Chapter 142

Tessa’s POV

As I walked the long halls of the school and toward my locker, I could hear the murmurs of those around me and the onlookers.

“Did you see her post this morning? So, depressing.”

“I wondered what happened to her to cause such sad blog posts.”

“She looks awful.”

“I might unfollow her. I can’t be reading that depressing shit.”

My stomach clenched as I quickly made my way to my locker where Ruby was waiting for me as she does every morning. She had a concerned look on her face when I approached, which I wasn’t surprised about.

“People are talking about your recent post,” she murmured for my ears alone.

“So, I’ve heard,” I said, not looking at her.

“Tessa, it’s really depressing. You really put shame on men in general,” Ruby said, leaning against the lockers to stare at me more comfortably. “I think you should delete it before—”

“Before what?” I asked, snapping a look at her. “Before I offend someone? I’m not deleting anything.”

I slammed my locker door shut and started to walk away, but she grabbed my arm and halted me.

“I’m not trying to be a jerk,” she assured me gently. “I just don’t want you to lose followers or cause anyone to be angry with you.”

“It’s just an opinion post, Ruby,” I muttered. “If they can’t handle an opinion, then maybe they shouldn’t be my follower.”

I ripped my arm out of her grip and started to walk away from her. This time, she let me go. As I walked toward my first class, I still felt eyes on the back of my head, knowing that students were still looking at me and judging me.

It only made me walk faster.

I was soon running around the corner and ran straight into what I thought was a wall at first, but then books and papers went flying in the air and landed on the ground around us, and I soon realized it wasn’t a wall at all.

“I’m so sorry,” I said as I quickly tried to gather their papers off the ground.

“It’s fine,” a familiar voice said, making me freeze.

I slowly looked up to see Brian in front of me.

“Oh, it’s just you,” I murmured, handing him his papers.

“Nice to see you too,” he muttered in return.

He looked tired; I wanted to ask him when he last slept, but I decided against it. Our last conversation wasn’t exactly pleasant, and I didn’t want to start anything right now. I just wanted to get through today and then go home so I could remain in bed for the rest of the night.

“Look, I know I’ve been a complete asshole, but you didn’t have to write that post about me,” Brian muttered, standing to his feet as he picked up his last book.

I stood up as well, narrowing my eyes at him.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Your blog post,” he said, shaking his head as he met my eyes. “I know it was about me. It was all about how you can’t trust men and how they do nothing but break your heart. It’s obvious it was about me.”

“You read my blog post?” I asked, furrowing my brows together. I didn’t even know Brian knew what sight my post was on; of course, it was a school-funded sight, so it was easy to find. But I truly didn’t think he cared enough to look for it.

I shook the thought off my head; of course, he didn’t care enough to look for it. A friend of his probably sent it to him under the assumption that it was about him.

I’m assuming it was Amanda.

“I read your blog periodically,” he shrugged, making me look up at him in surprise. “Sometimes your posts are interesting.”

“Is this the same guy who told me that my posts will never get read and that I’m not a good writer?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

His face seemed to have reddened from my words.

“I know I wasn’t nice to you and for that I’m sorry. But I was wrong… your posts are quite popular and—”

“Save it, Brian,” I muttered, shoving past him. “I really don’t want to hear it right now.”

I shook my head as I continued down the hall; what the hell was that about?

The rest of the day went by slowly. I could hardly concentrate in most of my classes and felt worn out and exhausted. I only had a few minutes left until Joseph’s class and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it.

“I can tell him you’re sick and you can just leave early,” Ruby said as she stood beside me. We were outside Joseph’s classroom; thankfully, he wasn’t outside his room. Which meant, he was probably already inside.

I shook my head and forced a smile.

“No, I’m not going to run away,” I told her. “Writing is my passion and I’m not going to let him take that away from me. Not like Brian… not ever again.”

Ruby draped an arm through mine, and we started to walk toward the door.

“Hello, Tessa,” I heard my name from nearby and looked over to see Miss Emily standing against the doorframe of her classroom, which evidently was right next to Joseph’s classroom. “I read your post this morning. Is everything well with you?”

“It was just a post, Miss Emily,” I said, trying to sound unbothered by her presence. “It didn’t mean anything.”

“Sure, seemed like it meant something,” she said with a timid frown. “Has Professor Joseph seen it yet?”

I frowned at her.

“I’m not sure,” I said in return.

