Done Being the Good Girl
814 Views · Ongoing · Piper Hayes
Preston Ashford and I made a promise to get into UCLA together.
I held onto that promise through all of senior year, surviving on four hours of sleep a night. Then results day came, and I found out someone had logged into my application and changed it.
I only ever gave Preston my password.
I storm over to confront him and catch Vanessa Ashby, the daughter of an old family friend, the one everyone tiptoed around because of her depression, laughing. "Preston, what do you think Elise looked like when she found out?"
Preston lets out a lazy laugh. "She'll freak out, obviously. Girl's wound so tight, might as well get some use out of her."
Vanessa has depression, and I'm the one who's supposed to make her laugh.
I'm the one who ate dirt at track meets. I'm the one who got laughed at for singing off-key. I'm the one everyone pointed and laughed at. And every time she doubled over laughing, Preston told me I was a good girl.
I turned myself into a joke, just to get a little scrap of kindness thrown my way.
But not this time. I'm done playing the clown.
I held onto that promise through all of senior year, surviving on four hours of sleep a night. Then results day came, and I found out someone had logged into my application and changed it.
I only ever gave Preston my password.
I storm over to confront him and catch Vanessa Ashby, the daughter of an old family friend, the one everyone tiptoed around because of her depression, laughing. "Preston, what do you think Elise looked like when she found out?"
Preston lets out a lazy laugh. "She'll freak out, obviously. Girl's wound so tight, might as well get some use out of her."
Vanessa has depression, and I'm the one who's supposed to make her laugh.
I'm the one who ate dirt at track meets. I'm the one who got laughed at for singing off-key. I'm the one everyone pointed and laughed at. And every time she doubled over laughing, Preston told me I was a good girl.
I turned myself into a joke, just to get a little scrap of kindness thrown my way.
But not this time. I'm done playing the clown.

















































