cheshire cat every time her phone buzzed with an incoming text, her conversations with Rayne refusing to draw to an end no matter how many times Cam had threatened to throw her out of the window if she interrupted the dialogue again.

That morning, Hannah pulled on her white shirt and the navy skirt of her uniform in haste as the sunshine streamed in the open windows. Brushing her teeth at the same time as pulling her socks on, she rushed around the house to get all her textbooks ready to go back to school. There was only a handful of months left before the summer holidays would dawn upon them and she would be done with school and off into the Big Wide World. Cameron had already left earlier than she, leaving Hannah to fend for herself on the chaos that was public transport at rush hour.

Thankfully she made it to Premrose in time for the first bell, sprinting down the road just as the iron gates began to close as she tied her tie haphazardly. The hallways were jam packed with people, crowds forming in every corner. At the very beginning of the school year, people had often made way for Hannah and her posse of so-called-friends. But her days as part of The Elite were long gone, her social standing teetering on the edge from the very moment Ashlyn had spread so many rumours about her.

But Hannah had given up caring about what people whispered about her, her mother's name thrown into the mix every so often. Those were just words, never strong enough to bring her down. She still had her family, her friends, her future and most of all, she still had her dignity.

Or so she thought.

The corridors remained full of her peers and even through the loud music blasting against her ears, Hannah could vaguely make out the conversations peppered around her. It was just when she was about to open her locker, fingertips in arms reach of the code, that it happened. Dozens of phones vibrated around her, each with their own individual ring tone, including her own. Hannah pulled it out without a seconds thought, loading the text message half-heartedly as she turned the combination keys of her locker.

Perhaps she expected a Facebook notification of someone liking her new profile picture of the previous day, a text message from either one of her two cousins or an email from work. But what she could never have fathomed was to see a video of herself, completely naked.

Hannah couldn't breathe.

Her bag fell to the floor just as whispers rose in the air, threatening to suffocate her from beneath the accusatory glances and outward pointing. Her own heart pounded wildly, drowning out the music from her earphones as she begged with a God she barely believed in for this to be a dream. But it wasn't.

A three minute video of her sleeping naked, Rayne's body wrapped around her own, was still playing on her phone – as well as on everyone else's. It was dark but the moonlight shining on her was enough to accentuate every twist of skin and every curve. Her eyes were shut, mouth slightly open and her raven hair blending against Rayne's as he lay on his side, the crumpled sheet around their hips. One of his arms was thrown around her chest, his palm brushing against her left breast, rising and falling with every breath she took. Hannah watched herself stir, face twitching, as she pulled herself up and rubbed her eyes.

There were small bruises peppered around her neck, shoulders and nipples, a content smile plastered on her face as she looked around, sleepily. And even through the movement, her stark naked body was crystal clear, down to every pixel of each scratch on Rayne's shoulders from her fingernails and each strand of hair falling in front of her eyes. In the video, she mumbled to herself – something about the bet Becky and Mohammad had made – before laying back down and wrapping herself around Rayne to fall back asleep.

Hannah hadn't realised when it had begun but her hands were shaking uncontrollably, nausea pushing itself through her blood as her legs became unsteady. Through unshed tears pooling in the inner corner of her irises, she could faintly see Cameron leaning against his own locker, having been in the middle of a conversation with Charmaine and Mohammad, his face contouring with a mixture of shock and disgust. Hannah had never wanted anyone to see her naked without her consent, but anyone at all would be better than her own family.

"Nice tits," some random guy yelled out, causing a flurry of eyes to turn towards her and an eruption of giggles to begin.

Charmaine's mouth had dropped open and Mohammad's eyes were wide in astonishment as more unknown faces began to turn towards Hannah. The whispering had gotten louder until people were outright laughing, the sounds sending shockwaves through her shaking body.

And then there was Rayne.

Through faint tears, she could see him standing at the other end of the corridor, that same black beanie pulled down on his head. Emerald eyes stared at her blankly, as though he didn't know what on earth to think, as he tried to push past the crowds to reach her. Hannah could vaguely see him mouth her name but no sound reached her ears other than the taunts of those around her. Had she not have spent so much time around him publicly at the Winter Ball and in Rome, perhaps nobody would have realised who the guy in the video was. After all, he had been a nobody at their school before she found herself wading through his life. And with every sneer directed towards her and every perverted congratulatory 'good job, mate' yelled at him from brash guys neither of them knew, Hannah wondered if it had been a good idea at all.

