Chapter 8 Reunion To Remember (1)
Since the location of the reunion wasn't far from BlueBird Co., Roy managed to arrive only ten minutes late.
“Jacob!”
Jacob heard his name and turned to smile at Roy.
True to it, Jacob had worn an oversized suit wanting to impress as usual. It didn’t fit him at all. But Roy didn’t look any better in worn ripped jeans and sun-bleached red plain polo.
“I have been waiting for hours,” Jacob exaggerated. “Everyone looks great in there, Roy West. Why do you look this way?”
Roy shook his head. “Let’s go in already. Leave my outfit, you look great.”
“Thank you,” Jacob smiled.
Upon entering the door of the beautiful private diner room, Roy noticed that all his former classmates were giving him strange looks. This look wasn’t that of disdain or disappointment as news fly and they expected him to look wretched as always.
This look was a look of pity this time because everyone was allowed to bring a plus one so, somehow had brought Roy’s brother—Byron Paul—and someone else had gone to bring Valerie.
Both didn’t belong to this reunion because Valerie was still in college finals and Byron was a member of the class two years after this one.
Valerie and Byron were sitting together, chatting intimately, acting like the world was blurred against them.
Seeing this scene, a strange emotion welled up inside Roy. Valerie had never sat with him like that when they were together in public. She was always ashamed of him in public.
It was clear that the whole class already knew about Valerie and him.
“Roy, I heard. But I didn’t know they would come here. I shouldn’t have made you come,” Jacob asked nervously.
“It’s alright,” Roy replied flatly.
“But is it true that after everything you did for her, she—.”
“Jacob, don't you know when to stop? You two come sit here,” whispered a friend of both Jacob and Roy who had lost contact with Roy. Or rather didn’t want to stay involved with a public disgrace after school.
Although, back in the days in the university he helped Roy a lot and Roy always remembered his kindness. No hard feelings attached.
“It’s alright, Jay,” Roy said as he smiled at him before walking to the chair beside him to seat.
Jacob sat beside him, with Roy in middle in a round table with the other students and their plus ones.
Roy wasn't even upset about Valerie at all; he just needed some quiet time to think about everything that had happened some hours ago.
It all seemed so unbelievable.
Just yesterday evening, Valerie who had dated for four years had dumped him because he was broke. By the afternoon today, he had become a trillionaire with money in his pocket.
The feeling was wonderful to Roy.
“Who invited that poor loser? Class reunion is where we come and equally feed ourselves. Who is going to afford the fantasies of that bummer…” A lady in a blue dress Roy recalled to be Taylor, said arrogantly.
Roy couldn't help but look up at her.
She was the one who brought Valerie here just to provoke him. Even if she came from a well-off family and was quite pretty, she was toxic as hell.
Taylor looked down on Roy and often humiliated and bullied him when they were in college.
Roy had tolerated her then because she had an outside of the campus boyfriend who was into gambling and smoking at such a young age.
Roy had every reason to believe that Valerie had dumped him for his brother, largely due to Taylor’s influence.
“Yeah, why would a fake Paul be here when we have the real one joining us?” Another ex-classmate, Lisa, chimed in.
“Lisa, Taylor, how can you say that about your own classmate?” Jay shouted, clearly displeased.
“It's true, though. Haven’t you heard of how embarrassing the Walmart guy here, Roy West, is?” Another guy retorted, folding his arms.
“Well, guys, if my big brother can't afford it, I'll cover his cost. Do you really need to humiliate family?” Byron finally spoke, gesturing with his hand—indirectly flaunting his watch, while mocking Roy so bad.
Roy rolled his eyes. Byron was such a fake and a thief but everyone thinks it is him instead!
“No one has to pay anything for me. I’ll pay myself,” Roy spoke up in a calm and collected tone.
“…”
The entire class was stunned upon hearing that. Their faces were filled with disbelief.
