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Sadly, I think I was still licking my wounds.
Stupid jerk cowboy, calling me a lying, fat bitch.
Tess kept sending me covert glances, looking concerned. I knew she wanted to ask what was wrong with me, but that wasn’t Tess’s style. Open direct confrontation was more my style. So we arrived to campus in silence.
Though she always rode with Jonah, she shared more classes with me. We still had a few general ed courses we’d signed up to take with each other, and today we had three classes together. Two right in a row, then a lunch break, and the third after that.
The first two passed with relative boredom. The guy in front of us in speech class tried to ask out this girl next to him, but she shot him down hard, which had been entertaining, but other than that, it’d been blah, blah, blah.
At lunch, we went to the food court at the student union and once we were in line behind a chatty pair of girls, I leaned in closer to Tess and finally admitted, “Does today just feel weird to you?”
She nodded. “It does. But why?”
I started to shrug, not sure. I knew why I was in a funk. But why was Tess feeling it too?
In front of us, I overheard some girl say, “I can’t believe they let that Hilliard rapist free. It’s so scary.”
Gasping, I turned fully toward them to listen in.
But Beckett had been released? This was amazing! Thank God. Why hadn’t I heard—
“Poor Melody,” the girl’s friend cooed.
I sent Tess a significant glance and gave her an eye roll. Poor Melody my ass. That liar deserved some of her own time in jail if you asked me.
“Ohmigod, did you hear who got him out, claiming she was a witness,” the first friend asked.
I paused, opening my mouth, as she made air quotes around the word witness.
The second girl grabbed first girl’s arm. “No. Who?”
“Bailey Prescott.”
Holy shit, they were talking about me. And why had she said Bailey Prescott as if she were tasting something nasty?
Shaking her head, the second girl dumbly said, “Who’s Bailey Prescott?”
“You know, that cray-cray rainbow-haired chunk who sits behind us in American History class with that mute redheaded friend of hers.”
“What?! That mouthy opinionated fat cow got him free?”
Say whaaaaaat?
Had they just called me—I stepped forward, but Tess grabbed my arm and dug her fingers in, forcing me not to react or intercede.
“Oh my God, how could they let her even testify on his behalf?”
Excuse me?
My back straightened as shock pierced through every organ of my body. Were mouthy, opinionated fat cows not even allowed to go to the police with evidence to help an investigation now?
“You just know she lied for him, probably because she had a crush on him or something, thinking he’d give her the time of day if she saved him.”
What. The. Hell?
Tess tried to drag me away, but I was rooted to the spot, determined to listen to what else these two girls had to say about me.
Girl one was shaking her head sadly. “It’s so pathetic when ugly girls don’t even care if a guy is a sexist rapist asshole, but they still lie for him anyway just to get a little attention.”
