I close my eyes, trying to breathe, trying to understand, but the more I think about it, the more it hurts. My best friend—Justin—actually fought me over a girl. But not just any girl.
Anita.
God, Anita.
I feel guilty even thinking this, but she's… not worth it. I don't mean to be cruel—I really don't—but I'm too pained to sugarcoat the truth. Almost every guy I know sees her as one thing, and it's not for her personality. Money, sex—that's what she's known for. That's how they talk about her. And now Justin is fighting me because of her?
It's infuriating.
I gave her everything. Everything she could possibly need, and still, she betrayed me. She always had an excuse, always had some casual, infuriating reason that made it seem like I was the crazy one. I was having fun and lost control, she said when I caught her cheating. It's my life, and I'll do what I want, she told me every time I tried to set boundaries—tried to protect her from the same guys who laughed behind her back.
And yet, I was the fool who still cared.
And now, I've lost Justin over her.
Justin—the one person who has been with me through everything. He's like stagnant water: no matter how much I push it away, it stays. And maybe that's why this hurts so much. Because I want that stagnant water. I need it.
I don't want to lose him over this. Over her.
But the weight of our fight is pressing down on me, swelling and swelling in my mind. Even when I close my eyes, it haunts me. It follows me into my sleep, into my dreams, into my thoughts the moment I wake up.
Friday morning comes, and I don't want to get up.
I just want this to be over.
I want our fight to wash away like every other meaningless argument we've had. I want to forget it happened. But this—this is different. This one isn't fading.
I should apologize. I should go to Justin, look him in the eye, and fix this before it gets worse. But I don't move. I don't know if I'm waiting for him to come to me first, or if I'm just too damn exhausted to do it myself.
Either way, nothing happens.
And I hate myself for it.
This isn't me. I'm not like this. So why does it feel like I've lost all the energy to fight for the things that actually matter?
Still, I get dressed. I force myself up, grab my bag, and step outside, ready to head to class—until I hear it.
Their voices.
Loud. Careless.
"I heard his friend beat him up last night."
"And he couldn't even throw a punch."
"What a bum."
Laughter follows, echoing through the morning air.
My course mates. My new course mates. I transferred here, and yet somehow, the rumors found their way across the entire department overnight.
I should ignore it. Keep walking. Pretend I don't hear them. But the shame digs its claws into me, burying deep in my chest, squeezing until I can barely breathe.
There's no way I'm going to class like this.
I turn around, go back inside, and shut the door. My uniform comes off, my bag hits the floor, and I crawl back into bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the day to be over.
I don't know when Justin will forgive me.
I don't know if he will forgive me.
But I hope he does.
Because I don't know how much longer I can take this.
Tessa's POV
Our Thursday night ended smoothly and casually, just like always. We ate, played loud music loud enough to disturb the entire neighborhood, and finally fell asleep when we got tired.
The next Friday morning, as usual, we woke up late and had to rush to class. We hurriedly got dressed, put on our uniforms and shoes, and ran as fast as possible. Even though we were twelve minutes late, at least we made it and got our attendance marked.
After class, while I was searching for the attendance sheet to sign, I overheard a group of girls talking.
> "Oh my God, did you hear? A new student just transferred to our department."
> "I heard he got beaten up!"
> "And they say he's really, really handsome," another one added. "But seriously, guys who don't know how to fight are such a turn-off."
They all burst into laughter.
I froze for a moment. Wait… is this who I think it is?
There was a very high possibility that no one had actually seen Daræy yet. But wasn't he an engineering student? Did he transfer?
And did he actually get into a fight?
I quickly signed my name in the attendance sheet and rushed back to my seat. Before I could even ask any questions, my friends bombarded me with news.
> "Oh my God, Tessa! You don't know what happened to your boo last night?"
I blinked in confusion. "What?"
They all nodded eagerly.
>" He got beaten up last night by his best friend ' Justin' " Irene said. "The story is going around the entire physiology department. Even people who haven't seen him in person know about him."
> "My poor Justin," she sighed dramatically. "Fighting for that girl… I doubt she's even prettier than me."
Light rolled her eyes. "That's not the point. The crazy part is that nobody has even seen Daræy, yet they're already judging him—saying he's just a 'pretty boy' who doesn't know how to fight."
"Well," Biancus chimed in, "he kind of deserved it for what he did to Tessa."
That was Biancus for you—always taking my side, even when I didn't ask for it.
"Serves him right," she continued. "But seriously, why did he have to break up with her just over a kiss? What did the girl really do?"