It was all her fault.

With that thought, she turned and ran, pushing people out of the way with every last bit of strength she had. She collapsed in the nearest bathroom, falling onto her knees and dry heaving into her hands as her phone crashed against the white tile. With more anger than she had ever felt before, she forced it down again and again until her screen was completely shattered, the video finally stopping playing. Her iPhone was irreplaceable in the world she lived in, but her dignity wasn't.

It was the one thing she had been holding tightly onto, the one thing that Ashlyn knew would get to her. Through the haze, Hannah recognised the phone number that sent the video virally as her ex-boyfriends and the only way Gabriel could have gotten the video, considering he hadn't even been in Rome, was through Ashlyn. But how? How had she gotten into Rayne's hotel room? And how had Hannah not realised that they weren't alone whilst they both slept, unaware of icy eyes focused on them?

She remembered waking up but why hadn't she thought about what could have woken her up?

This was a dream. It had to be nothing short of a horrific nightmare that would leaving her gasping for breath as she woke in her own bed. It just had to be. But the reality was that no amount of telling herself lies would convince her to believe her own thoughts. Hannah didn't know how long she sat crumpled on the bathroom floor, arms wrapped tight around her own body but eventually the door strode open. She looked up through the curtain of hair that had fallen in front of her face to see Mr Harris holding a hand out to help pull her up. Through the haze, she wondered what her form teacher was doing the girls bathroom but gingerly accepted his hand and stood up, wobbling on legs that were far too weak to walk upon.

"C'mon, Hannah," he said, gesturing towards the open door. "Everyone's in class and the corridors are empty. Come with me."

Wordlessly, she followed him, flinching at every sudden movement in case someone peeked out from around the corners but true to his word, there was nobody around. Despite that, she wished she was wearing a hood, something she could hide behind. Judging by the sympathy painted over his expression, it was evident that even the teachers had seen the video. Hannah groaned out loud, the only sound in the quiet hallways as Mr Harris guided her towards the staff room. Just fucking great, even her Maths teacher had seen her naked!

Hannah was numb as she stumbled through the room, sitting down on a faded office chair that had seen better days, in front of Mr Harris' desk.

"Right, Hannah," her teacher began, his voice echoing across the empty office. "I know you're greatly upset right now but I really need you to concentrate and let me know if you know who did this. It really doesn't need to be said that we do not and cannot permit such vile attacks be allowed to happen on our students or within the school in general."

Hannah barely heard him, her mind replaying the incident over and over. She could picture her friends' faces clearly, could see how disgusted Cameron had been and could hear every insult thrown towards Rayne.

"Ashlyn," she croaked out. "It was sent from Gabriel's mobile and she was the only one who could have filmed me to send it to him."

Just the thought of how far Ashlyn had gone to bring her down following the Winter Ball incident was enough to make Hannah burst into tears, chest heaving with sobs as she tried to explain it. Mr Harris nit-picked at her words to understand what had happened, brows growing more furrowed with every word. He vaguely understood that Ashlyn had somehow gotten into Rayne's hotel room – illegally of course – whilst they were on their trip to Rome to film Hannah sleeping. That in itself was enough to warrant a visit to the police, never mind the actual video part.

"You're eighteen, you're not kids anymore," he explained, when he realised how scared she was of getting in trouble. "Quite frankly, you're free to sleep with whoever you want but breaking and entering is unacceptable and so is filming you. It would be another story if it was consensual but clearly that isn't the case. You leave it to the school, alright, we'll get to the bottom of it."

Hannah nodded, her hair bouncing against her shoulders with the movement.

"I'll do all I can, Hannah, okay. As your form teacher it's my responsibility to ensure my students are safe at school but more importantly, I have two teenage daughters and would be furious if anything like this was allowed to happen."

"I just don't understand how she could do this to me," she blubbered, through streaming tears and a snotty nose. It was a miracle Mr Harris could even make sense of her to be honest and she had to hand it to him, he hadn't even blinked twice at the way her cheeks had grown an ugly shade of red with tears and the way she was sniffing every five seconds. "As if she hasn't already done enough! Setting Gabe on me was one thing but–."

