Megan Crewe
NewsBooksThe AuthorAppearancesBlogFun StuffResourcesContact

Books --> Give Up the Ghost

The Story ~ Behind the Book ~ Excerpt ~ Reviews ~ Reader Secrets
Soundtrack ~ Widgets ~ Ghost Scents ~ Character Quiz ~ Trailer ~ Book Guides

Reader Secrets - Page 4

Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

I think it was when I was a junior in high school, I was on the yearbook committee with a bunch of other kids. There was this one girl who was a senior who was a real go-getter, always wanting to get involved and help out. The teacher who supervised the yearbook staff (who was a real jerk) didn't like her. Sometimes when she was talking he'd roll his eyes at other kids behind her back. And when she was gone he'd make fun of her to some of the other kids he liked. One of those kids was this guy I'd known a long time, who'd been friends with her for years. I'd heard her call him one of her best friends. He'd sit there with the teacher and the other kids and mock her and talk about how stupid her ideas had been.

It made me so angry, that the teacher was being so unprofessional, and that the girl's friend was stabbing her in the back. But I didn't know her that well. I figured it might just make things worse if I told her about it. So I kept my mouth shut. But it still makes me mad thinking about it!

*

It was two years ago around the birthday of my best friend's 17 birthday, I was still only 16. We were both very curious and did some stupid stuff together. The next day my boyfriend, her best guy friend, took me and my brother home and I told my brother what had happened. The following Monday when I went to school my best friend freaked out on me and said" I thought we agreed not to tell anyone", then I said "I didn't!!". Not knowing what she was talking about I realized that one of my other friends had guessed what happened when me and her were talking and I thought that maybe she told Renee, my best friend. When I went to talk to her later about it I told her that I didnt tell anyone directly, that she had guessed it on her own. Later that day my boyfriend calls me and says " I can't be with anyone who would betray their best friend like that", and hung up. I was shocked and didnt know what to do I had just lost my best friend and my boyfriend. Finally we all got over it and were friends again. My best friend started dating my ex a couple weeks later, and I didn't mind because I realized that I didn't like him as much as I thought. Everything was going good between them so we were all happy.

Up until about a month ago I never really knew the whole story behind the fight, when one day me and my friend Leanne, the one who Renee thought I told, were walking around town and she was telling me how Renee, who I thought was my best friend, was always talking about me behind my back and how she and my ex started dating. Come to find out the morning after everything went down, and also the day he broke up with me, Renee hooked up with him and told him that she didn't want him dating me anymore. And that was when they got together. It was never about me telling anyone our secret, it was about her wanting him all to herself.

* all of the names in this story have been changed.

*

My BFF stabbed me in the back so hard I think I bled for months.

We went on an overnight camping trip with our class and while on the trip some other friends pulled me aside to tell me that she had told her boyfriend and his best friend (who was interested in me) that I was fat and looked terrible in my bathing suit and wasn't good enough for the friend. She made the mistake of telling them in front of my other friends who came and spilled the beans to me.

I confronted her and she blatantly lied and said she didn't say it, except the boys backed up my friends. I was so hurt that she would talk that way about me behind my back. We'd never even had a fight before, and I never would have said anything like that about her to ANYONE, never mind the boy she was interested in. Besides all that, I wasn't even fat. Our friendship broke up over that, because people started telling me lots of other nasty things she'd been saying about me over the whole school year.

13 years old- Grade 8

*

*

When I was 13, I was sort-of friends with this other girl who was in choir. We'd started talking one day and she was nice enough and she didn't really have anyone else to talk to so I felt kind of bad for her. But we didn't have a whole lot in common. And one time I borrowed a shirt from her and it smelled really weird. And I started noticing that the "popular" kids gave her funny looks and avoided her.

So I decided it was probably better not to be friends with her after all. I purposely would stand somewhere not near her when we had choir practice, and I wouldn't look at her. A couple times we passed each other in the hall and she said "Hi" and I pretended I didn't hear her. After a little while she stopped trying. I always felt kind of bad about that after.

*

Listen to this story on the player below or click here.

*

I hated my first job. I worked at a restaurant as the dessert girl. Cutting pies and dishing pudding should have been easy, and it was. But there was an older woman there who hated me, and the way I did everything. All shift long she would curse, and hiss, and literally shove me out of the way when she passed.

Complaining to the managers didn't help. I was 16, and she'd worked there for at least 16 years. Their advice was to stay out of her way. I tried everything. Being friendly. Being obnoxious. Ignoring her, not ignoring it- it was useless! I wanted to quit but my grandmother and two of my aunts worked for the company and I was afraid of looking bad in front of them.

