Bobby scowled as he reached across the coffee table to silence Min’s phone. It was a constant dinging, buzzing distraction with each new social media post that tagged her, each new text. Word of the “brawl” in her dressing room between Aidan and their professor had spread fast. Everyone had their own theory about what had happened and why.
When Min had returned to the apartment, not even remembering the drive home from Liam’s house, Bobby had already been there with Jeff, anxiously awaiting her return. She’d opened the door and he’d pulled her into a hug so deep and so sure she’d fallen apart on the spot, tears splashing down her cheeks and over his shoulder. Tears that had slowed but still hadn’t stopped, even three hours later.
Jeff brought in a tray of mismatched mugs full of tea and set it on the coffee table next to Min’s now-silent – yet still glowing – phone. He held out a mug to her, but she shook her head. She didn’t want tea.
Bobby glanced at Jeff, concern tugging at the corners of his mouth. He’d had that same expression on his face since she’d arrived. To his credit, it hadn’t changed much even when she’d filled him in on all the dirty details.
Jeff finally gave up and placed the tea back on the tray. “He’ll come around, doll. He said it himself. He just needs some time,” he said.
She squeezed her eyes shut against the fresh wave of tears, shaking her head. No man had ever said they needed time and come back to her. And even if he did, they couldn’t go back to how things had been.
She was half aware of Bobby gesturing for Jeff to follow him before the boys huddled close together on the edge of the room.
“Did you know?” Bobby hissed.
“About which part? Aidan or Dr. J?” Jeff asked.
“All of it. Any of it.” When Jeff didn’t immediately reply, Bobby cursed under his breath. “I invited Aidan to Lucy’s birthday,” Bobby said, his voice strained. “If I’d known…”
“You couldn’t have.” Her best friend stole a glance at her. “Let’s talk about this somewhere else,” he said, leading Bobby down the hall towards the bedrooms.
The night passed in a blur. At some point, she must have found her way to her bed, because that is where she woke on Sunday morning. And that is where she stayed all day, despite Jeff and Bobby’s repeated efforts to coax her out from under the covers with the smell of freshly cooked bacon and promises of sangria and Meg Ryan movies. But she just burrowed deeper, weighed down by the fact that everyone she knew at Burnett had called her at some point in the last 24 hours with one glaring exception: the one person she needed to hear from more than anything.
Monday morning, she emerged from her room as Jeff and Bobby were eating breakfast. It was time to pick herself back up. Liam wasn’t the first man to break her heart, even if it’d never hurt this badly before. She needed to prove to herself that she was more than the girl who slept with her professor.
Bobby dropped his empty bowl in the sink and eyed her warily before wrapping her in a hug.
“I’m fine,” she said, shrugging out of his arms, but even she could hear how dead her voice sounded.
“Have you heard from him yet?” Jeff asked.
“No. And I don’t think I’m going to,” she said, forcing herself to say it the same way she’d tell someone what time it was. A fact. No emotion necessary.
“I know this sucks,” Bobby said. “But –”
“Things got hard and he walked away. Just like every other guy before him. I’m not someone men choose when push comes to shove. I need to just accept that.”
“Mel –” Bobby protested.
“I’m fine,” she said, cutting him off.
After a tense pause, “Are you sure you want to go to class today?” Jeff asked, eyeing her carefully.
“Exams are in two weeks. I can’t fall behind now,” she replied mechanically. There wasn’t a choice. Everything hurt. And she couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to face everyone.
She’d heard the whispered argument Bobby and Phoebe had in the living room the day before, the one where Phoebe accused Min of ruining Liam’s career, where Bobby told his girlfriend she was out of line. The one that had ended with Bobby and Phoebe breaking up. Because of her.
She’d heard Maria on her phone that night, loudly speculating that Min had been sleeping with Liam all along. It was the only explanation Maria could think of for why Min had been getting better parts than her for the last two years and Maria wasso relievedto finally have an explanation that made sense. If only they hadn’t all lost the best conductor the department had ever had. Because of her.
Min wanted to vomit at the thought of facing more of the same – or worse – from people she had once considered her friends. But she showered as quickly as she could and tied her wet hair up in a messy knot on the top of her head before pulling on a pair of leggings and an oversized Burnett sweatshirt. Jeff and Bobby were waiting for her in the living room.
Bobby held out his hand for her, pulling her close and tucking her in under his arm. “We’ll be by your side all day.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. All day, Jeff or Bobby appeared as each class ended and escorted her to her next class. They didn’t leave her side in the dining hall, forcing nosy underclassmen to give them a wide berth through the sheer power of Bobby’s scowl. But they couldn’t stop the whispering, the sidelong glances, the mixed looks of disgust and awe that followed her everywhere she went.
Despite the lack of definitive information, the student body had clearly decided that Aidan’s incredulous observation must be correct – Min had been sleeping with the chair of the opera program. Feelings about this revelation seemed to fall into three distinct camps: 1) Min had lured Dr. Jacobs into her bed and destroyed his career for sport; 2) Dr. Jacobs had taken advantage of Min and she, poor girl, should be pitied; or 3) Min was the luckiest bitch on campus so why the hell was she moping around?
Not to mention the swirling rumors about what had actually happened with Aidan to make Dr. Jacobs punch him – she’d led Aidan on; she’d been cheating on Dr. Jacobs with Aidan; she’d been cheating on Aidan with Dr. Jacobs; or – the one she could hardly wrap her brain around – Aidan had been defending her honor when Dr. Jacobs attacked him. Even the handful of girls who timidly offered that maybe Aidan had deserved it, who seemed to have a haunted look in their eyes as they proposed that their theater’s new namesake might not be such a golden boy after all, even they couldn’t help but speculate about how long she’d been sleeping with her professor. It was exhausting.
