40 Scandal

Elijah's been rejected by a lot of girls before. His worst rejection was Stephanie in Nicole's group. She was boiling hot, and he had a crush on her for a while.

When he confessed to her at school, she said, "I don't care. I don't like you. I only like David." She said it in an annoyed tone and walked away from him.

Elijah didn't have any friends to fall back on. It wasn't like in the movies in which even losers had friends or a group of nerds.

Elijah wasn't a nerd. He wasn't even trash. He wasn't anything.

He had a grade D average… D for depression. He didn't have any special talents. He was bad at sports and had a K:D ratio of 1:1 on a good day in Black ops X.

***

"Hey! It's not like we don't have feelings! Without us, you wouldn't be enjoying this game as much as you do now!"

"Shut up and die noob."

A grenade was inserted into his butt.

"Ahhhh!"

Elijah ran around before his butt exploded into smithereens. His entire body blew into a pixelated mess.

He logged out of the game, sat up from his bed, and threw his dive helmet across his bedroom. The dive helmet costs more than the boxstation 5 console itself.

His parents got divorced. His mum hated him because his face reminded her of her ex-husband. So he was hot and cold with him.

She'd physically and mentally abuse him to vent her frustrations or sometimes leave him cold turkey. No attention. Nothing. Even a rock can give him more warmth.

He was relatively poor too. Sure he had a Boxstation 5, but he didn't even have pocket money for the canteen. Once every few months he would treat himself to some McRonald's small meal.

Although he had many crushes, they weren't the same as Alyssa's. She was the SRC (student representative council) member of year 9 and was volunteering in a homework club to help her peers in their studies. Elijah was already a student receiving help from that club every week before she had come in.

He felt he was madly in love with her. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, he confessed his feelings to her and got rejected.

He didn't do it because he thought he had a chance, but he felt like his chest would explode if he didn't let it out. Every day he was falling deeper and deeper in love.

***

Now the girl that he was hopelessly still in love with was in the cubicle next to his. The stakes just got higher. He must not get caught!

"Oh, look who we have here! A f**king creep."

Elijah's face went white. He looked to the ground beside him from where the voice came from and his eyes went round.

There was a phone poking out from under the other cubicle with its camera pointing at him. It was Nicole.

He pulled back from the cubicle door and covered his face. He then noticed that the other girls had their phones under too.

Nicole had received a text earlier from Jason that Elijah was in there. Being ex's, they knew each other's intentions almost as good as twins.

Nicole then kicked the cubicle door open and continued recording while accusing him of perving girls in the toilet.

The other girls heightened that narrative.

"I always got a feeling that someone was watching me. I feel disgusted knowing that it's you."

"How long have you been doing this for? A week? One month? Don't tell me! Since year 7!"

"Wait! No! I wasn't perving on anyone!" Elijah protested.

"Then what were you doing here? Licking the toilet bowl?" Stephanie sneered.

"Jason threw me in here!" He hurriedly spat.

"Bullshit. You went in here by yourself, you perv. Everyone knows you ask all the girls out." Nicole said.

"And they all rejected you~," said Stephanie.

This particularly stung because Stephanie was one of those who rejected him.

Jennifer: "Wanker."

Abby: "Loserrr"

"I'm not LYING!"

In a rare fit of rage, Elijah shouted and hammered the cubicle wall with his fist.

This made the girls flinch.

Nicole was mad that he startled her.

"So? Who cares. No one's going to believe you."

"It means that you're a liar and a b*tch! Nicole!"

"Ooooohhh" Nicole's friends teased as Elijah's sudden bout of confidence pleasantly surprised them as they were enjoying the drama that was unfolding.

It was basically them enjoying Nicole's plight.

Nicole's face flushed red with anger and embarrassment.

"No! You dumbass. I got a video of you in the girl's toilets." Nicole waved the screen of the Mephone X.

"What do you think will happen if I show this to the principal?"

The furious expression on Elijah's face sank away. He looked worried. Meanwhile, Nicole was delighted she got control back.

If the school found out, there was no doubt he would either get suspended or expelled. He was worried about getting in trouble with his mum and never seeing Alyssa again if he changed schools.

"You're mum's going to find out, and then you'll be kicked out of school."

"… please don't," Elijah said in a quiet voice.

"I didn't hear that."

Elijah inhaled desperately and said "Please don't tell. I'm sorry. Please give me a chance!"

"Urmmmm." Nicole pretended to seriously think about it.

"Only if you make me happy."

"What is it? I'll do anything!"

"How about you go wash that dirty face of yours?"

Elijah darted to the sink.

"Not with the tap water."

Elijah looked back confusedly.

Nicole pointed toward the toilet with her finger. When his eyes followed her finger, his eyes widened in shock.

"Go on. What are you waiting for?"

"But… I… That's-"

Nicole jiggled her phone in front of Elijah again.

They left him with no choice. It was humiliating, but the short-term consequences were just disgusting. That was it. It couldn't be compared to the long-term consequences.

Elijah gave up what pride he had left. His shoulders slumped in defeat and his arms lost their strength and drooped.

He walked towards the cubicle with his head down. He was about to kneel and splash his face with water from the toilet as if it was a dog bowl.

"Don't do it!" Said a girl after she flung open the cubicle door.

Elijah turned his head to his left.

It was Alyssa!

Author's note: This chapter felt shorter. I never intended to make the backstory that long. Is that bad?

What do you guys think of the hero's arc so far? Any comments on this chapter? How would you rate it? Are you enjoying them? What do you like and what do you dislike?

Let me know in the comments!