So one day, I lingered at a thrift store for a while instead of walking on to work. Then I went home and told my mom I'd been mugged. We lived in a pretty bad neighborhood, so it was totally believable, and something we'd never bother the police about. Mom decided it was too dangerous for me to work there after that. My grandmother and my aunts agreed.

I guess I should have felt guilty about it, but it was kind of nice getting out of that miserable job AND getting some sympathy for it!

*

When I was thirteen, I told my best friend everything. I told her who I liked, I told her EVERYTHING! My family problems, my other friends, the people I didn't like so much...every single thing. I didn't leave any details out. She betrayed me. In eighth grade, I told her I liked this guy and she went ahead and told him and his friends. My friends and one of my teachers overheard. I was humiliated! The guy I liked was also one of my closest friends and now, he won't even talk to me properly! Then, the teasing about it started. Some of his friends ignored me, and some mercilessly teased me. Even my teacher found it funny! When I asked my best friend about it, she said sorry and she would never do it again. I believed her. But the next week, she asked him out...I never trusted her again! I don't tell anyone my secrets now...

*

For a couple months in my eight grade science class, I got seated with this guy I'd known since first grade and a girl who was new to the school. She was a tough girl, rebellious type, I guess you'd call it. Half the time she skipped class, and the guy was pretty friendly with me. But when she was there, she seemed to get a kick out of saying awful things about me and getting him to agree. She'd say that I'd slept with all these guys, or that I wasn't really my dad's kid, stuff like that. And he'd go along with it. Most of the time I just ignored them and did my work, because what was the point in arguing? She didn't even believe what she was saying, she was just trying to get a reaction. But it hurt, and it made me self conscious. I'd bought this shirt I really liked, and wore it once, and she said such nasty things about it I never wore it again. I was SO glad when the teacher finally changed up the seating arrangements.

*

*

A girl in 8th grade used to shoot tiki darts at me during science. She knew I wouldn't tell on her (because, by then, no one told). The first day she did it, I wiggled around and most of them fell on the floor. She snatched them up after the class...so the next day, when she shot them into my back, I managed to retrieve them all (without looking at her). After class, she actually came up to me and asked for the darts back...ha! Needless to say, that was the end of the tiki dart torture ;)

Most of the not-so-nice things I did involved my tongue (sarcasm), and I've blocked them from my mind, because I'm ashamed that I did that (sigh).

*

I met "Mary" in seventh grade, and even though I wasn't exactly Miss Popularity myself, I knew I was cooler than she was. She was the kind of person who tried so hard to get people to like her that almost no one did. Still, Mary wanted to be my friend, and I was in no position to turn one down.

I had mixed feelings about Mary. Some days, I was embarrassed to be seen with her and wished she would just go away and stop bugging me. There were also days when I genuinely enjoyed her company and had fun with her. This ambivalence led to guilt AND annoyance, a tricky combo of feelings to deal with. I kept Mary nearby but never let her get too close (we never hung out outside of school, and I never called her). The sad thing is that she probably thought we were best friends.

By senior year, I didn't have much time for Mary. I had finally found a solid group of friends, and I even had a boyfriend. I tried to be polite to Mary, but I wasn't always. At the end of the year, she asked to sign my yearbook. She took a long time, and when she handed it back, I discovered that she'd written dumb little comments on practically every page. She'd even written things OVER pictures of my face. I was furious. I talked to my boyfriend and another friend, and they encouraged me to tell her off. I ran up behind her in the hall and said, "Hey, Mary, thanks so much for writing all that stupid crap in my yearbook. Now I'll always remember what an annoying dork you are and how I can't stand you!"

We had the next class together, and she spent the whole period with her head down on her desk. I felt terrible. She called me later that night and said all the things I needed to hear, about how she didn't deserve to be talked to that way. I apologized and she accepted and we graduated and that was that. Still, to this day, I can't look at my yearbook without feeling awful about what I said to Mary. Sure, she shouldn't have written all over my yearbook, but I knew, even then, that she was trying to be funny in the only way she knew how. If I'd known that I was still going to feel bad about this fifteen years later, I would have simply smiled and thanked Mary for signing my yearbook.

Go to page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Now in Stores!

The Way We Fall cover

Amazon ~ Chapters ~ B&N
Powells ~ Indiebound

Available in Paperback

Give Up The Ghost cover

Amazon ~ Chapters ~ B&N
Powells ~ Indiebound

Giveaways!


Poll of the Month
What types of books are you most excited about right now?
Contemporary
Dystopian
Fantasy
Historical
Paranormal
Romance
Science Fiction
Steampunk
  

©2009 Megan Crewe
Inverse Tree