I pull my phone out to text Cinna.
Me:SOS.
I hit send and keep walking. The cobblestones blur beneath my feet. One step, then another. Just keep moving.
My phone buzzes.
Cinna:??? I’m in class what happened
Cinna:hold on I’m ditching
Cinna:meet me at Aldridge
Cinna:Aubrey is there I’m texting her now
Aldridge Hall. Okay. I can do that. I can walk to Aldridge Hall.
I cross the main quad on autopilot, and everything inside me, including my brain, feels blank.
Then the thoughts start swirling: Aubrey said there were rumors. Someone went on my social media and grabbed my picture. Someone made a flyer. Who? Why would anyone do this? Why?
A pair of students pass me on the path and glance over. That’s normal. People glance at each other all the time. Except they keep looking. One of them leans toward the other and says something I can’t hear. Then they both look back at me over their shoulders.
My skin prickles.
There’s another group, sitting on a bench near the fountain. One of them nudges his friend. They stare. They don’t even try to hide it.
Oh God.
How many of those flyers are out there? How many people have seen it? How many people are looking at me right now and thinking?—
The panic is building in my chest, a pressure that makes it hard to breathe, so I walk faster. My face feels hot. I’m a nobody. I’m a sophomore who paints things and goes to class and doesn’t matter to anyone outside her small circle of people. Why would someone target me? What did I do?
I havenoenemies, unless you count Dorien, and I one hundred percent know he’d never be so lame as to spread rumors about me.
I spot Aubrey before she spots me. She’s standing outside Aldridge Hall, arms crossed, one combat boot tapping impatiently against the stone steps. When she sees my face, her expression shifts from annoyed to alert in half a second.
“What happened?”
I hand her the flyer.
She unfolds it. Reads it. Her eyes narrow in a way I’ve only seen a few times, usually right before she destroys someone in a debate.
“What the fuck?” She looks up at me, jaw set. “Who did this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I’m going to find out. Spreading rumors—okay, a lot of simps do that. But this is fucking way too far. So when I find this person, I’m going to end them.”
“Aubrey—”
“No. This is bullshit. This is actual, actionable harassment. Someone printed your face on a goddamn flyer and accused you of—” She stops, takes a breath, visibly reeling herself in. “We’ll figure out who it is, and we’ll handle it.”
Before I can respond, Cinna appears, jogging toward us. Her hair is escaping from its clip and she’s slightly out of breath, like she actually ran here. When she reaches us, she takes one look at my face and pulls me into a tight hug. I haven’t even told her what the SOS is, she just knows I need support.
Aubrey jumping to my defense and Cinna just being here without knowing why, makes tears pool along my rims.
“What happened?” Cinna asks when she pulls back.
