Chapter 33: Why Are You Pretending?
"The Getty family is broke. Does she think we don't know? She still acts like she's rolling in money."
"Totally. I always hated her fake superiority. Every time she'd come back from home, she'd bring us little gifts like we were her charity cases. Now, we don't have to deal with her anymore."
"She might've messed up, but throwing her stuff out like that is over the line. If you're gonna toss it, at least toss it far away. Leaving it at the door where she'll see it right away is just awkward. We still have to live together, you know."
"You're right, I'll go get it..."
As the door creaked open, their conversation came to a screeching halt. Rebecca stood there, her dorm mates on the other side, all equally stunned.
Rebecca hadn't expected her once cheerful dorm mates to turn on her so quickly after the Getty family went bankrupt.
Inside, Jessica Brown was just as surprised by the timing.
Standing in the bathroom doorway, Emily Davis held a hairdryer.
On the balcony, Sophie Kelly held a drying rack.
The three of them exchanged glances, then looked at Rebecca, all frozen in place.
The air was thick with awkward silence.
Jessica broke it with a smirk, "Rebecca, the truth hurts, but we weren't wrong, were we? The Getty family is bankrupt, right? And you don't have a mountain of debt?"
She brushed past Rebecca, shoving her aside, and retrieved three snack boxes from the trash can, tossing them onto Rebecca's desk. "You used to be the rich girl of the Getty family, giving us these things like feeding stray cats and dogs. But you're not that girl anymore... so stop pretending."
Jessica dusted her hands off as if they were dirty, turned, and sat at her desk, putting on her headphones.
The sound of the hairdryer filled the bathroom.
Water splashed on the balcony.
Rebecca looked around the dorm she'd lived in for two and a half years, feeling like she had walked into the wrong room.
They were classmates, roommates.
For over two years, from freshman to junior year, they attended classes together, ate together, and went shopping on weekends.
Afraid they'd feel uncomfortable with her wealth, Rebecca always brought them little gifts when she came back from home on weekends.
Sometimes it was cookies her mom baked.
Other times it was perfume or scarves from her trips abroad.
People say college is the last pure place before entering society, and Rebecca cherished this sisterhood from the bottom of her heart.
But she realized now it was only her wishful thinking.
Not even when she realized Dennis had set her up outside the bar did she feel this hurt. Rebecca squeezed her palm to push back the tears, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.
The door slammed shut, making Jessica turn her head instinctively, then awkwardly realized she had her headphones on and turned back.
"Jessica..."
Rebecca's voice made Emily stop pretending to dry her hair and Sophie stop washing clothes on the balcony.
Rebecca looked around, "From the first day of freshman year, I treated you all as friends. My clothes, bags, skincare products, you could use them whenever you wanted. But I never thought you saw yourselves as stray cats and dogs!"
Rebecca looked at the three of them, "Since that's how you feel, let's clear things up. You don't want my snacks and gifts? Fine, I won't bother anymore. And the jewelry, bags, and clothes you took from me, return them. I never said they were yours to keep."
Their faces changed slightly.
Jessica's face turned the most sour.