No one ever expected that Roy, who had always declined invitations to gatherings because he would rather save the money and spend his time working four to eight jobs at once, would actually attend and even pay his bills.
Byron got uncomfortable immediately.
Didn’t his mother take all the money from Roy and use it to buy things for dinner tonight? How come Roy even has the mouth to talk then?
He looked at Roy, hesitated for a moment, then said with a smirk, “Well, well, my adoptive brother actually has money for the reunion today.”
Since his mother didn’t successfully take all the money he has, he—Byron—will make sure he empties Roy’s pocket and cut it so every money that goes into his pocket will leak off. He would put him in debts, all while humiliating him!
“Brother, your old classmates say you all have known each other for so long, and you've never attended a single event. How about this, why don't you treat all of your old classmates to a meal today?” Byron suggested cruelly.
“Byron, is that a joke?” Clark, the ex-class monitor of them all before and the one who invited Byron because Byron compelled him to, blurted.
“If this Walmart guy can treat everyone to a meal today in such a luxurious hotel, I'll kiss his feet!” Jeffrey, the then clown of the class shouted with a laugh.
“No problem. Since my old classmates think this is right, I'll treat everyone to a meal,” Roy said in a very calm tone then looked at Byron Paul, eyeballs to eyeballs, “Everyone including my LITTLE BABY brother and his girl.”
“…”
Jeffrey froze mid-laugh.
The entire old classmates were equally shocked.
Byron fisted. He was confused as to how a broke man, who would do six to eight petty jobs for money, suddenly seemed like a different person, willing to spend money on the lunch of over twenty people.
Valerie, too, looked at Roy with a hint of surprise. But she quickly concluded that Roy was just bragging. Maybe the breakup got his brain and he had suddenly gone made.
“What's wrong with Roy West today?” Jacob’s face showed the same confusion.
Jay scoffed. This was exactly the reason like he broke connection with Roy West. He was bad luck not just to himself but others. “What else could it be? Valerie dumped him, and his own brother was who she dumped him for. He's probably just trying to save face by agreeing to this.”
He then added, “But treating everyone… now I will need to carry this cross too and pay for his boastfulness.”
“Yeah, I just got my allowance too anyway,” Jacob nodded lightly.
“Hey, Roy West, I hope you wouldn’t be paying for only lunch for all of us? Please, pay for this room we booked as well,” Taylor mocked, intending to add more salts to the wound.
“Hahahaha,” others laughed.
Byron smirked. Booking this subsidiary of the Royalty H & E costs $8,000 alone and it wasn’t even the best room yet.
Roy nodded and said flatly. “Fine. I will.”
Everyone was shocked again.
“Hey Walmart guy, what's gotten into you today?” Lisa shouted at Roy. “Do you think this is a joke?”
“Joke or not, if he really does treat everyone here, Jeffrey will kiss his feet as promised!” Byron chimed in, laughing nervously. Well, he hoped not.
“But…” Roy started and everyone paid attention to what he’d say next.
“But what?”
Roy folded his arms. “But I will do the picking of the dishes you all will eat.”
“That’s absurd!”
“That’s rubbish!”
“How could we let you pick the cheapest dishes?” Lisa mocked
“What would you pick? Bread?”
“Hahahaha.”
Byron cleared his throat. He was hellbent on making it difficult for Roy.
“How about we all pick what we want but you pay half the bill?”
Hearing his brother make the excuse of picking food for everyone, Byron was assured that Roy didn’t have much money and was bound to lose this bet.
“Is that okay with you brother? Everyone eats as they like but you and I split the bill equally. Or if you want, we can do 60:40 and I pay 60% of the bill,” Byron suggested cunningly, making it seem like he was the good guy.
Roy squinted. He knew what Byron was doing.
Bryon knew his game and would likely tell these people to take more than a dish each. So even if he ends up paying 80%, a mere 20% would be difficult for Roy to pay, talk more of 40%.
“Leave it all 50:50. I agree,” Roy stunned them once again.
