The door clicked softly behind me and I walked down the hallway to my next class, relieved.
Thank God Ms. Lester didn't mention anything about my shameful speechless moment earlier. As it turned out, she only wanted to talk to give me the task of creating an Excel file record of all our previous quizzes and I had to send it to her via email not later than 12 MN later this evening.
Easy peasy. No big deal.
If only my next class wasn't due to start in five I would be totally getting started on it right away. And that reminded me. Eyes focused straight ahead, I hastened my pace to get to the classroom on time, hoping that Mr. Leyco was in a good mood today and didn't give us an impromptu long quiz just because he was feeling irritated about something, like a stray cat pissing on his car tire, or perhaps a microscopic lint he found on the lapel of his expensive Armani sleeves at the laundry shop this morning. Who knew about him. He was a difficult man to deal with, Mr. Leyco.
And that might be why he was still unmarried even until now. No surprise there, really. No woman on the planet was probably foolish enough to want to tie herself to him and subject herself to his egotistic, narcissistic tendencies every single day of her life. That would be a horrible way to go, but not that that was any of my business.
I jogged up two flights of stairs, glaring at whoever got in my way to make them move and practically ran like hell was chasing me when I got on the right floor. But before I could reach the door to room SA-402, my path was promptly blocked by two familiar girls who were both regarding me with tight smiles as cold as the Arctic, but the gleam in their eyes gave them away. They wanted information. Information that only I could give them.
Crap. Why now?
Keeping a poker face on and pretending as if their presence didn't make me want to flee, I acknowledged them both with a cold smile of my own. Well, as cold as I could manage while catching my breath. "Hey, Raven. Grecian. What's up, girls?"
Why are you in my way, snoopers?
Raven spoke first in her usual no-nonsense manner. "We heard the news, Queen. Franco Valdezar invited you to his uncle's birthday party next month. Is it true you said 'yes'?" Her eyebrows raised inquiringly. "Are you really planning to go?"
I couldn't help myself. I snorted. "What's it to you, Raven? It's not like that's any of your business, is it?"
Grecian clucked her tongue. "Anything and everything that happens in SJU is our business, Queen, and you know it. Every student knows it." She crossed her arms on her chest. "So just answer this very simple question and make things easier for all of us. Are you gonna go with Franco or not?"
I huffed, knowing it would be futile to evade the two most nosy girls in the whole campus. Their self-made online gossip site wasn't the most popular source of juicy SJU gossips and scandals for nothing. Ugh, fine. I'd give them what they wanted just to get this over with.
"Yes, it's true. I'm going with him. There. I answered your question with an actual answer. Happy? Now if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere to be."
"Wait!" Raven caught at my wrist in a tight grip just as I was about to escape. "Last two questions and we'll leave you alone. Are the two of you going out, you and Franco? Have you finally fallen in love with him?"
A bubble of laughter erupted from my chest, leaving my lips in fits of hysterical giggle. What a ridiculous question. "In love? With Franco? Me?" Retracting my hand from her hold, I told her, "Have you forgotten who you're talking to, Miss Gardner? Let me remind you, then. I'm Quincy Marshall, and I don't do relationships, neither do I believe in love. Me and Franco? We're just friends and we'll never be more than that. Get that through your thick hair extensions. Alright?"
"That's what I thought," Grecian said, gazing at me thoughtfully, but the look was quickly replaced by a bored expression and before I could ask what she meant by that, she added, "Thanks for your cooperation, Miss Marshall. See you around."
Then they were gone, leaving a trail of their combined fruity perfume scent behind them.
My lips were a thin line as I opened the door to Finance class, barely registering Ilyana's words as she excitedly came up to me with a big smile ("No classes til next week! Mr. Leyco's gonna be out of the country, and we're gonna have a party! Yay!"). The news didn't sink in right away. I was annoyed.
How on earth did the duo find out about Franco asking me to be his date to his uncle's party? Who told them? Franco? But why would he do that? As far as I knew him, he wasn't the type to associate with gossip-addicted people nor subject himself to the entire student body's scrutiny. So obviously, it couldn't have been him.
But that didn't even matter now. Tonight, that piece of supposedly private information, added with my confirmation earlier, would be all over the website. People were going to talk some more, assume things, and blow them out of proportion again.
Great. Just great. Just when I was starting to clean up my reputation...
I had to find Franco ASAP and ask him if his genius-hacker father who owned a multi-billion-dollar InfoSec company could do something about this situation. I was sure he could help us. But even if he wouldn't do it for me, he would surely do it for his son.
For both our sakes, I hoped.
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