"What do you mean?"

And then the whole story came out, through choked back sobs and clenched fists. She told him about what had occurred in Gabriel's house on the night of Jakub's birthday party, about the constant taunting from her former boyfriend and best friend after she had argued with them both, as well as the Winter Ball. She repeated Gabriel's words and Ashlyn's threats and Mr Harris grew more solemn with every word, his eyes wide in shock.

He'd always known the school was full of secrecy but as he was just piercing together, Hannah Adem was the biggest secret of them all.

---

After a meeting with her head-teacher, Mr Harris and a local representative of the Metropolitan police, Hannah's head was spinning. They had contacted the hotel in Rome, who after playing back CCTV cameras, discovered Ashlyn had stolen a master-card from the young guy who was housekeeping that day. He had been red-faced as the blonde beauty flirted with him, keeping him distracted long enough to swipe it away.

Through her snotty nose and tear-stained lashes, Hannah managed to give a statement about all that occurred this year with Gabriel and his intentions. It had been difficult to replay it all, her chest constricting at the thought of what could have occurred had she not been so lucky. He would have raped her had he gotten the chance, she knew it without a doubt. Luckily, she had Cameron, Becky and Rayne who had all been present at the Winter Ball and were well aware of what was going on. They would back her statement up when required.

"You fuckin' bitch," Gabriel snarled when both he and Ashlyn had been pulled away from their respective lessons, his arms held down by the cop as he thrashed about with fury painted on every contour of his face. "How fuckin' dare you." His words were spilling out with rage as he managed to pull away from the hands holding him down long enough to lunge at Hannah. With a yelp, she fell down onto the ground of the head-teachers office, head hitting the leg of the desk as he swung towards her. Thankfully, the way he was shaking with anger caused his reactions to be sloppy and he missed, pulled back up with the police man who barked orders.

Hannah had done all they wanted and now, she just wanted to leave.

Her body still shaking with fear, she mumbled a quick explanation to Mr Harris who unlocked the door for her and ran. The corridors were slowly filling up again between the lessons but she ignored every face that turned towards her and concentrated on the exit, pushing through the iron gates and down the street. Hannah ran and ran and ran, trying to escape from the hurt and shame that filled her. Her knees trembled as she made her way through a local small park, the wet grass dampening her open toed shoes.

How could she be so stupid?

She had trusted Ashlyn and Gabriel for so many years, had considered them to be her closest friends. But after all that they had done, how could she possibly trust anyone again? Although she knew that her new friends wouldn't ever do such a thing, she felt as though her insides had been ripped apart and sewn back together in the wrong order. She barely felt like herself. Her knees weakened just at the thought of everyone seeing the video as she stumbled over the rocks lining the small canal. The slight rain had kept all the ducks away, finding refuge under the trees and Hannah found herself completely alone in front of the murky water.

All she could see was Rayne's face when he realised what was in front of him, at the way Cameron had blanched seeing his cousin naked, at the way her head-teacher had shaken his head at her. She could hear every crude remark, every rumour, every taunt they had thrown at her.

Hannah's head dropped forward, a slow sob rising out of her until she couldn't stop, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably. She could see her reflection shining back from the small ripples of water but barely recognised the girl she had become. How could this have happened to her? How would she face anyone again?

Grabbing hold of every ounce of strength she had ever had from within her, she allowed one last tear to brush down her cheek before waving a hand through the cold water. She splashed the barely recognisable girl away until there was nothing but a blur of colours and stood up, lashes damp.

Hannah looked around with a sigh, noting the trees swaying in the strong wind and the way small shards of mud spun around the ground in the breeze. She was in the small park near her school, the one she had once met Alex in. Just thinking of him brought his uncle back to her mind; Chris' warm eyes and soft promises.

There was a part of her that didn't expect much from his promises despite how much she had loved the family when she visited – too used to constantly being let down by those around her – but there was a stronger part that hoped he cared as much as he'd said. Without realising what she was doing, her feet subconsciously moved until she was running again, the wind whipping her hair behind her. And it wasn't until she was standing in front of her father's house that she realised she was terrified.

