Page 12
She leans back and sighs. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think anyone believes you did this. My guess is that it was a prank. You’re a freshman, so older students usually decide to do something they believe is going to be fun. It was never as bad as this, but they probably weren’t thinking about the consequences. They thought everyone would laugh, and that would be it.”
A prank? I want to laugh too, but there’s nothing funny about getting my whole future put on the line and everyone thinking I’m some freak. But if the college wants to write it off as some harmless bit of fun, at least that means they’re not coming after me for it. I’ll take being the victim of a stupid prank over getting expelled.
“Here’s what we’ve decided,” she says. “The evidence isn’t sufficient to hold you responsible at the moment and there have been other pranks, so we’re going to leave the investigation open. Your professor already told me you’ll have to redo your presentation.”
Well, at least they’re not kicking me out, but that’s not very comforting, especially when the person targeting me is still out there, and it just might be Jayden. And everyone’s probably still going to think I did it and that I’m a creepy stalker.
“Thank you,” I force myself to say, even with the anger still simmering, because I’m going to have to live down a mess I never made, while the responsible one will laugh about it.
“Before you go,” she says, “is there anything else you haven’t already told me? Did you see anyone acting odd? Anyone showing animosity toward you?”
Yep, Jayden, but he has a gallery full of photos with timestamps, and I’m pretty sure his teammates would back him up on anything he says. Maybe he changed the time and date on the camera. It would explain everything, but how would I prove that? Impossible.
“There was someone in a hoodie,” I say instead. “They came out of the lecture hall while I was returning from the restroom, but their hood was up and their head down, so I didn’t really get a good look at their face.”
It’s not like I’m lying, but I bet accusing Jayden would only make things worse for me, and I really, really don’t want to get expelled.
JAYDEN WAS DEFINITELY the one coming out of the lecture hall. The more I think about it, the surer I am. But he didn’t lie when he said the history department’s on one side of campus and the field where they practice on the complete opposite end. Even if he somehow ran at full speed the whole way, someone would’ve seen him, especially because Jayden sprinting the length of campus wouldn’t be something people miss, so I’d have heard about it by now. Everyone’s so obsessed with him they’d wonder what the hell was going on.
And there are a few other buildings in the way, so he couldn’t have just cut a line from the field to the lecture hall. Not to mention he still had to plug in a drive, swap my whole presentation, and make it back. It’s too far away and too many people are in the way.
If the time on the photos wasn’t faked, then it’s even less likely it was him. Maybe it was someone who looks a whole lot like him. There are a bunch of guys on campus with dark hair and a similar build, and I only caught a glimpse before he was gone, so it’s not as if I got a real look.
And that makes me want to sink onto the floor and cry, because when I think about it, I still clearly see Jayden’s face in my mind. Am I going crazy? And I marched right up to him at practice, in front of the team, and called him a liar to his face.
I could’ve sworn it was him, but all I’ve got is a gut feeling and potentially unreliable image of him in my mind. If it really wasn’t him, then I made a total fool out of myself over nothing, and I gave him and everyone else one more reason to think I’m exactly what people are saying I am.
Then again, if it wasn’t him, who was it? Why would his doppelganger target me? Why do something like this? Maybe the conduct officer is right and it was just a prank, but would I really be so unlucky that the idiot who decided to do it didn’t consider the consequences? Or did they just not care?
But I’ve got a class to get to, and I can’t afford to think about Jayden and be late on top of everything else, so I grab my bag and head for the lecture hall.
The moment I reach the main hallway, I notice the stares. It’s a busy stretch of the building, where everyone rushes through between classes, and normally, I can slip through it without anyone giving me a second glance. Not today. A group of guys goes quiet as I get close, their eyes following me the whole way past, and the moment my back’s to them, the talking picks up again.
I catch pieces of it, and I don’t have to hear all of it to know what it’s about.
“Stalker,” someone says, loud enough that it’s impossible to miss it, and there’s a little burst of laughter right after.
The whole campus knows already. Fucking great. A story like that spreads like wildfire in a place where some people have nothing better to do than trade gossip and wait for the next scandal, and I’ve given them a good one, haven’t I? The freshman who had a bunch of strangers’ personal profiles up in her own presentation. The creep who apparently spends her free time digging through people’s accounts. Yep, if it were someone else who did that, I’d be horrified too.
But the worst part is that none of it is even true. Except, it doesn’t matter what actually happened. It only matters what people saw and think, and saying I’m a victim just wouldn’t be interesting enough.
Maybe it’ll blow over. It has to, at some point. People here have the attention span of a fruit fly, so sooner or later, some other drama will come along and pull everyone’s focus off me and onto whoever’s unlucky next. Until then, I just have to ride it out and not give anyone the satisfaction of a reaction, so I lift my chin and act as if I can’t hear a thing they’re saying.
A couple of girls near the vending machines turn to watch me, and one of them lifts her phone and points it my way, grinning at whatever she’s probably about to send to whoever. I turn my face away from them and quicken my steps.
Halfway down the hallway, I spot a girl from my class. She was one of the few people here who’d actually said a couple of nice words to me the first week, and for a moment, I think maybe she’ll nod or something. But as soon as she catches sight of me coming, she finds something fascinating on her phone. Right. Of course. No one’s crazy enough to want to be seen being friendly with me.
When I finally reach the lecture hall, my face is burning, so I stop just outside the door and pull in a breath before going in, because no matter what happens in there, I’m not about to let any of them see how much this is getting to me.
As I stride inside, people are chatting, grabbing seats, and pulling out their laptops, and for a moment, I let myself hope it might be easier, and that once the professor shows up and there’s actual work to do, everyone will forget about me. I head for my usual row somewhere in the middle and take a seat, then take out my notebook and a pen and try to act as if this is any other day and nothing happened at all.
But when I glance up from my bag, I realize the seats on both sides of me are empty, and no one’s coming to fill them. A girl heading for the seat right next to me catches sight of me and doubles back for a spot two rows behind instead. The guy who usually ends up somewhere near me heads to the far side of the room without so much as looking my way. Great. It’s as if I’m contagious and they’ll catch whatever I’ve got the second they get too close.
No one wants to be anywhere near the girl everyone’s calling a creep, in case it rubs off and gets them vilified too, because being decent to me right now would just paint a target on their backs. I get it. I really do, but it still makes my throat tighten.
Ah well. I wanted to be left alone anyway, didn’t I? There’s a pretty big difference between being ignored and being treated like a disease, though, but it’s not like I can do anything about it. Hopefully, it’ll pass.
I open my notebook and focus on it so I don’t have to look at anyone. If I stare at the paper hard enough, maybe I can pretend the rest of the room isn’t here at all, and it’s just me and my notes. I came here to study anyway, not to make friends, even though it would’ve been nice, because being alone like this sucks. When the professor comes in and the noise dies down, I finally relax a little.
