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As he turned away, I called, “Don’t forget the bacon. Lots of bacon.”
“I wouldn’t dare,” he tossed back.
On the couch, I smiled. As much as it had sucked to do the actual running part, I felt surprisingly amazing now. Exhausted yet energized. It was hard to explain. But the fact that I’d accomplished something I didn’t think I could do made this exuberant bubble grow in me and suddenly I was thinking maybe I’d head out and try jogging again the next time Wick went, after all.
After a week of playing hooky, it felt weird to return to campus, even weirder than the day following my actual breakup. But I was determined to muscle through. So whenever I felt as if people stopped to stare and then immediately turned to gossip conspiratorially with friends whenever I walked by, I just lifted my chin a bit more and carried on.
I didn’t realize people actually were talking about me until later that afternoon when I showed up to work at the preschool. Jaymi, the supervising head teacher, asked Tabby, another practicum, and me to set up tables before the kiddos arrived for a painting craft we were supposed to do. And as soon as the two of us got started, Tabby glanced up from across the table as me where she was setting out paintbrushes next to the watercolors I’d already laid out.
“So?” she started conversationally, looking super-eagerly curious. “You were gone for quite a while there.”
I winced. “Yeah, uh…” Clearing my throat, I was unable to meet her eye as I followed through with the lie I’d started. “My grandma died.”
Biting the inside of my lip, I suddenly wished I hadn’t told everyone that after all. I’d just been so worried that I-broke-up-with-my-boyfriend would be a really lousy excuse of why I’d been out for a full week.
“Oh,” Tabby answered, sounding strangely disappointed. “I just thought maybe all the rumors had gotten to you or something. I mean, it’d be hard for me to show my face around campus after—”
“What rumors?” I asked, squinting at her.
She paused, her eyes going wide and mouth popping open. “Oh… You know, never mind. I thought you…knew.”
“Knew what?”
“Nothing.” Now she was clearing her throat and looking everywhere but at me.
I stopped setting out watercolors and gave her my full attention. “Tabby,” I said with all seriousness. “What rumors?”
“I didn’t even believe them,” she started, rushing her words. “I mean, even if they’re true, so what, right? It’s no one else’s business what you’re going through.” Sounding very much like she did believe whatever was going around about me, she hurried on. “And I’m sure you’re getting it all taken care of, so—”
“What…rumors?” I bit out harshly.
Tabby flinched. “It’s just… You know. People are saying Topher Nicholl broke up with you because you…you…”
People were saying Topher had broken up with me? Oh, that was rich. Needing to hear the rest, I lifted an eyebrow. “Because I what?”
Glancing discreetly toward everyone on the other side of the room who were busy with their own classroom preparations, Tabby turned back to me, her voice hushed. “Because you got an STD…from someone else.”
My jaw dropped. “What?”
Tabby jumped because I hadn’t asked the question very quietly.
Then she winced. “I guess one of Topher’s friends saw you leaving the student health center, and they were able to put all the pieces together.”
“That I’d visited the student health center, so I must have an STD?” I squawked incredulously. “Wow. That’s a stretch of the imagination.”
Tabby opened her mouth to say who-knew-what, but I was just getting fired up. “And for your information, I broke up with him because he cheated. Not the other way around.”
“Oh, but I didn’t think—”
Of course she had.
“Where do people get off, making me the bad guy? Just because he’s the golden football quarterback doesn’t make him perfect, you know. I do not have an STD. And if I did, he’s the one who would’ve given it to me. He’s such a fucking liar.”
“Haven!” Tabby hissed from between gritted teeth, her eyes bright with warning. “People are staring.”
I paused to glance over and see other student teachers and practicums glancing curiously our way. Spinning back toward Tabby, I must’ve looked as savage as I felt because she immediately cringed away.
“He is not going to get away with spreading shit like that about me.”
