Book Lovers

❀̥˚ chapter seven - the confrontation ❀̥˚

“Oh my god did you hear? Mina cheated on the exam!”

“What? Her? I knew she was up to no good.”

“Now we know why she was the top 1. Tsk-tsk.”

“She's so desperate to stay on top, how pathetic.”

“I know right! I heard she even slept with a teacher in exchange for good grades!”

“Shut up, really? God, how disgusting!”

This is what awaited me as I went back to the classroom. I didn't even get to step foot inside and yet, I could already hear them whispering behind my back. I stopped dead in my tracks as soon as I heard what my batchmates were saying. At this point, I was only gone for hours, so how did rumors spread this fast?! Worse, it's so exaggerated to the point that it became degrading. I gritted my teeth in anger.

I quietly endured all the side glances and the gossiping until the class was over. I immediately went to Criselle, hoping that she would console me. I know something is wrong between the two of us–and there's that lingering thought inside my head that keeps saying that she was the one who's behind all of this. And yet, I pushed it all aside. Whether she likes it or not, I still consider her my best friend, and I badly need her comfort.

“Criselle! Wait up!”

Her face hardened when she saw me, and my heart broke. She despises me now, and I don't even know what I did wrong to her.

I can't take it in anymore, so I screamed at her. “Why are you acting like this Criselle?! You don't talk to me nor hang out with me anymore, plus you don't even ask me how i'm doing or comfort me–”

“Shut up. You think you're so high and mighty don't you? What, you think the whole world revolves around you?”

That shut me right up.

And what did you say? “Comfort you?” She laughed evilly. “Why the hell would I comfort you when I was the one who framed you in the first place? I'm not that despicable, you know. But I'm also done acting all nice and sickeningly sweet around you.”

My mind blanked and my blood immediately ran cold. So she's admitting it?

She laughed once again as she took a look at my shocked face. “It's so obvious that I did it Mina, how naive can you be?”

My voice trembled as I spoke. “The thought was always at the back of my mind. But I never believed it–I never wanted to believe it”.

I looked at her with the utmost betrayal I could muster. “You're my best friend, so how?! How could you do this to me? What did I ever do to you?”

Criselle clenched her jaw. “Before you transferred here I was always the top student, the one you look up to whenever you need help with your studies, or the one who's always being praised by teachers. But then you showed up and I was casted aside as this student who was good but never the best. I struggled being in your shadow for so long. I tried hard to keep my jealousy at bay, but this nasty feeling just keeps on growing inside me everyday. I worked twice as hard as you–I was even more desperate than you! But you still manage to be the top 1 despite all my hard work. Tell me, you secretly look down on me don't you? Bragging about your high score all the time, not caring about what I feel?! You only care about yourself!”

The air felt heavy with her accusations. My mind was swirling with too much information and sadness. If that's how you truly felt around me, then why did you opt to become my friend in the first place? I didn't respond to her and just broke down crying.

“Come on, answer me! Or better yet, be angry at me! I've said and done a lot of horrible things to you.” Her voice broke. “But why are you still so nice?! You should be cursing me right now. And this is exactly your problem! You always try to be nice to everyone, always keeping things to yourselves, always enduring things by yourself, always being the best in everything! Being better than me at everything!”