I was as far from “Slut” as you could get.

In seventh grade, I made a new friend. She really was the life of any party, fun, bubbly, and completely and utterly boy crazy. I had a cute little boyfriend, never pushy, always polite. We never kissed, much less talk about sex. We all were friends, Me, her, my boyfriend and our little group of his friends. That fall, something personal happened and I felt like having a relationship was too much to handle. I broke it off with him, and my friend stood behind me on everything. His friends made up vicious lies that I had “had an affair” that summer (which I had definitely not), and that I was a “Slut.” This confused me. I was as far from “Slut” as you could get. I had read somewhere that people are using the term Slut to replace what was commonly used as Bitch. Of course, I never told my mom because, I mean, it’s pretty hard to tell your mom “Oh, yah, by the way, these boys at school are saying that I’m a slut because I allegedly slept with a boy at summer camp.” But what hurt the most was that they would never tell it to my face. I’m a strong person, I can stand up to people, when they tell it to my face. This was, to me, a whole new form and breed of middle school bullying. Later I found out that my “Friend” wasn’t really a good friend. She had been helping spread the rumors via messaging. Moral of the story: Even if you’re “Strong” bullying can happen. You can never really get put in the victim's shoes, and it’s very hard to experience what goes through the victim's head.