“My only friend.” I laugh.
“True,” she teases. “I’ll see you at the diner?”
“Always.” I squeeze her hand and watch her walk into her class.
The moment I turn to head to the library, I see Declan walking down the hall toward me. His arm is slung around the shoulders of a petite blonde. She’s about a foot shorter than him, no taller than 5’3. He shakes his head, laughing at something she just said. I watch as he hugs her and then presses his lips against her head before watching her walk into the lecture hall.
I roll my eyes before deciding to take the long way to the library. The last thing my day needs is to be ruined by Declan.
From what I’ve heard around campus, he’s been hooking up with Mollie Greenwich since last year, but that was definitely not Mollie. It doesn’t surprise me, though.
I learned everything I needed to about Declan freshman year. I’ve also learned that most people don’t change, and I doubt he’s the exception.
The library was empty when I got here. But the fifth floor became the social center in less than an hour. And if Mollie Greenwich and her Delta Nu posse weren’t sitting about three feet away from me, I would’ve escaped already.
Unfortunately, her table is on my way out. And the last thing I want is an encounter with her.
I shouldn’t look up, but my eyes deceive me, traveling away from my computer and landing on Mollie’s perfect figure. She pushes her hair behind her ear before giving me a small wave. A sly smile is pulling at her lips, and I hate it. After dealing with it for your whole life, you would think it would get old, and you would get over it. And I had until the end of freshman year.
I dig my thumbnail into my middle finger and take a deep breath.Ignore them. I close my eyes and shake my hands out before typing away at my keyboard again. The whispers continue, though; They’re always there.
My hands start to shake, and before I know it, they’ve frozen entirely.
“Don’t listen to them.” I practically jump out of my chair before turning to see the person standing behind me. “They’re idiots.”
She pulls up a chair from a nearby table and sits beside me. It’s the blonde girl from earlier—the one with Declan.
I open my mouth but then snap it shut. I’m confused. I don’t know what to say, so I just sit there and say nothing.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” she begins, “I just, I know them personally, and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t getting to you.”
Everything people say gets to me.
“Why?” I wonder.
“Why what?”
“Why did you want to check on me?”
“Because no one deserves to be hated for something they can’t change,” she says, but I still find myself sinking in my seat because the scar probably isn’t the only thing they’re whispering about. “If we all looked the same, it would be a boring world.”
She leans back in her chair and throws her legs up on the opposite end of my desk. She grabs a bag of pretzels from her bag and pops one into her mouth. My eyes drift to Mollie, who seems less than thrilled about my current encounter.
She throws another pretzel in her mouth before shaking her head and laughing.
“Sorry,” she sticks her free hand out and smiles, “I’m Brinley.” I cautiously shake her hand before pulling back.
“Ember.”
“I know.”
Of course, she knows. The scar covering my face is a giveaway.
She shakes her head again, swings her legs off the table, and leans forward. “Sorry, probably not the right thing to say. I know you because of your brother, Campbell, not because of—”
Her voice dies out.
“And seriously, don’t let anything they say get to you,” she continues. “Mollie and her dweebs act like children. Like I never understood people making fun of other people, but I thought we’d leave it behind in high school.”
