10
The tough girls wouldn’t let Sophia off easily. They trapped h
her in the girls‘ bathroom, just like they had trapped me before.
my phone died, but he never answered.
That day my parents were out of town. I could only cry and call Xavier, again and again, until my p
It was the cleaning lady who rescued me.
Xavier didn’t come to school.
I went to his house to find him, lifted his blanket, and asked where he had been last night.
He was bleary–eyed and said, “At the internet cafe, why? Are you checking up on me?”
“Why didn’t you answer the phone?”
“Did you
call?
He shook his phone and said, “I was on the phone with my girlfriend, the battery died. Didn’t get around to you.”
Sophia was luckier.
Because I saved her.
It wasn’t out of kindness.
I simply didn’t want another girl to experience the despair I had gone through.
Sophia was innocent. She was just liked by Xavier, she hadn’t done anything wrong.
The one who was always wrong was Xavier.
And the foolish me from before.
When I opened the bathroom door, Sophia kept calling for Xavier.
Seeing me, she was stunned: “Why is it you?”
*Did Xavier send you?”
I glanced at her phone and saw that she had been trying to call Xavier.
“Why didn’t you contact your parents?”
She lowered her head, mumbling: “1….. I didn’t want to worry them.”
I think it’s just love sickness clouding her judgment.
1:58 PM c d
<
1 shook my head, not commenting.
Early the next morning at school, my deskmate pulled me aside.
“Hey, did you hear? Xavier went crazy again.
His outbursts had become the norm, and my repeated indifference had changed my deskmate’s attitude.
She used to think I was involved, but now she treated me like just another spectator like her.
“I heard Sophia was locked up by those tough girls all night, got a fever and is in the hospital. Xavier went berserk. This must be the first time he’s hit a girl, right? Hey, don’t you think it’s weird? How dare they mess with Xavier’s girlfriend?”
“Locked up all night?”
“Yeah, the cleaning lady rescued her this morning. She’s just been sent to the hospital.
But… didn’t I rescue her?
As I was thinking, I noticed it had gotten very quiet around me.
I looked up to see Xavier walking in.
He rapped his knuckles on my desk and said, “Come out with me.”
“What’s the matter?”
I didn’t want to follow his orders.
Xavier laughed angrily and said, “Aria, are you sure you want me to say it here?”
I asked back, “What can’t be said here?”
Xavier shook his head in anger, his tongue pressing against his right cheek, very restless.
“Fine, have it your way!”
“Aria, let me ask you, you were right outside the bathroom yesterday, Sophia kept begging you for help, why didn’t you save her?”
As soon as he finished speaking, I felt the atmosphere around me change.
My deskmate, who had just treated me as a fellow spectator, immediately distanced herself from me.
I laughed and asked, “Is that what Sophia told you?”
“I’m asking you to explain, not to question back.”
I was annoyed too.
I take back what I said about Sophia being innocent. Indeed, only an idiot could fall in love with an idiot like Xavier.
“Fine, my explanation is that I let her out at that time. As for why she went back in, I don’t know and I don’t care…
“Aria, do you take me for a fool?”
“Xavier, believe it or not, it’s up to you.”
I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him anymore.
He grabbed me and said, “Come with me to the hospital.
“What for?
“To apologize to Sophial”
1:50 PM c
“Apologize my ass
I was thoroughly fed up.
Time and again, they seemed incapable of understanding human speech.
This time, I was the first to lose it.
I kicked over the desk, kicked over the chair, and even tried to kick Xavier away.
Oh, I’m not strong enough, so he wasn’t kicked away, but he did let go of my hand.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“You’re the one who’s gone mad!”
“Xavier, we’ve known each other for 19 years, give or take. Even if I was once blind enough to like you, setting that aside, we were at least friends. After 19 years of friendship, you don’t even know what kind of person I really am…
I was so angry I could barely string a sentence together, rambling on and on, until finally I was left with just one thing to say.
“Xavier, if I could do it all over again, even if I were bullied to death, I wouldn’t be friends with you!”
