Her mom would have known what to do. After she died, her auntie had given Olivia her first diary so she could pour her heart into it. Since then she had written page after page, filling book after book. They sat on the bookshelf in the lounge; she knew that her dad would never read them. He’d never invade her privacy like that.

The bullying became worse, if that was possible, the longer she and Johnathon dated. Finally, Olivia worked it out: Marcie had a crush on Johnathon, and Olivia dating him complicated her plans. Johnathon had once asked her why she looked so sad and she had replied, ‘I’m happy with you and sad without you.’ Her response seemed to satisfy him. Why couldn’t he see what was really going on? Was he blind or deliberately ignoring it? Both options weren’t good enough.

The physical bulling stepped up after Johnathon took her to a party and Marcie saw them together, saw Johnathon nuzzling Olivia’s neck intimately. They weren’t sleeping together, despite his less than subtle prodding. Marcie was glaring at them, making her so uncomfortable that she barely touched Johnathon, which pissed him off.

Why did no one like her except Johnathon?

Olivia decided that the best way to get Marcie and the girls off her back was to break up with Johnathon, even though that was the last thing that she wanted to do. She had real feelings for him, but her safety and sanity came first. The day after the party, she caught him at his locker between classes. She needed to rip the Band-Aid off and do it quickly. It was going to kill her as he was her only friend, but it had to be done.

‘What’s wrong, babe?’ he asked, seeing her mouth pursed, her eyes downcast, her arms folded over her chest. ‘I… I need to tell you something.’

‘Shoot.’

‘I just think that we want different things and are heading in different directions.’ Every word broke her heart. The look on his face, sadness, then anger.

‘Yeah well, I was gonna break up with you anyway – you don’t even put out.’ He stormed off, punching a locker on his way past, betraying his true feelings. He was upset. And it hurt. She only did this to fix the Marcie problem. She hoped with all her heart that it did.

Marcie stood further along the hallway, watching, her beady little eyes missing nothing. As Johnathon came level with her, she linked her arms with him, throwing a satisfied look over her shoulder at Olivia. Olivia wanted to scream. You got him by default!

It turned out that dumping Johnathon made no difference. If anything, it made it worse. School was unbearable now. Johnathon ignored her and started dating Marcie within days of them breaking up. Olivia was devastated. Hadn’t he cared for her at all? She moped around the house.