Without Paige, Meredith, or an audience, she looked seventeen. That made everything somehow sadder.
Lauren began with an apology. Aaliyah told her apologies could wait.
“Why did you want me angry?”
Lauren looked down at her hands. “Because nobody believed me anymore.”
Aaliyah asked what nobody believed. Lauren said people had started treating her comments like obsession.
Students questioned her jokes. Meredith disagreed.
Teachers documented everything. Even Paige had occasionally asked whether they should stop.
Lauren felt as though Aaliyah had changed how everyone saw her. “So you wanted to change how they saw me,” Aaliyah said.
Lauren nodded.
She admitted the group believed that if they could record Aaliyah screaming, threatening them, or throwing the first punch, they could prove administrators had misjudged the entire year. The plan had not started as a physical attack.
They wanted humiliation. Reaction.
A clip.
Then Lauren threw the drink.
“Why red?” Aaliyah asked.
Lauren closed her eyes. “Because it would show on your clothes.”
The answer made Aaliyah feel colder than any apology could repair. The humiliation had been designed visually.
She asked about the phrase aggressive. Lauren hesitated.
“Did you think I was aggressive before that day?” Aaliyah asked.
“Sometimes.”
“When?”
Lauren struggled. Aaliyah waited.
“When you’d challenge me in front of people.”
“That’s arguing.”
“I know.”
“When else?”
“When you reported things.”
“That’s reporting.”
Lauren looked ashamed. “I know.”
Aaliyah leaned back. “So where did aggressive come from?”
Lauren did not answer for a long time.
Finally she said, “I think I expected it.”
Aaliyah knew what she meant. Still, she made her finish.
“Expected what?”
“That you’d eventually blow up.” Lauren swallowed.
“Because I’m Black?”
Lauren looked toward the floor. “Partly.”
The room stayed silent.