Chapter Three

The next day, while I’m walking with Dawn on college campus, a lot of people stare and snicker as we walk past.

“Is that her?” a random girl questions one of her friends.

“Yes,” her friend responds.

“Wow…” She stares at me in wonder. Then, they break out into laughter.

My face grows hot as I grab Dawn’s arm, clinging on to her to keep my confidence so I don’t just run away and find a place to hide my face because almost everyone is still gossiping about the encounter I had with Liam.

“What are you going to do today?” Dawn asks. “You can’t stay hidden by me all day. I have to get to class.”

“Maybe I should just stick with you, then…” I mutter, digging my nails into her arm, unwilling to let her go.

Dawn stops walking, pushes me off her with both hands, and holds my arms as she forces me to look her in the eyes. “Bree, you’ve been through worse,” she begins sternly. “Trust me. You’ve got this,” she continues with a smile.

Letting out a sigh, I reply, “Okay…”

“That’s a girl!” Dawn says happily. “I’ll see you at lunch!”

“See you then…” I state, watching my anchor happily walk away from me. As I watch, I started to feel like I have a lot of weight on my shoulders. Not only because I’m a social pariah at the moment, but also because I need to pass this test. I’m also living with my long-time crush, which is kind of exciting, but I can’t tell anyone, not even my friends. I’m left feeling disheartened because Liam is annoyed by my presence.

What’s more is that I’m ashamed of the way I handled myself in front of everyone. Telling Liam that I’m in love with him even though he most likely never even knew I existed…the way he treated me was heart-wrenching. And it still has everyone’s tongues wagging with excitement. It wasn’t my finest hour, but it was entirely embarrassing.

Most of the morning is spent with me sneaking around campus, dodging passersby, and most importantly, avoiding Liam. During the classes I do share with him, I keep my textbook propped up to hide my face and block my view of him. Thankfully, by lunchtime, everyone on campus has started focusing on a different embarrassing incident that occurred to a different student.

I meet up with Dawn in the courtyard at lunchtime.

“Hey!” she greets. “How is your day going?”

“Slowly…” I reply with irritation as I sit down at the bench with her. “But it’s getting a little better since someone else embarrassed themselves…I thought all the high school gossip and drama disappeared in college.”

“Yeah, no,” Dawn replies. “It stays about the same. People are still people.”

“I guess,” I mutter, propping my head on my arm while rubbing my fingers on the bench.

“Do you know if Ellen is going to meet with us?” Dawn questions, opening her water bottle.

“I think she has to work,” I say, grabbing my phone from my pocket. “I’ll call her.”

Before I’m able to hit the call button, Dawn places her hand on mine. “Is that Chad?” she asks in confusion.

“What?” I question, looking up. Chad is walking around the campus, angrily looking around. “Let’s go see what’s wrong,” I tell Dawn as I put my phone back in my pocket.

As Dawn and I get up and start walking toward him, Chad finally seems to have found who he was searching for. “Liam!” his voice bellows through the crowd.

Liam looks at Chad in boredom as if his appearance is something he expected. He appears completely uninterested in what Chad has to say. With a sigh of irritation, he answers, “What?”

At this point, people start to crowd around them while Dawn and I push our way to the front. My heart drops to my feet as I watch, mortified, on the sidelines.

“How could you embarrass Bree like that the other day?” Chad questions angrily, his jaw clenched and nostrils flared. His blue eyes burn with resentment while he stares at Liam.

“It’s really not hard to do,” Liam retorts in a cool voice, unfazed. “She practically did it all on her own.”

Chad looks as though he has just been slapped in the face by Liam’s words. Whether he believed Liam would apologize and back down is a mystery, but it’s apparent that he did not expect the answer he was given.

“I never asked her to tell me her feelings,” Liam continues nonchalantly. “All I wanted was for her to stop staring at me in class. It’s distracting.” His voice starts to grow more annoyed. “You should talk to your girlfriend about staring at me. She shouldn’t be bothering me with this nonsense.”

Chad stares at him in amazement. “She’s not my—you have no idea who she is or anything about her, do you?”

“Should I?”

Chad’s expression changes to bewilderment, but the rage starts to fill him again, causing him to tremble. “Dawn, Bree, and I have known you since high school! Bree has liked you since then, and you don’t even know who any of us are?” he scoffs, disgusted with Liam.

“Why would I pay attention to any of you?” he counters, his voice still cool and calculated.

Chad’s face contorts as he balls up his fist. “Someone like you does not deserve a wonderful girl like her! Years of her affection and adoration have been wasted on someone like you!”

“I never asked for her affection, so why is it my fault or problem?”

At this statement, Chad takes a step toward Liam, their noses almost touching. Liam still stands there, unbothered by this action. Oh my God, he is so hot! Meanwhile, Chad is a ball of emotion, his eyes wide with rage, looking like he’s ready to throw a punch.

