"Such good riddance," Jacky shouted in joy when she saw Chloe. She had a sly smile on her lips, and her eyes were fixed on Chloe, whose mind was racing on the best way of embarrassing her in a hallway full of people.
"All alone today? Where are your minions?" Jacky asked as she looked from side to side, expecting Janely and Rina to walk up to them after running a short errand for Chloe.
"I kept telling you that karma doesn't sleep, but you didn't listen. I didn't do anything, but it still struck me. How lucky am I?" Jacky sarcastically said as she got closer to Chloe.
The two girls looked at each other in hostility.
"Are you talking about how I'm going to make sure you never have the guts to show your face to anyone in the world?" Chloe asked sarcastically.
Jacky sighed dramatically in pretense.
"No," she said as she turned to look at the other students who were hungrily waiting for the drama to unfold.
"I just wanted to remind you that Ivan is gone from you forever," Jacky said.
Chloe looked at her with wide eyes as if she had grown an extra head.
"Have you heard the news? He announced on national TV that he is in a relationship with Steph," Jacky said in a mocking tone to rub more salt into Chloe's injury.
Chloe felt her pulse increase threefold, and she had an accelerated breathing rate. Goosebumps filled all over her body, and her muscle tension increased. Sweat began to form on her face, and she feared it would mess up her makeup.
She found it difficult to breathe and concentrate. She felt dizzy, and her vision was blurred. Her shoulders were hunched.
Her mouth and eyes were wide open, and she was shaking, trembling. It suddenly seemed cold, so she wrapped her arms around herself.
"That can't be! You're delusional," Chloe managed to say, and without saying another word, Jacky broke into a loud fit of mocking laughter and walked away.
Chloe looked at her receding figure in disbelief, and when she managed to get a hold of herself a little, she quickly opened the Google app on her phone.
She couldn't believe it when she saw the name Noah Jackson trending with over 5,000+ searches.
With shaking hands, she pressed on the name, and her eyes landed on photos of Steph and Ivan looking lovingly at each other.
Below the photo was Ivan's full interview, and when the other students saw the priceless look on her face, they burst into a fit of laughter and feeling embarrassed, Chloe stormed out of school angrily.
"Maybe you need to let him be. Jacky was right. You can't keep a man," Janely said after trying in vain to console Chloe.
Rina gasped in shock and shut her eyes, praying that Chloe hadn't heard anything.
Slowly letting herself from Rina's lap, Chloe wiped the tears on her cheeks using the back of her hand.
"You wouldn't really tell me that, you ungrateful b*tch," Chloe said with bared teeth.
"Did you just call me ungrateful?" Janely asked in shock and disbelief.
Chloe cleared her voice and scratched her head as she held her chin, then said, "I did, and there's nothing you'll do about it."
"Okay, guys, you all need to calm down," Rina said calmly in an attempt to contain the rising temperatures.
"Shut the f*ck up!" Chloe turned to her and shouted angrily.
Her eyes had hardened and narrowed into slits, and a few lines were drawn on her forehead.
"I'm just trying to help," Rina said defensively. She hated it when Chloe and Janely weren't on good terms because she was always in the middle of it and had to take sides.
"I don't f*cking need your help!" Chloe shouted with her nostrils flared.
Rina looked apologetically at Janely and shrugged.
'Let them handle it themselves,' she thought as she removed her phone from her pocket and started texting Joel.
"What is it you were saying? You can as well say it loud because I'm all ears now," Chloe said in a sharp, daring voice, and Janely inhaled deeply before saying, "from my experience, I can tell you that he is over you."
"Your experience. Mmmh, interesting, right? What makes you think I will end up miserable as you did? A former shadow of yourself and more fragile than an egg. I'm not like you," Chloe said in a condescending tone, and that did it for Janely.
"You're right about that. Unlike you, I have people who care for me and were present for me during my hardest phase…." Janely talked, then trailed when she sadly remembered how her world had been turned upside down a few years back.