“I’m sure he will and once he does, I don’t think he will be pleased about it. I’d be careful with what you post on the internet,” she said as she disappeared into her classroom.

I scrunched my fists, angry and annoyed, but Ruby grabbed my arm and pulled me into Joseph’s classroom.

“Let's not fight professors,” Ruby murmured, and I knew she was right.

I could lose my scholarship and never graduate.

When we entered Joseph’s room, he was seated at his desk, looking at his computer with a frown. When he looked up at me, I quickly averted my eyes and went with Ruby to the back of the room to our usual seat.

For most of class, I kept my head down, not wanting to look at him. He went into various new lessons and most of the class took an assessive number of notes and asked a bunch of questions. But I remained still and silent in the back of the room, staring down at my empty notebook.

When class ended, I quickly packed my things, not wanting to be the last one out of the classroom and be stuck alone with Joseph.

Ruby quickly gathered her things as well so she could keep up with me. I rushed past Joseph just as I heard him saying my name.

I didn’t stop though, I rushed toward the doorway and disappeared into the hallway with Ruby on my trail.

“He’s going to be mad you ran away from him,” Ruby said as she leaned against my locker.

I shook my head at her.

“I don’t care,” I muttered in return.

She smiled.

“You know what you need? A night out. Let’s go drinking tonight,” she said eagerly.

The memory of the last time Ruby took me drinking after my recent heartbreak surfaced in my mind. She took me to a callboy bar, and I picked up a man who I thought to be a callboy but it ended up being Joseph.

Reading the hesitation and expression on my face, her face fell.

“Not a callboy bar,” she said quickly. “I promise.”

“I don’t know if I’m really in the mood and plus it’s Monday. We have school tomorrow,” I reminded her.

“We both have later classes tomorrow though,” she said with a shrug. “We can sleep in a little bit tomorrow. Come on; you need to get your mind off that douche.”

I looked at her serious pleading face and I sighed.

“Okay,” I finally said. “We can go to the bar tonight.”

She clapped eagerly at my response.

Instead of going straight home, I went to Ruby’s apartment. She wanted to give me a makeover so I could at least feel hot for when we got wasted at the bar. She wanted to boost my confidence and I wouldn’t complain about that.

She let me borrow a tight black dress that ended far above my knees and showed off my cleavage and every curve of my body perfectly. Ruby and I were the same size, so we often shared clothes.

She curled my hair and put makeup on my face to give me a little more life and color to my features. By the time I was finished getting dressed, I could hardly recognize myself.

I hardly ever dressed like this.

I frowned as I looked myself over in the mirror.

“I thought we were just going to a bar,” I said pointedly.

She grinned at me.

“There’s this bar and club up the street I figured we could check out,” she said.

“Ruby—”

“Come on, Tessa. It’ll be fun,” she said, grabbing my hands and sticking out her bottom lip.

I sighed.

“Okay,” I finally said after a pause.

We didn’t bother taking a car; she was right, it was right across the street and took only a couple of minutes to walk to. There was already a line of people outside the door and the bouncer was checking each of their IDs before allowing them access to the club.

By the time he got to us, he smiled at Ruby.

“Welcome back, Miss Ruby,” he said kindly, only glancing at each of our IDs before letting us in.

“Thanks, Rich,” she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me along with her.

“I thought you said you were never here before,” I said, raising my brows at her as I followed her through the crowd of people.

“So, I lied,” she shrugged.

I rolled my eyes but said nothing more; mainly because the music was so loud, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hear myself speak.

There was a light-up bar on the far side of the dance floor; we just had to wiggle our way through the dancing people to get to the bar. It wasn’t even 8 at night and they were already wasted and sloppy.

They were practically having sex on the dance floor.

We got to the bar and like the bouncer, Ruby knew this bartender too.

“How often do you come here?” I asked, furrowing my brows.

She shrugged.

“Only a few times,” she said.

She ordered a few tequila shots.

“Neither of us is driving so drink up,” she ordered, handing me a shot.

I sighed and we cheered. The tequila instantly stung my throat and made me want to vomit upon entering my stomach, but then it settled, and I felt a little better.

It only took one more shot before I was feeling dizzy; however, my body was starting to relax as the thought of Joseph faded from my mind.

At some point, Ruby disappeared. I didn’t care though, the music that was playing turned into something that I knew, and I found myself swaying to the beat as I took another shot.

All was well until I felt a firm hand on my lower back, drifting down to my butt.

“Hey beautiful,” a man with beer breath said into my ear. “Care to dance?”