“Chad, what are you doing here?” I intervene, mortified by everything I just witnessed. I grab his arm when I notice that his hand has clenched into a fist.

Chad’s expression and demeanor instantly change. He becomes calm and relaxed as he drops his hand. “What? Nothing…I just…” Chad stammers.

“Apparently, your boyfriend here thinks that you humiliating yourself the other day is my fault,” Liam’s dry voice cuts in as he stares at me with annoyance, showing more emotion towards me than he did throughout his entire conversation with Chad, whose gaze met Liam’s, rage filling his eyes again as his body stiffens.

“Come on, Chad…” I say as I pull him away, my face growing hot. “Let’s go get some lunch.” I continue, my voice small and faltering as I notice the people around us whispering and snickering again. My eyes start to tear up from the incident, and I want to hide. Once again, I’m in the center of an excruciatingly humiliating moment.

As Chad, Dawn, and I make our way through the crowd, Liam calls out to us, “You are more trouble than you’re worth. The event last time and this one have nothing to do with me! You should keep a tighter lash on your boyfriend, as well as yourself!”

I look down at my feet as I walk ahead of my friends.

Dawn is chastising Chad. “How could you do that? What were you thinking?” Her voice is full of incredulity as she smacks the back of his head.

“I’m sorry, Bree…” Chad apologizes for his actions, but I ignore him.

I continue walking at a quick pace, trying to get off campus as quickly as possible without running and seeming desperate.

“Bree, I truly am sorry…” Chad continues as we make our way off-campus and to a little diner.

As we eat, he continues to try talking to me, but I don’t want to hear any of it. He flashes his baby blue eyes sadly at me, trying to make me forgive him, but I’m not having it.

Once we all finish eating, Chad starts again. “Well, I need to get to work now,” he says while standing up. “I’ll see you later. And Bree, please believe me, I’m really sorry for what I did…I just get so angry about things like that when it comes to you…”

I nod my head in return, understanding what he means. I don’t want to accept his apology; I wants to stay mad at him. But I know what he means, so nothing else needs to be said.

After Chad leaves, Dawn looks at the clock on the diner wall. “Oh, we need to get back!”

“You go ahead. I think I’m going to take the rest of the day off.”

“You can’t just hide from everything that happened,” she says sternly as she grabs her belongings.

“I just need the rest of today off. I’m going to come back tomorrow.”

“Okay…” Dawn replies. “I’ll see you later then.”

“Bye,” I respond, getting up to leave.

There are still three hours until I can go pick up Carey. What should I do until then? I begin wondering where I should go. Ugh…I’m going to have to study if I want to ever show my face on campus again…

Instead of returning to campus, I go to the local library, which is near Carey’s house anyways. Sitting down at a table, I quietly begin to study. But the problem is that I don’t even know where to begin!

Did the professor already go over this? No…he couldn’t have, could he? I flip the page. What is this? I look at the next page. What is that?

I let out a groan in defeat, and everyone in the library stares at me judgingly. Some put their finger over their lips to signal, “Shh!” I didn’t know people actually did that…

“Sorry,” I reply quietly. Looking back down at the book, I stare at the book while starting to have a tiny panic attack. How am I supposed to pass this class if I can’t understand any of this?

The book lies on the table in front of me for nearly two hours, and I have no idea what I’m learning. Trying to decipher what is going on from my incomplete notes, which has doodles of hearts and flowers, I suddenly become mortified as the thought occurs to me that I will most likely never lay my eyes on Liam again. I spent so much time fantasizing about him and not paying attention to my lessons that I’m completely lost with no one to help me. And this is the punishment.

As I come hurtling back to Earth, I realize that it was time to go see my assigned little sister, Carey. While waking to see her, I decide that it would be best to push all of the problems I am currently experiencing away from my mind and focus entirely on Carey, who has enough problems.

Carey is an 8-year-old girl who lives with a foster family. She doesn’t get to see her biological family. I have come to love her like she’s my actual sister. Over the years, I’ve grown attached to her, and from my perspective, who wouldn’t? Carey is a very happy child, even with the hand she was dealt in life. She has a very optimistic and lively personality that is contagious.

“What do you want to do today?” I question with a smile when I get to her house.

“I don’t know,” Carey responds with sadness in her voice.

“What’s wrong?” I ask in alarm, kneeling to get to her level.

“I’m just having some trouble at school,” she replies sullenly.

“Is it in math? Maybe I can help you study?” We all know that I’m not the type to study, but how hard is elementary math?

“It’s not that…” she continues, avoiding my concerned gaze. “I don’t really want to talk about it right now.”

“Oh…okay,” I respond, still concerned. But I know she will eventually tell me what is going on. “Then this calls for some pizza and ice cream!” I crow with excitement, standing up and taking Carey’s hand.

After going to the pizza place in town, we head to the ice cream parlor, which is just down the road.

