Chapter 154

Tessa’s POV

“Amanda, we’ve already talked about this,” Brian said, shaking his head at her. “Tessa is my friend—”

“Friend is a strong word,” I corrected.

“I don’t want them sitting here,” she said through her teeth.

“That’s too bad,” Brian said shrugging as he began to eat his salad.

“Believe me… I don’t want to be sitting here either,” Ruby muttered as she stuffed a meatball in her mouth.

I tried and failed at stifling a smile.

“Ew,” one of Brian’s cheerleader friends, Kate, muttered as she grimaced at Ruby. “Do you have any idea how many calories are in that one meatball?”

Ruby raised her brows.

“I don’t know, but if it’s the calories that make this so delicious, then I’ll eat all the calories,” she said through huge mouthfuls of food.

I knew she was doing this on purpose; if she kept it up, I wouldn’t be able to hold in my laughter.

“Maybe eat with your mouth closed,” Jake, Brian’s best friend and Kate’s boyfriend, said as he narrowed his eyes at Ruby.

“So, how have you been, Tessa?” Cara, one of Brian’s more tolerable friends asked.

Out of all the friends that Brian had, I didn’t mind Cara as much. She was still stuck up like the rest of them, but she also had a conscious and she never spoke badly about others behind their backs. At least not that I knew of.

Usually, when one of them left the room, the rest of the group would start in on the mean commentary about that person. But not Cara; she never partook in that.

She was also kind of smart; she was getting good grades. As for the rest of Brian’s friends, they are lucky their parents are rich and paid their full tuition because they’d never be able to stay here on a scholarship like some of us.

“I’ve been great,” I told her, smiling at her as I took a bite of my food. “My blog is doing very well.”

“I’ve seen,” she stated simply, returning my smile. “It’s quite impressive.”

“Yeah, we’ve all seen that trainwreck of a post you made the other day,” Kate muttered. “Impressive isn’t the word I’d use.”

“I deleted it and made an apology post,” I told her quickly.

Before they could say anything more, we were interrupted by another, more perky, voice.

“Hey all!....” Liz, Amanda's female best friend began to say until her eyes found mine, and her face fell. “Oh, hey, Testicle.”

“It’s Tessa, you bitch,” Ruby said, slamming her fists on her table.

“Ruby, it’s fine,” I said, placing my hand on her arm to calm her. “Lizard can call me whatever she wants.”

“Real clever,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Come up with that yourself?”

“Can you stop fighting,” Brian said, loud enough that most of the cafeteria had heard him and turned in our direction. “You’re supposed to be adults. We aren’t in high school anymore. Grow up, Liz.”

Liz’s eyes turned to slits as she glared at Brian.

“I’ll grow up when that bitch dies,” she hissed.

Brian looked like he wanted to say something more, but he soon closed his mouth and said nothing. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as I continued to eat my food silently. He wanted to prove to me that he’s changed, but so far, he’s still the same old Brian as before.

I glanced at Ruby who was also staring at Brian with disgust on her face. When she noticed me looking at her, she mouthed, “Told you so.”

I nodded and turned back to my food.

“Tessa was just telling us about her blog,” Cara said, looking at Liz and then back at me. “Your apology post was nice. I’m sure it made a lot of your readers happy.”

“I gained new followers and had positive feedback,” I told her, nodding my head.

“Oh, please. Nothing can take away from your original man-hating post,” Amanda scoffed, making Liz chuckle.

“Yeah, we all know what your post was about. There’s no denying it now,” Liz chimed in.

The two of them began to cackle; I stared between the two of them confused.

“What are you talking about?” I dared to ask.

Once their laughter died down, Amanda peered around Brian to glare at me.

“It’s obvious,” she answered, raising her brows. “Your post was about your professor.”

“Yeah…” Liz said in agreement. “The one you’re fucking.”

I felt the color draining from my face. The entire table and parts of the cafeteria grew silent. Only the sounds of Liz and Amanda’s laughter could be heard. It didn’t take long for the whispers to begin and once they did, I felt paralyzed.

“Did you hear what they said? Tessa’s messing around with her professor?”

“How long has that been going on?”

“She must be doing it to get a good grade.”

I was frozen in my seat; now that rumors were spreading like wildfire, there was no getting them back. It wouldn’t be long now before Joseph heard them as well. He was going to be so upset… I could possibly have ruined his career. Even though I knew he was only going to be a professor for a few more months. But still…. This could be really bad.

“Amanda… Liz….” Brian said through his teeth, and I knew he was angry.

But I was angry too and I wasn’t going to stand this abuse. Especially considering I didn’t have to. Ruby was right as usual; I didn’t owe them anything. I didn’t have to sit here and take this. I didn’t need to be connected to Brian.

I was done here.

I put my fork on my plate and slowly stood to my feet. Everybody, including Ruby, looked up at me with pure fascination, wondering what I might do.

