Episode 4 - Say that again

I felt like something was on my back, but I completely ignored it and fell completely asleep until I heard the alarm from my phone waking me up. I woke up feeling incredibly tired. I stretched a bit and looked at the time: 9:30 AM. Furthermore, I grabbed my towel and, as I reached for the doorknob, I immediately noticed it was unlocked, but I'm pretty sure I locked it earlier in the morning. Since the apartment we live in is quite old, I didn't get too upset, as a broken door wouldn't be unusual. I took a quick shower and grabbed the same backpack as yesterday. I grabbed my helmet and hopped on the bike, I spent a few minutes thinking about how I was going to see James and the boys today, but then decided to head off to college anyway. I spent the entire drive talking to myself, thinking about how to apologize for the way I acted yesterday. When I arrived, I parked and decided to take a different route through buildings, ones I never usually pass. In the distance, I could see James, with a girl who had her arm around his neck and was staring at him as if they were about to kiss.

"For real?" That was the only thought that crossed my mind.

They turned to look, and I quickly hid, I don't know why, as if I were the one doing something wrong. I peeked back in and noticed the girl kissing him, while he stood still, allowing her to kiss him. But of course, he tells me he likes me and the next day he kisses a girl, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. I turned back and took the path I usually take to class. I arrived early and talked to my teacher for a while. After a few minutes, my classmates started getting into the classroom, among with my friends.

I sat down and James sat in the chair behind me as soon as he arrived. It was a short class where they gave us the results of the previous day's exams. I did the calculations and at least I passed all my classes and I didn't do as badly as I thought I had. It turns out I actually got grades above 80, which made me very happy.

"Hey Ness, heading home?" Isen asked me.

"Yes, why?" I asked back.

"We are going to eat something, now that we are going on vacation, you know. Cath and James are leaving back for their cities so we probably won't be seeing each other for a while." Isen said with a nervous smile on his face.

I hesitated for a minute, but in the end, I made up my mind and accepted the trip. I went with all my friends to eat burgers. A brief introduction that won't be important for the moment: my friends: Cath; James; Isen; Josh; Santiago; and Kim. They've been very friendly to me since I entered university and have supported me these months that I've been living alone, so despite being a somewhat antisocial person and not wanting to see James, I would feel bad turning them down. We went to eat and talked normally for a while until Kim started laughing slightly, we all stared at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just remembered what we were talking about yesterday on the group chat." Kim said with a malicius tone.

There was an awkward silence for a minute.

"What... group chat?" I asked.

"Oh, Ness, you are not there." Kim continued.

"Kim." Santiago interrumpted her.

"What? She needs to know." Kim replied with a amile.

"Know what?" I insisted.

James sighed and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “They already know everything that happened between us yesterday.”

"And what exactly happened?" I asked looking at him in the eye.

James sighed again. "You rejected me and left me to eat alone, pay the bill and go home as an idiot."

"Excuse me? Paying the bill?" I blurted out.

"It's not that I was going to tell you to pay it, but it was still awful to be left behind there." James said out loud.

"Oh, so we are not talking about the fact that you "confessed" to me yesterday, and today you were kissing with another girl, not taking into consideration that you told me that you were being "serious" with me?" I couldn't help myself.

Everyone's eyes immediately turned to James, who opened his mouth slightly and thought for a moment.

"She kissed me, I just didn't move." He justified his actions.

We started talking about that while our friends judged him for what he did. As they talked, the only thing going through my mind was a vague question.

"What group chat were you talking about?" I insisted again.

They looked at each other, and Santiago pulled out his phone, opening an app and showing me a group chat. I stood there for a minute, speechless. I felt my mouth drop, then I started scrolling through the chat. The more I read, the more my heart began to weigh down and my chest tightened. I could feel something tying me up in my throat, but I didn't want to cry. I just felt bad. I gave Santiago his phone and took out $30 from my wallet, which basically paid for everything we'd eaten. Not only that, but I left it on the table and got up again to leave. I went to my motorcycle and was unhooking my helmet when Santiago and Isen caught up with me.

"Ness! I am sorry for all of that, we..." Sebastian strated but stopped.

"I swear it was James who came up with the idea and insisted we all come eat together. He said you told him you already have a boyfriend yesterday and he is not enough for you." Isen finished

"He said what?" I stopped.

"I mean, I mean, no problem with that, but it just made it sound like you were playing with him." Santiago said with his hands in the air.

"Just don't mind him, get to home and relax, and take this" he said giving me back the $30 "He definitely doesn't deserve you paying for his bullsh-"

"Wo-wow, no need to use bad words" I interrupted him.

We talked for just a minute more, and then I put on my helmet to get out of there, although on the way my thoughts were all over me.