- Hello! - I say smiling. - You must be Jane, Brooke's friend?
She turns to me, smiling.
- Hey, Ryder! - she says. - Yes! It's me!
- Didn't I see you at the Kapa party? - I ask with a frown.
- Shii! - she says looking around. - Can you keep it down? In fact, why are you talking to me?
I sigh, putting the cigarette back in my shirt pocket.
- I need to talk to Brooke! Do you know where I can find her?
- Well, if she hasn't left the cafeteria to stick her face in some hole... - she answers by shrugging her shoulders. - That's where I left her ten minutes ago, before I chased those bitches down the hall.
- I heard Aron broke up with her. Is that true?
- That idiot wouldn't know how to end a tie, let alone end up with someone like Brooke. - she answers frustrated. - It was she who broke up with him, after having caught him with Tiffany, clinging to the middle of the nightclub. Aron humiliated Brooke trying to get out on top, but she hit him twice and even gave that bitch a drink bath.
Jane smiled with satisfaction.
- Everyone applauded her when she ran out to the exit. I don't know where she went, but when she came back, she seemed oblivious to what had happened.
Now it was explained why she wanted to assault the girls.
- Hey, come here! Why are you asking me these questions? - she says, in a threatening way. - You're not gonna trip her either, are you?
- It's not that! - I say by raising my hands. - I need her help with a project.
I explain after hearing one more frustrated swearing from Jane when I hear another distorted comment about Brooke.
- Project?
- I need to get my average back and only she can help me.
She looks down on me and smiles.
- Try your luck, my dear! The way you're making it look like you fucked in the closet on Friday, I doubt she'll help you.
I frown without understanding your last words. Apparently, I walked, unaware of the gossip, because I didn't know most of it. No choice, heading for the cafeteria, praying that Brooke would be in a good mood and susceptible to my charm.
Chapter 03
Brooke
That was the worst Monday in the history of Monday I'd ever lived through!
As I had predicted, everyone already knew what had happened at the club and made a point of distorting everything in Aron's favour. It was getting on my nerves to hear, every hour, a different story. Even a stab wound, I'd have given it to Tiffy. The good part was that, the nightclub manager had taken the situation not so seriously and I still had my job. He was worried about me, so he gave me the day off, which I would use to study a little more. I had to prepare the class that I would give a few days later in Mr. Keller's place and I still didn't know where to start.
On Saturday morning, I received a call from my mother, who was calling me from London to fill me with criticism. Someone had taken a picture just as I threw a drink at Tiffany and punched Aron. I do not know how, but it all ended up on social networks and therefore in a gossip magazine that is apparently also sold in London. The title was wonderful! "Socialite, law student and daughter of millionaires ready shack in famous nightclub of NY".
Me? Socialite? Really!
That's how my mother knew everything and spent forty minutes, filling me with patience. I tried to argue and ended up stressed out more than when I got home on Saturday morning. Jane said I was weird, like I was distracted, but who wouldn't stay after finding out I was being betrayed right under my nose?
After Jane left Saturday morning, I decided to get some more sleep. I woke up around two, went to the diner to buy something and went back to the dorm. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies, tidied up the room and my wardrobe that were a mess, and went back to watching movies until dawn, when I fell asleep and woke up early on Sunday. With Jane's absence, also that day, I decided to take the day off to walk in the park, but that was a total disaster, because all my academic colleagues were making some kind of joke, as I passed by them. So I went back to the dorm and ended up going back to the movies.
At some point in my life, I had learned to love Aron. We started our relationship on the basis of friendship and he evolved, thanks to the encouragement of my mother. I never imagined that he would be able to deceive me or humiliate me the way he humiliated me. It's okay! It's okay! I've always been too accurate, but there was no reason for him to do what he did to me and still let everyone trip. That was the saddest part. Not even our initial level of friendship was worth anything to him. I realized I didn't really know him.
I breathe deeply when I enter the cafeteria for the second time,