With a shaky hand she pressed the doorbell down, the chiming loud against her rushing thoughts. All the running and all the crying had tired her out, vision slightly blurring and limbs growing weak.

"Hannah?" a voice asked, a soft hand reaching her. "Oh, you're crying! Hannah are you– oh God, can you hear me? Dad! Dad!"

She barely felt her body fall forward, a wave of sickness overcoming her as firm arms wrapped around her shaking limbs. "Hannah?" her father's voice interrupted her thoughts, the deep tone shaking through her body as he led her into the house.

When Hannah had been seated, a warm hand pushed down on her back until her head was between her own knees, hair falling in front of her like a raven waterfall. Lucy was standing in front of her, mismatched fuzzy socks in Hannah's line of vision and worry painted on her face. "Are you feeling better now?" she asked when Hannah's stomach stopped twisting and she sat up again. Her sister's tone so genuine that she almost burst into tears again.

How had she lived eighteen years without a sibling?

Chris' hand was still on her back, holding her together until her sight had stopped blurring and her limbs stopped trembling. "What on earth happened, Hannah?"

She shook her head, willing the images to leave her head but she could still envision was the video still circulating around the student body and Ashlyn's smirk as she ran away. Hannah was sick of running, sick of being the coward, sick of being ashamed of herself – just sick of it all.

The feeling that rushed through her veins was one of acceptance, of being so fed up of it all that she was willing to fight through. With lips that she willed to stop shaking, Hannah began to speak. Her throat was raw but she persevered, telling her father and half-sister all that had occurred that year. When she got to explaining the video, her voice cracked but she held onto every bit of vigour she could find within herself.

"What a fuckin' cow!" Lucy exclaimed, ignoring the look her father shot her for swearing. "I can't believe anyone would do that, oh my gosh, I hope you pulled the bitch's head off, that's so mean!"

Hannah managed a grin, thinking of how good it would feel to do just that when Chris finally spoke. "I don't know what to say, that's appalling that these things even happen. I know that I've missed out on so much of your life, especially in childhood, but Hannah you're a grown adult. As odd as it may be for me to say considering you're my daughter, there is nothing at all wrong with you having a boyfriend. There is nothing to be ashamed of because it doesn't sound like you did anything wrong. Clearly this Ashlyn girl and this bastard ex of yours have been sitting at the top for so long that they couldn't bare you standing up for yourself. But I'm glad you did; even though I have no right to be proud of you considering I've only just gotten to know you, I am. I'm so proud."

The genuine concern in his tone made her heart constrict. For so many years Hannah had hated the father she hadn't known a thing about and craved for an unconditional love from her mother. But that had been all wrong. Jasmine was far too stuck in the past to ever find it within herself to care about her daughter but it didn't really matter anymore because Hannah had another parent to love. She barely knew Chris but already, he had shown her affection in that one last sentence than Jasmine had her whole life.

Lucy wrapped her arm around her sister's shoulder. "Yeah, they'll get what they deserve, just watch!"

"Why don't you stay here tonight, if you'd like? You can sleep in Lucy's room, there's plenty of space and we'd all love to have the chance to continue getting to know you. You can face your cousin and everyone else when you're ready, with your head held high, alright? You can't fly away from your troubles at all, none of us can, but you can allow it to encourage you to fly higher."

Hannah nodded at her father's request. She would deal with Cameron's reaction, with what Rayne felt, with her friend's and the rest of school later. Her head-teacher had emphasised that the two would definitely be expelled, after all, no amount of their parents' money could erase a criminal record. Really, Hannah was rather lucky that Gabriel was far too stupid to think about sending it from an anonymous source rather than his own mobile and that Ashlyn had been caught stealing the master-card for the hotel rooms. It made their punishments all the more concrete.

When she gathered enough courage to return to school, she would face it all head on. In the words of her father, she would fly high.

---

A/N: Ahh! How many of you saw that coming?lol. Even though this story has taken the longest time to write, I am really loving the way my writing has developed since beginning this. And I'm really excited to tag Greyscale for the Watty's 2016! So I would really really appreciate it if you voted and commented if you like the story so far. I'm doing all I can to finish it very soon <333