Page 83 of True Blue

A moment later, Christopher pulls up YouTube and starts searching for Bentley’s name. Videos start loading up underneath, most of the titles calling me out by name or calling me “Georgian congresswoman's daughter.” My vision swims a little as I feel like I’m going to puke. Christopher’s photos of my guys eat up each of the thumbnails. Christopher scrolls through them, a smile growing larger and larger on his face.

“‘Janette Davidson cheating on Bentley Marshall with classmate,’” Christopher reads. He looks back over at me. “Let’s read the comments, shall we?” He clicks around, pulling up the comments section under a video while I go back to focusing on taking shaky steps toward my phone.

His mocking voice follows me.

“‘What a bitch! She thinks she can do better than Bentley Marshall?! Who is this psycho?’ ‘What a whore.’” He starts laughing gleefully, calling after me louder and louder, the further away from him I get. “‘Just another slutty gold-digger,like her mom.’ These are amazing!” Christopher keeps laughing, reading more and more of the comments as I make it to my desk and finally pick up my phone. It buzzes over and over again, notifications popping up from every social media app I have as I try to get to my texts. Texts start to overlap with the notifications, most from people I haven’t spoken to in years, some just asking if we can talk while others spit vitriol through my screen.

I start hyperventilating, the phone seeming to move further and closer away from my eyes as I stare. Dropping it, I let my back slide down the side of my desk and put my head between my knees, closing my eyes and rocking a bit against the woodat my back. It’s all over. Flashes of happy moments with Axel and Bentley parade through my bleak thoughts, making my eyes water and chest concave.

It’s all over.

“You really thought you could just break up with me and there would be no consequences?” I pick my head up, finding Christopher in my doorway a few feet away. He shakes his head, smile still on his lips. He leans down, getting in my face and baring his teeth. “Good luck with your life, Janette.” He spits my name and then chuckles, swiftly standing and turning away from the door to walk out. I hear the TV still playing the YouTube video Christopher turned on as the suite door slams behind him.

My stomach rolls as his words replay over and over in my head, the ringing and buzzing split only by the sound of my phone continuing to ping and vibrate on the floor with more reactions to the first good thing I had in such a long time.

Tears start to blur my vision as I listen to the death of everything we worked to grow and protect. The comments of the video confirm what people will always think of me now. What they will think of me and my guys.

37

Axel’s leg bounces in the seat next to me. I place my hand on it, stopping the motion as I turn to look back at the open doors at the top of the room again. “She’ll be here.”

He nods, biting his thumbnail and staring at the clock across the room from us. “She’s never this late.”

“I know,” I say, tapping my pen on my laptop again. We’d been here for the last twenty minutes, each of us getting up early to ease Janette’s performance anxiety. We’d each texted her asking where she was. Neither of us got a response.

“What if she freaked out? She’s been so nervous about this presentation. She’s probably still in her dorm having a panic attack.” He starts to pack his laptop into his bag.

I put a hand on his shoulder, keeping him in his seat when he tries to get up. Howards closes the doors, walking down the center aisle toward us.

“What are you doing?” Axel hisses. “We need to go find her.”

“I don’t know why she’s not here, but we need to do this presentation for her. She needs this class for her degree.”

Howards greets the class, clapping his hands once as he reads out the presenters list for today.

“We’ll say she’s sick or something and explain it all to Howards after class, but we need to do the presentation.”

Axel grits his teeth, nodding once after a moment of searching my face. He shrugs my hand off his shoulder and faces forward again. Howards calls up the first group, and I glance at the back doors again before settling into my seat.

The presentation goes quickly, two of the presenters talking fast while the other keeps a more measured pace. I prop my chin up on my fist, pulling my phone out a bit under my laptop to check if Janette has texted. My hand under my chin falls away as I sit up, pulling the phone out fully when I see a text and three missed phone calls from Mira.

Mira A.

SOS. Christopher is in our dorm. Get here now.

“We have to go,” I say, tapping Axel’s chest before I toss my computer into my bag. Axel follows suit, standing with me without question.

“Mr. Marshall, Mr. Clifford. Please sit down. You will present after this group.”

“Family emergency,” I call over my shoulder as Axel and I head up the aisle to the doors. Bursting out of the room, I turn toward the stairs.

“Where is she?” Axel asks over my shoulder.

“In her dorm.” The sound of our shoes on the steps echoes through the empty stairwell. “Mira texted me. Christopher’s there.”

“What the fuck?”

We power walk out of the building doors, the sun momentarily blinding us as it reflects off the snow covering everything in front of us.

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