This was beautifully written and very accurate to what it's like walking around with a secret that big. It is a hard task to talk about something that feels dirty on your skin, but it's a much better alternative than locking yourself in your head about it. You can save yourself and someone else. Speak until someone takes action. 1(800)656-4673 is a National help hotline. 

Melinda and her friend, Rachel, get invited to a high school party the summer before 9th grade and something big happens, so Melinda calls the cops and the party gets shut down. Melinda is caught being the "rat" and now everyone hates her, including Rachel. She can't say out loud to anyone what happened or why she called the cops and it's eating her alive. Melinda tries to move on and make new friends, but she's depressed and stuck. She stops talking, for the most part, because she's afraid if she does, it'll all come flowing out. Throughout the story, she goes through metamorphosis until she's finally able to speak up about what happened in order to save someone else.