Public Humiliation

Someone laughed. I wasn't quite sure who, but I heard the cackling as if it had been shouted from a mountaintop. What had I just said? It couldn't have been that bad.

"Oh my God!" someone barked through their doubled-over laughter, "I can't believe you just said that out loud!"

Hot blood flooded under my skin.

"Yeah, dude," another blank face said, "that's way personal."

All their faces were blurring together, making their features non-distinguishable; all features except their gaping, laughing mouths.
My face was burning- I could feel myself blushing like a girl. My stomach was knotting and I mentally flipped through every tactic that would allow me escape from this horrible scene. I was coming up empty.

It was widely known that I was not the coolest of the guys in the fraternity- never had been. So when my Brother's friend's cousin invited me to this party, I jumped at the chance to prove all those horrible yearbook photos wrong. Now I was divulging deep, personal secrets to people I didn't even know! What was I thinking?

"Tyler, are you okay? You look like you're about to barf."

Have you ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Thank god I wasn't wearing my letters.

word count: 205