“That’s really funny, Liz,” I said calmly. “Though, I thought you’d be a little more tasteful considering your mother had to sleep with one of the board members to get you into this school.”

This was real information that I knew about. Being part of this group for so long, I hear things.

The color in her face drained and once again, everybody was silent and stunned.

I didn’t stick around any longer. I grabbed my lunch tray and motioned for Ruby to follow me. But before I left, I looked at Brian.

“It’s been real, Brian. But consider this trial over.”

I used similar words that Joseph used with me; it stung to speak those same words, but it had to be said. He looked frozen in his seat when I turned and walked toward the trash, throwing my entire tray inside before storming out of the cafeteria.

Ruby was behind me quickly, still eating her lunch as we walked across campus. I just needed to gain space from them all and breathe fresh air.

“That what awesome!” She laughed. “I am so proud of you for standing up for yourself!”

“I’m sorry for putting you through that,” I said, turning to face her. “You were right. I have nothing to prove to them.”

“Fuck them,” she said with a wide grin. “Meatballs are amazing, and those stuck-up bitches don’t know what they are missing.”

I laughed as I stole a meatball off her plate.

The two of us sat together on one of the stone benches that overlooked the big campus fountain and right in front of the large oak tree. It was one of my favorite places to sit and hang out because it was so peaceful, and nobody ever really bothered me here. I also came here to study, read, and journal.

“Tessa!” I heard my name in the distance and when I looked in that direction, I saw Brian jogging toward me.

Ruby groaned just as I rolled my eyes. Neither of us moved from the bench.

“What do you want, Brian?” I asked as he approached.

“I’m sorry about my friends. That wasn’t my plan,” he said, panting.

“What did you expect was going to happen?” I asked, raising my brows. “You didn’t even tell them I was joining you guys for lunch.”

“I thought it’d be easier if they didn’t know,” he said frowning. “That way they couldn’t protest.”

“Have you met your friends?” Ruby asked, narrowing her eyes at him. “They are horrid creatures. Worse than the ones we write about in Professor Evergreen’s class.”

I wanted to argue that the creatures we write about aren’t actually horrid. At least not most of them. But I didn’t think now was the right time and Brian was certainly not the right audience.

“Let me make it up to you,” he breathed, ignoring Ruby completely.

I rolled my eyes again and shook my head.

“This was your only chance to make it up to me and you failed,” I told him. “I’m done giving you chances. It’s not worth my time and energy. I’m way too busy to deal with your shit.”

“Come on, Tessa,” he whined. “It’s not fair to blame me for something my friends did.”

“You didn’t even stand up for her,” Ruby said loudly, placing her plate beside her on the bench and folding her arms across her chest. “You haven’t changed a bit. You are still a coward of a man who lets his friends walk all over him and dictate his every move.”

“I did stand up for her! I told them to stop and to grow up!”

“Yeah, that worked out really well,” Ruby scoffed.

“Enough of this, Brian. I had a nice time getting ice cream with you, but as far as anything else goes, I don’t see us being friends or anything. Can’t we just stop here and move forward as separate people?”

“That’s not good enough for me,” he said, shaking his head.

“Why not?”

“Because I miss you, Tessa. I miss being friends. I miss hearing you laugh. I miss listening to your problems and hanging out together,” he breathed, stepping toward me. “Tessa, I fucked up big time by letting you go. I shouldn’t have cheated on you, and I certainly should have never put your career beneath mine. I understand how wrong I was… I understand that it was fucked up. Please, just give me a chance to make it up to you as friends.”

I stared at his desperate and pleading face, not sure what to say. I knew what I wanted to say, but I also knew that it would hurt him, and I was tired of hurting people. I was also tired of feeling hurt though.

I just wanted everybody besides Ruby to leave me alone.

“Look, if you really don’t want to give this friendship a chance, I will leave it alone. But if you do, come to the game tomorrow night. It’s our championship game and it’s being televised around the world. It’s kind of a huge deal so everyone, including the cheerleaders, is under a lot of pressure. That’s the reason why everyone is bitchy—”

“That’s hardly an excuse,” Ruby muttered at him.

“I know,” he said quickly, glancing at her and then back at me. “Just come to the game tomorrow and then afterward we can talk some more. I promise it’ll be worth it.”

I was about to say no to the proposal, but beyond Brian, in the distance, I saw Joseph walking against the shade of the school. He was speaking with Miss Emily, but his eyes shifted to me. Our eyes held on to one another for a moment and then I watched as Miss Emily placed her hand on his upper bicep and laughed at whatever he was saying.

My blood boiled.

I looked back at Brian and plastered a smile on my face as I stood to my feet.

“I would love to come to the game tomorrow, Brian,” I said loud enough for Joseph and Miss Emily to hear.

I knew it worked when Miss Emily turned to look at me with a curious gaze in her eyes. I looked back at Joseph as I added, “Thank you for the invite.”