Page 37 of Sassy Bennett Doesn't Do Romance

“Who knows? I’ll clean it off after school.” She shrugs, trying to convey this isn’t a big deal.

“I’ll help you clean it off now.” I offer and take a step towards her building, but she puts her hand on my arm.

“Nah, let’s forget about it. We should go to class for a change.”

I laugh at that. She’s right, we haven’t exactly been keeping on top of our attendance lately.

We walk towards campus, and I wish I could thread my fingers through hers, but Sassy doesn’t do public displays of affection, so I keep my hands to myself. We chat about some parties that are happening this weekend and which shifts they’ve given us at the shop. As we draw nearer the university buildings, we both sense a change in the energy around us. Groups of students are watching us, and whispering furiously amongst themselves.

“What’s going on?” I ask as we slow our stride. “Am I imagining everyone staring at us?”

“No, definitely not imagining it.” She murmurs. Two guys sitting on the ledge of a low brick wall are smirking at us.

“Hey Sassy, can we have a free show?” One of them says when we get closer.

“Yeah, I wanna see those tits!” The other one leers.

“What’d you just say?” I growl, lunging towards them. I give one of them a sharp push and he falls off the back of the wall, laughing the whole time. The other guy jumps up, but Sassy has grabbed my arm in a vice grip and is dragging me away.

“Don’t,” she warns as I glare back at them.

“They can’t speak to you like that!” I seethe, shaking with anger.

“Let’s work out what’s going on before we throw punches.” She looks around. A group of girls nearby are giggling together when one of them calls out, “Need a pole?”

I’m about to give them a piece of my mind too when I hear my name being called out. Teddy jogs toward us.

“I’ve been looking for you, man.” He says to me. He glances at Sassy and I swear his face turns red.

“Hey, Ted.” I greet him, but I keep watching the students around us.

“Can I talk to you?” He asks and something about the tone of his voice gets my attention.

“Do you know what’s going on?” I ask, and his face shows he does. He glances at Sassy again, then back at me.

“It’s fine, just tell me.” Sassy says, weary. Ted looks at her again, as though trying to decide on something. Sighing, he pulls his phone out.

“It’s stupid,” he mumbles while he unlocks the screen and scrolls to something. He hesitates again.

“I’m really sorry.” He says, and hands the phone to Sassy.

She takes it, looking at the screen. Her face doesn’t give anything away.

“I see.” She says.

I take the phone off her.

“What the fuck?” I growl. I’m looking at a picture of a naked stripper, except Sassy’s head has been crudely photoshopped onto the body. Underneath the picture are the words:

SASSY BENNETT, GRETHEM U’S RESIDENT WHORE. COME WATCH ME GET NAKED AT THE NEST.

I hand the phone back to Teddy, my hands shaking with rage.

“Who the fuck sent you this?” I demand.

“It doesn’t matter who sent it to him,” Sassy interrupts. “What matters is who made the original. And we both know who that is.”

I don’t follow what she’s implying, and she sighs in response.

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