Everyone stared at Cathy in shock. Had Cathy and Alex previously been together?
"Babe, is this the ex-boyfriend you told me about?" Simon asked, walking over to Cathy.
"Yes, that's him," she said, sneering at Alex.
"Ha ha!" Simon laughed arrogantly and swaggered over to Kelly. "Kelly, you have no idea what kind of boyfriend you'd be getting with him. He would take you out for fast food, and if you got a room, then it would be the cheapest one available. Would you really feel special with a boyfriend like that?" He smiled proudly. As he saw Kelly frown, he got even happier.
"That's right," Cathy said, walking over to stand beside Kelly and Alex. She looked at Alex with a cold smile. "This loser followed me around like a dog. He'd run up to me right after class, chat with me, and tell me jokes. One time I was sick, and even though I didn't tell him, he just came over with a month's worth of food. But then he got tired and didn't do anything for six months."
Even though Kelly was polite, she couldn't help but get angry.
"Get out of my way!" she said.
"Hey, cousin, you've got quite the temper," Simon said, smirking. "We're just telling the truth. If you don't believe us, ask him."
She knew that Alex was poor, and Cathy's words might have some basis in truth, but she must have made up most of it. Kelly trusted Alex, and the man who had dared to drive into a group of people that night was definitely nothing like the one Cathy had just described.
"You don't believe me, do you?" Cathy asked, taking out her cell phone. "I saved the messages he sent when we were together. Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not pining after him; I just want a reminder of why I definitely don't want him."
She opened the chat history with Alex. "Let me show you what he said to me back then." She began to read the messages out loud. "Cathy, how did you sleep? The street outside the school has been closed for a while, so I took the bus to get some food. I just came back, but I can get someone to bring you food if you need it."
She continued reading. "I'm still short of the money for the makeup you want, but don't worry. I'll definitely buy it for you. I'm still washing dishes at the restaurant, and I've also found a part-time delivery job."
She smirked as she read the next message. "Cathy, since you said that you were tired of eating in the canteen, then I'll take you to the snack bar instead. It's quite nice there, and it's been busy for the past three days. They have a twenty percent discount."
Everyone was crowded around Cathy, looking at her phone and laughing as she read each message.
As she spoke, her eyes locked onto Alex's face. Seeing how serious he looked, she became even prouder of herself.
Alex was hurt. He didn't regret a single word of what he had written. He had sent those messages because they had been in a relationship, and he had loved her. Everything he had written had come straight from his heart, even though it looked ridiculous now.
He was also angry because those messages were a reminder of the feelings they had once shared, and he didn't understand why she would use them to publicly humiliate him.
Cathy smiled, and her words stabbed at his heart like knives.
"Hey, let us look," one of the men said, taking the phone and beginning to read the chat messages.
"Cathy," he read. "Is your mind too busy to sleep? Are you thinking about me like I'm thinking about you?"
"Cathy," he said, moving on to the next message. "I just realized that you look like one of my favorite actresses. I'm so lucky to have you as my girlfriend. Every man on the planet is probably jealous of me! I've only been eating one meal a day so I can save the money to buy a phone for you. Don't worry about me. If a new phone will make you happy, then it's worth not eating much."
"Damn!" someone said. "He just lays it all out there, doesn't he?"
"It's disgusting!" someone else answered.
"Ugh, he's making me feel sick," came another voice.
The young men passed around Cathy's phone. As they read, they laughed so hard they had to hold their stomachs and tears ran down their faces.
The phone was finally returned to Cathy.
"Kelly," she said. "Now do you see what kind of person this guy used to be?"
Kelly's gaze flickered slightly, but she still trusted Alex. Even with everything she had heard, she still thought he was a man worth pursuing.
"Babe, you've shown us how much of a lapdog he is," Simon said, smiling and wrapping an arm around Cathy's waist. "Now tell everyone how you treated him. I don't want you to be associated with this disgusting piece of trash."
Everyone looked at Cathy with interest. When Alex had worshipped her, had she allowed any intimacy?
"Babe, don't worry," she said sweetly. "Do you really think I would let him lay a hand on me?" She turned to Alex, with a trace of viciousness in her eyes as she said, "I was with him for a year, but apart from letting him hold my hand, I've never done anything with him. Even when we shared a room, I slept on his bed, and he slept on the floor. If he had tried anything, I would have broken up with him."
"Holy shit!" one man said. "An entire year, and you didn't share a bed? My girlfriend and I were in bed together after only a month!"
"Look at these messages," another man said. "I thought they might work for him, but then he only got to the stage of holding hands! This guy is a loser."
Everyone looked at Alex as they mocked him.
"Ha ha. I never expected that," Simon said, hugging Cathy. "I thought he was an expert in picking up girls, but it turns out he's just a coward." He smiled at Alex. "You were with her for a whole year, and you didn't manage to sleep with her? Did you even try? I was sleeping with her after a couple of weeks."
As he spoke, Simon lowered his head to look at Cathy. He hugged her waist and said, "Come on, babe."
He kissed her, and one of his hands slid down to cup her buttocks. When they were finished, Cathy discretely wiped the saliva from her mouth and shyly glanced at him.
"Babe, your skill at kissing isn't too bad, but it's a pity you wasted a year kissing a loser. I still can't understand it," Simon said. He looked at Kelly again and snorted contemptuously. "Hey, Kelly, I'll admit that you're smarter than me, but you have terrible taste in men. Are you really going to waste yourself on someone who has no money and no backbone?"
Kelly was very angry. She didn't believe that Alex was the kind of man Cathy and the others had described. She slowly turned to him and asked softly, "Is what they said true?"
Even with the chat history, she didn't believe it. Alex must have had a good reason for his behaviour, and if he denied everything, she would stand by him.
Alex said nothing. He just glanced at Kelly, and her heart began to hurt. He was admitting it.
"But you have a reason for it all, don't you?" she asked, longing to hear him defend himself.
"No," Alex said, lowering his eyes. He refused to deny loving Cathy in the past. He also didn't want Kelly to fall any deeper in love with him. From the way she looked at him, he suspected that she was already too attached.
Kelly bit her lip as she looked resentfully at Alex. His behaviour was making it hard for her to tell what kind of person he was.
"And I was the one who left him," Cathy said proudly, looking at Alex. "He looked so miserable. And even after I dumped him, he still followed me around like a puppy and begged me to take him back, but I just ignored him."
Seeing the situation developing as she had expected, and seeing Alex's lovely look, Cathy was extremely happy. She needed to work even harder and make sure that Kelly grew angry with Alex. That way, she would dump him, and he would lose her money. And without the money, he wouldn't be able to maintain his relationship with Debbie.
"To get me back, he tried to show off to me at school," Cathy said sharply, pointing at Alex. "He invited me to eat at Chez Laurent and donated money to charity to get back in my good books. He also bought me a lot of clothes, and then he tried to get me drunk and take me to a hotel. He was absolutely shameless, and I'm lucky he didn't get away with it."
"Animal!" a man shouted.
"The bastard should be in jail!" someone called.
"He shouldn't get away with it," someone else joined in.
The others all scolded Alex for being shameless.
Alex's heart grew cold. To get revenge on him, Cathy was telling lies. She had been the one who had wanted to drag him into the bathroom at the Angel Bar.
"Is that true?" Kelly asked with a trembling voice. Tears flowed down her face, striking at Alex's heart, but he couldn't let her get any more attached to him.
He just looked at Kelly quietly, not saying a word, but his heart was suffering just like hers.