After I Lost Weight They Knelt And Begged For Forgiveness Chapter 09
Once the recording ended, you could have heard a pin drop.
Jenna stood there, her face cycling between green and white.
“Sienna, why did you record me?”
“Old classmates making a few jokes, and you’re setting me up like this?”
She flipped it around before I could speak.
Before I could respond, Sterling frowned.
“Turning someone else’s trauma into entertainment. That’s what you call a joke?”
Jenna’s lips trembled.
“Director Sterling, you’re misunderstanding.”
“Sienna and I have always been close. Back then was just messing around.”
“Close?”
I picked up the old shirt from the table.
“Then put it on.”
Jenna froze.
“What?”
I held the shirt out to her.
“Put it on. Step on the scale.”
“Stick this sign on your back and let everyone take a picture.”
“If you can do that, I’ll admit I’m being oversensitive.”
Every eye in the room was on her.
The ones who’d cheered the loudest earlier didn’t dare open their mouths now.
Jenna’s eyes welled up.
“Sienna, that’s going too far!”
I laughed.
“So when the knife’s on you, it hurts?”
Her face was chalk white. The tears came fast.
“Fine. I admit tonight was inappropriate.”
“But it’s not like I was the only one back then. Why is it all on me?”
One sentence. She’d dragged half the room down with her.
Zach panicked.
“Jenna, don’t lie!”
“You posted the video. You set up the shirt. What does any of that have to do with us?”
“Yeah, we just played along.”
“How were we supposed to know you were actually bullying Sienna?”
The same people who’d been circling her like sharks minutes ago were now scrambling to distance themselves.
Jenna stared at them, disbelieving.
“Now you’re playing innocent?”
“Who blocked the bathroom door in the video? Who carried the scale into the classroom?”
“And Ryan!”
She jabbed a finger toward him.
“He’s the one who wrote the sign!”
Every eye swung to Ryan.
His face went iron dark.
“What are you talking about?”
“What am I talking about?”
Jenna sneered.
“Back then, you knew Sienna had a thing for you. So you made a bet with the rest of us. Said if she ever hit 130 pounds, you’d take her on a date.”
I went rigid.
I’d never known this.
Jenna was fully unhinged now.
“She starved herself for you. Dropped from low blood sugar right on the track.”
“And you called her pathetic. Said…”
“Shut up!”
Ryan roared.
The room went dead silent.
I looked at him. My stomach turned over.
The person I’d once tried so hard to get close to had been standing in the crowd all along, watching me suffer.
“Sienna, let me explain.”
Ryan came at me fast.
“Back then I just talked shit. I never expected you to actually take it seriously.”
“But I want to make it up to you now.”
He reached for me.
I slapped him across the face.
The sound cracked through the room.
Ryan’s head snapped sideways. He was frozen.
“That was for the girl who fainted on the track, half-starved. For me.”
I looked at Jenna. At all of them.
“As for the rest of you.”
“Videos, recordings, chat logs. My attorney is getting all of it.”
“Whoever participated. Not one of you walks free.”
Jenna panicked.
“You can’t do this!”
“You just got into the industry. Blowing this up doesn’t help you either.”
Lauren gave a cold little laugh.
“That’s not your concern.”
“Stellar’s legal team happens to still be at the office tonight.”
Sterling’s face darkened too.
“An actress who can’t even acknowledge the harm done to her has no business talking about her work.”
“On this, I stand behind her. Take it as far as it needs to go.”
Jenna’s legs gave out. She dropped back into her chair.
I didn’t look at her again. I turned toward the door.
Lauren pushed it open for me.
Behind me, Ryan lunged after me.
“Sienna!”
“You loved me for three years!”
“I know I messed up. Can we just start over?”
I stopped. Turned to look at him.
Half his face was still red. But his eyes were full of unwillingness to let this go.
Suddenly, I understood.
He didn’t love me.
He just couldn’t stand the fact that the girl he’d once ground into the dirt now wouldn’t even spare him a glance.
“No.”
I reached up and pulled out the cheap hair clip he’d casually given me back then. Dropped it in the trash.
“Ryan.”
“I stopped loving you a long time ago.”