After coming out, the news spread around campus like wildfire, and he regretted why he had decided to live his truth.
After a little soul-searching, he thought of leaving campus and moving to a different state to try modeling.
"I have to go. I'll keep in touch and will come to visit when I can," he told his mom as they hugged and headed to the car.
"I love you, son," Aurelia sadly said as Joel entered the car and directed the pub driver to drop him at Rina's place.
"It won't take long," he told the driver as he rushed out of the car and went to knock on Rina's car.
After what seemed like forever, the door opened, and Rina looked at Joel in shock.
"Why are you here?" Rina asked in a sharp voice. "Do you still want to make fun of me? It's not worth it. There's no one to witness your drama, Joel."
"I…came to say goodbye and to wish you the best. I'm also sorry for the embarrassment I have caused you. I hope you'll be able to forgive me," Joel said in a low and apologetic voice. He was looking at Rina with a lot of compassion, and the anger she felt toward him slowly precipitated.
"I didn't intend for things to go down as they did. I'm sorry, Rina," Joel said as he slowly turned to head back to the cab that was waiting for him.
As Rina looked at his receding figure, she felt a strong need to hug him, and without thinking twice, she ran to him and hugged him from behind.
His body felt warm, just like it had always been, and that made Rina lose control of her senses.
She slowly moved to kiss Joel, who jerked back and rushed to the cab, leaving Rina all over the place with her feelings.
Luckily for Joel, they got to the airport and cleared on time before the plane departed. He felt nostalgia wash over him as he looked down from the plane window.
"Chloe! Chloe! Come down over here this f*cking minute!" Lisa shouted as she pushed the door open and banged it closed.
"Did you hear me call you? Get down here," Lisa continued shouting as she ran up the stairs toward Chloe's room.
"What is it, mom? Why are you shouting like someone who has lost her mind?" Chloe asked in a calm voice as she looked at her angry mother from up the stairs.
"Why shouldn't I be angry at you when you're acting like you don't have a mind to use for reasoning?" Lisa went on shouting as she pushed past Chloe and walked into her room.
She headed straight to her closet, which she found locked, and demanded that Chloe opens it immediately.
"You have to tell me why you're shouting first. I'm an adult mum, and you need to treat me like one. You can't micromanage my life like you did when I was young," Chloe defended herself.
Lisa was panting and breathing heavily as she looked around the room for the key.
"If you don't open this closet now, I'll be forced to break it," she threatened with a clenched jaw and bared teeth.
Seeing how serious Lisa was, Chloe slowly walked past her and opened the closet. Lisa rummaged through her things, shaking her head in disbelief.
"So he was right. You really have been receiving gifts from him. How could you, Chloe? Do you even know who the guy is?" Lisa asked in disbelief, finding it hard to believe that Chloe had been so stupid and materialistic.
As she was getting home from work, she passed by the grocery shop where coincidentally, Martin was.
She had tried ignoring him until he threw it at her that he didn't care about her anymore as long as Chloe did.
"What the hell do you mean?" Lisa asked as she trembled in fear for what she would hear next.
Was there a possibility that Chloe and Martin had been meeting behind her back? No, it wasn't possible, she thought.
Chloe couldn't do that, especially after seeing how Martin had little respect for Lisa.
"Why don't you ask her? Or better still, check her room. I have gifted the things she could only ever dream of."
"You're delusional," Lisa cursed, but Martin shrugged and broke into a sarcastic laugh that echoed through Lisa's mind all the way to her home.
"Why should I not? Don't you see how beautiful these clothes are? The shoes? Gosh. They are every girl's dream," Chloe dreamily said as she looked at the clothes branded Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, and many more.