"Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken."

~ Albert Camus ~

It had been no more than a week since Ryder had been forced to leave the glee club because of her and it was slowly eating away at her. She couldn't come out and say he was right to everyone now. That would only give them more reason to judge her. But in order to talk to him again, which is all she wanted to do, she'd have to tell someone.

Would he even listen to her at this point anyway? Would telling someone even matter?

She didn't want to risk it. There was way too much on the line and she wasn't ready to come clean. She hadn't been ready at the meeting and he should have known that. He should have known when to shut up, but he didn't. Maybe that was her fault. Everything else seemed to be.

"Hey Marley," Someone called out to her and she froze in place. She wasn't ready for this conversation either. "Listen, I have a really huge favor to ask you."

Turning around slowly, she looked him up and down. His eyes were a little red and he had dark circles under them but other than that, he looked as good as ever. The black eye Jake had given him was fading but she was sure he was still going around thinking he was a bad ass because of it. Although she wanted to smile in spite of herself she kept a straight face. "Sure. What is it?"

He narrowed his eyes and shook his head as if he was confused with something she had said or done. She decided against asking him about it when he started talking. "How are you doing? You know, after everything?"

Suddenly, she didn't want to talk to him. His lips and his eyes and his being was no longer appealing to her at this moment. He was condescending. Talking to her as if she was a child who was too stupid to realize what was going on. Scoffing, she turned and shut her locker. "You'd know the answer to your question if you would have returned my calls or texts."

He chuckled dryly and shrugged his shoulders. "What did you want me to do, Marley? Did you want me to pretend like I wasn't mad at you? Or maybe you wanted me to act like I understood why you let Jake get away with everything he did? Is that what you wanted?"

She felt terrible when she felt herself nod her head. Of course, when he put it like that she sounded like a bitch. But what was she to do when everyone was staring at her like they were? Was she supposed to just admit her weakness to the entire club so they could accept her for who she was? No. She'd done that before and with Tina always bringing up how she ruined the future of the glee club, it wasn't a very pleasant experience. They judged her. They blamed her. And she'd be damned if she gave them another reason to do that again.

She didn't want to let them down and turning Jake in would do just that.

But now she was standing in front of Ryder, a boy whom the glee club made feel like he was good enough and she took that away from him. She took away the friends that made him feel safe. She took away the one teacher who believed in him. She took it all away. She let him down.

"I'm s-." She started once she got her thoughts in order but as soon as she opened her mouth, someone else was opening theirs.

Turning, she saw Jake standing next to her locker on the other side with a devious smirk on his face. "Well if it isn't the slut and the impulsive liar…"

Rolling her eyes, she shut her locker and clutched her books closer to her stomach. Upon seeing him, though, her confidence faded and she bit her lip. She wasn't sure if it was because he scared her or if because there was a tiny part of her that was still attracted to him. "Hey Jake."

As she turned back to look at the boy she had originally walked over to talk to, she noticed him rolling his eyes. She wasn't sure if it was because she greeted Jake or if Jake's insults were what inspired the eye roll but she felt a strange feeling either way to defend both herself and Jake. Irrational? Maybe but she didn't care.

"Baby, why are you wasting your time with these losers?" A girl with red hair called from across the hallway. Marley recognized her instantly as Maggie, one of the senior cheerleaders. With a sigh, Marley turned back towards Ryder's locker and pretended to be interested in whatever was inside.

Then, pulling her books towards her chest tightly, she turned towards Ryder and sent him a fake smile. "I'll see you in Mr. Schue's class then."

With that said, she started walking down the hallway, trying her best to keep herself from crying. She tried to remind herself all of the bad things Jake had done; all of the things he said; all of the times he physically hurt her. It was impossible, though, and she felt her pace quickening from a slow walk to a slight jog as she turned a corner and ran into the bathroom instead.

She'd hide out here until she could convince herself that she was better off without either of the two boys. She'd forget just how much she wanted both of them to understand what she was going through; what they were putting her through. In short, she would bend for them because she knew that's what they both wanted. They didn't want Marley. They wanted who they thought she was. She just wished that at the end of all this, she could still be friends with them.

That hardly seemed possible at this point, though.

It's been a super long time since I've updated this and I apologize to anyone who was reading it. I tried to focus on my other story before I finished this one, but then I had to put my other story off because of a concussion. Now, though, I'm just going to try to update both at the same time because I hate the fact that two of my stories weren't updated in so long.

Sound good? I hope so.

Thanks so much to everyone who reads this! You guys are truly amazing and I love you all!

Have a lovely week! I'll try to update this on either Tuesday or Friday, depending on how writing both stories goes. :)

Love, Kaylie