"Well," Light said with a smirk, "do you know who the girl is?"
We all leaned in.
"Who?" we asked at the same time.
Light paused for dramatic effect, then finally said, "It's Anita."
The entire group gasped.
"Anita? As in the Anita?" I asked in disbelief.
Irene gasped, partially supprised. " That Anita. You mean my ex-roommate, Anita."
"The same Anita that everyone knows for… you know, you know?" Biancus added.
My jaw dropped. "They're fighting over that Anita?"
Irene shrugged. "Well, we don't know what came over Daræy, but he did the right thing by breaking up with her. As long as it's Anita, I don't even care what happened. He was right to leave her. She doesn't deserve him—or anyone that handsome, honestly. Even if Daræy is kind of a jerk, he still deserves better than her."
Then everyone paused to think for two seconds before Irene chimed in.
"Well, the story isn't over," Irene continued. **"After I left Justin's house, Anita apparently called him, crying about how she was sad and alone. She told him she needed Daræy, that she couldn't handle life without him—blah, blah, blah.
"So Justin called Daræy over to his house. Joshua was there too. And of course, Justin, being the 'protector,' started questioning Daræy. Daræy answered every question honestly, but his answers only made Justin even angrier. That's how the fight started.
"It turns out Daræy was trying to explain that he was done with Anita. But Justin kept saying, 'I told you not to break her heart!' and blaming Daræy for everything. Things got really heated, and before they knew it, they were out in the rain, fighting in the street. No umbrella, nothing.
"Apparently, no one was actually there to witness the fight, but somehow the story spread like wildfire. It's all over campus—heck, even social media! Daræy's already famous just because of his looks, so naturally, everyone wants to know his story.
"But, you know how rumors work… People are exaggerating like crazy. If you hear them talk about the fight, you'd think Daræy was lying on the ground, crying, while Justin beat the crap out of him."**
Biancus scoffed. " Biancus and Daræy are like fire and gasoline. They can't be in the same place without causing drama."
"But as our friend group always says," Light pointed out, "a story isn't real until it comes from the horse's mouth. And Daræy hasn't said a word yet. So, until then, this is all just gossip."
"For once, I agree," I said. "Everyone's so quick to judge him, but nobody actually knows the real story."
Light raised an eyebrow. "Wait, are you defending Daræy?"
I rolled my eyes. "I'm just saying… he's still our stake. Besides, he was my potential future boyfriend."
The group burst into laughter.
"Either way, Daræy hasn't even shown up to class since he transferred," Irene pointed out. "Wait—he really transferred?" I asked, I mean I already knew but still, i just wanted to confirm.
Bianca gave me a you're-so-out-of-the-loop look. "Tessa, where have you been? Everyone knows! The guy transferred from engineering to physiology—it was the talk of the school back then."
I scoffed. "Really? I never cared enough to notice."
Bianca shook her head. "Well, now he's in physiology, and apparently, every girl wants him."
Irene smirked. "Yeah. Even though they know he broke up with his girlfriend in such a cruel way, they don't care. They just want to be with him."
" Well everybody knows Anita and we all know she cheated a couple of time's and he still stayed with her knowing all that, so of course they want him " Light said
" Okay I just have to ask was he blinded by love or what, to stay with her after she showed him all her dirty character" Biancus asked
" Like,the way guys love baffles me " I concluded
We all laughed at how everyone was obsessed with him, even though he hadn't even shown up to class yet. Despite all the rumors, none of us really knew the full story.
Even though my friends and I didn't fully believe the exaggerated version, we stayed in class, waiting for the next lecture.
By the time the day ended, the entire campus was still buzzing about Daræy. Whether they liked it or not, he had found a way into everyone's conversations.
Even without showing his face, Daræy had managed to capture everyone's attention.
I shook my head with a small smile.
"Well done, Daræy. You really do have a way with this world."
When we got back home we told Ruth about our experience that day and her reaction was all the same with ours. Funny.
With that, I closed the chapter in my mind—at least for the day.
Or so I taught, just before the evening was over I got a call from a medicine student Joy saying we are in the same group for a GST (General studies ) presentation, apparently the lecturer wanted it to be a three people group one from each course: that is one from medicine, one from anatomy and one from physiology.
Joy was busy with another presentation she had to give for another lecture so she asked me to do her a favour by talking to the last person which was a physiology student.
The Assignment was quite simple so I taught this should be easy, but mother nature just had to show me whose Boss.
Guess who the physiology student was.