It’s a nice place, one of my favorites since I was a kid. It’s a little storefront on the corner of a long strip mall with big windowpanes surrounding the exterior of the building. Inside, the floor is a black and white checkered tiled pattern while the walls are painted a baby blue color with baby pink tile running halfway up it. The face of the long counter, which houses a glass ice box of an almost endless assortment of flavored ice cream, is tiled with a baby pink color with black and white checkered tiles outlining it.

At the counter are bar stools with baby blue and baby pink cushions. Booths line the exterior walls next to the windows. A table with a pink top rests in between the blue cushioned booths.

Old 50s style decorations, paintings, and obsolete objects hang on the walls. A jukebox, which matches the interior décor, sits in the corner with records of 50s bands and artists inside.

Even the waiters and waitresses wear white long-sleeved button-up dress shirts with black bowtie paired with cliché white hats on top of their heads. Their outfits are also adorned with red and white striped aprons. All of them wear big, bright smiles.

Carey and I order banana splits, which come in large glass boats with a large banana sliced in half. Three large scoops of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate ice cream rest between the halves of the banana. One scoop is adorned with crushed walnuts, the other has chocolate syrup, and the last has caramel drizzled on top. Above the entire dessert, a thick dollop of whipped cream is placed with a cherry on top.

As we sit down in a booth near the front window, Carey begins to speak. “Has your crush noticed you yet?” she questions before shoveling a big spoonful of ice cream in her mouth.

I choke on my ice cream. “Well…um…he knows who I am now…”

“Really?”

“Yeah…”

“Does he like you?”

“No…” I admit, looking sadly down at my ice cream.

“Oh…” Carey responds, equally disappointed.

“Really, I made a fool of myself in front of everyone…what’s worse is now, I’m living with him…”

“What?”

I know I’m not supposed to tell anyone, but Carey is eight and not associated with anyone at the college. So I continue telling her how my current living arrangement came to be and how I humiliated myself in front of Liam and the student body. As I tell my story, Carey remains attentive and mesmerized, which is kind of surprising for an eight-year-old.

“Now, I need to figure out what I’m going to do.”

“I think you should probably start looking for a job and a new place.”

“Hey!” I shout, smiling at Carey’s teasing—yet very honest—remark. She smiles back at me, beaming with pride. “So, are you going to tell me what had gotten you so down earlier?”

Carey’s eyes fell to look at her ice cream. “It’s just some kids at school.”

“What did they do?”

“They were making fun of me because I live with a foster family.”

My heart shatter at her statement. “Don’t listen to them! You are a wonderful person.”

She smiles at me. “Okay. I’ll remember that next time.”

“Good!”

When we finish our treats, I have to bring Carey back home. At the door, I hug her. “Make sure to think about what you want to do next time,” I say. “And call me if you need anything. Especially if those kids are being mean to you again.”

“I will!” she replies sweetly, heading inside her house.

I take a deep breath. “Now, it’s time for me to go home…” I say to myself, dreading the thought of possibly running into Liam.

When I get back to the Hall family household, it’s starting to get dark. Standing outside the door, I try to muster up some courage in case my crush is waiting to torment me after Chad’s performance earlier today.

Entering the house, I’m greeted by Mrs. Hall, who’s sitting on the couch and reading a book.

“Did you and Carey have fun?” she questions, closing her book, genuinely interested in hearing about what we did.

“Yeah, she was really sad when I got there, but I think I made her feel better.”

“That’s great! Did you have dinner?” Mrs. Hall asks. “There’s still some leftovers in the fridge I can heat up for you.”

“I ate pizza with Carey,” I respond. “I should get upstairs and study now.”

“Oh…okay.” Her voice sounds disappointed.

“Thank you for saving me some,” I state, feeling a bit guilty.

“You’re welcome, honey,” she responds, hugging me. “Good luck studying.”

Once I get to my room, I pull the textbooks out of my bag and place them on my desk. I get into some comfier clothes, a pair of thin gray shorts and a hunter-green tank top. Tying my brown hair back into a ponytail, I am determined to pass the final exam. But all of that resolve diminishes once I stared blankly at the words in front of me.

An hour passes…then two…

“There’s just no use!” I shout, letting out an aggravated sigh.

I just to go to sleep… My eyes have started to sting from sleepiness, and I consider giving up. But I need to study! I need to prove that I am not as dumb as everyone thinks I am!

Suddenly, I’m filled with determination, recalling everything Liam said and what Carey told me at the ice cream parlor. Their remarks make me angry.

While I want to prove everyone wrong, I do not really want Liam to kiss my feet. I just want him to apologize for the way he treated me in front of everyone. And while I want to steer clear of him until then, it seems impossible.

Liam is in my class; he’s the only person I know in my class. If I want to pass, I need to know what the professor has gone over, which only leaves me with one option. I shudder at the thought.

I have to ask Liam for help…