My Bestie's Dad Likes Me Wet-Chapter 92 SHATTERING

NOVA POV

Resumption is finally here, and while I’m not really looking forward to being in the same class as my bullies and former best friends, I know I had to resume.

I gently closed the door to my course advisor’s office, paperwork cleared. Now I can fully join my coursemates without any harassment from the lecturers. I’ve ensured I read ahead for all that was scheduled for the semester, including the classes I missed out on. With this confidence, I walked boldly to the lecture room. There was a lecturer in class, but I was allowed to come in.

I brought out my physical notebook as well as the mint chewing gum I use to keep myself company in class.

The lecturer droned on about a topic I’d familiarized myself with beforehand, so I didn’t bother to really keep track. It was then I noticed the not-so-subtle glares and the gossip whispered from one mouth to another ear.

Everyone was looking at me, which was weird because a lecturer was in class and the only person that I might have suspected would have been Lena but she wasn’t even in class.

I dismissed the suspicious thoughts about Lena being the source of this to focus on something better, like taking notes. But soon I started hearing snippets of the conversations.

"Wannabe nerd..."

"...Holier-than-thou attitude..."

"...Whore in nerd’s clothing..."

"...Looks so innocent but..."

An unsettling feeling lodged itself at the base of my throat and in my stomach. I felt heavy gazes on me, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling off.

Soon after, the lecturer left and we were on a thirty-minute recess. I pushed my books and stationery into my bag with shaky hands, then bundled the bag on my back before slipping through the rows and columns till I was outside the lecture room without meeting anybody’s gaze or exchanging any words with anybody.

My heart hammered in my chest. The whispers followed me out like a swarm of bees, buzzing and relentless.

As soon as I got outside the building, I made my way to an abandoned alcove beneath a big tree where my privacy is guaranteed for a few minutes. I took out my new iPhone from my pocket.

Grant had forced me to accept it as a quick recovery gift and had told me I needed to get used to receiving lavish gifts from him. He had even pressured me into taking my car for its first ride.

I took out the phone with shaky hands, and my first instinct was to call Grant and tell him about my suspicions and how paranoid I was acting. Then I remembered he’d told me he would be in a five-hour foreign meeting with new investors. I couldn’t possibly reach out to him mid-meeting just because I felt intimidated. I’m not a child.

But God, I wished I was anywhere but here.

I dropped the phone back in my pocket and took out my Kindle, something to while away the time. It was then I sighted Rita and Lena walking hand in hand. Just the two of them. I hid further behind the tree, hoping no one would notice me.

My stomach dropped. They’d barely tolerated each other before, and now they were walking like they were best friends.

The pieces started clicking together. Lena’s too-sweet acceptance. The way she’d said my "privacy is safe with me." The sudden change in everyone’s attitude toward me.

She’d told them. She’d told everyone. My gt is rarely wrong.

Minutes flew by and thirty minutes was soon over between flips of my latest literary obsession, though I couldn’t have told you what I’d read. The words just blurred together while my mind raced.

I made my way back to the lecture room, hoping against all hopes that there wouldn’t be any incident involving me. But unfortunately, my hopes weren’t enough to save me from this particular fate.

"If it isn’t the gold-digging bitch." Rita’s voice came from the side of the chair I was supposed to sit in. I didn’t even notice her and her crew till I walked fully in.

Fuck.

"Hi, Rita," I said coolly with a fake, uneasy smile plastered on my face. You could smell my anxiety from a mile away.

I sat down since it was already too late to turn around. I took my headphones from my bag and was about to place them over my head when Rita’s hand shot out to seize them.

"Excuse me?" I faked politeness when everything in me was screaming for me to cuss her out.

"Yeah. Excuse yourself, gold digger," she replied more confidently.

The crew around her snickered. I could see phones out now, recording. Great. This would be all over social media in minutes.

"You have the wrong person, Rita Stowe," I said calmly, hoping this could be resolved without drama. But unfortunately, Rita did put the C in Crazy and she isn’t backing down without a fight.

"Wrong person?" She laughed, loud and sharp.

"A poverty-stricken wannabe orphan like you got a freebie scholarship and somehow within three months after your internship, you were able to get the latest iPhone, a G wagon, and rumor has it that you have rare vintage jewelry and bags delivered to your doorstep." She paused, a cocky grin on her flawless face, her Chanel bag with a rare Labubu glinting on its zipper and rare gems decorating her ears.

"Now tell me, Nova Wretched Hart, are you or are you not a gold digger?" Her voice drew me back to her perfectly glossed-up lips spewing all this trash.

"Rita, I beg to—"

"Oh, you will beg alright. After all, you never did belong here with your goody-two-shoes act. You never belonged in this school. You don’t belong here and you’ll never fit in. You’re nothing but a beggar and a gold digger, and the world would know how devious you are... especially to those who took you in after pitying you. Commoners like you don’t deserve a place at our table!"

She snarled, throwing my headphones on the floor. The crack of plastic against tile echoed through the room. Before I could react, she pushed my head back roughly while her crew laughed and poured the contents of my bag on the floor. The clattering was loud and her announcements were louder. Books, pens, tampons, my Kindle—everything scattered across the dirty floor.

I’m sure the whole class was looking at us now. Looking at me. Recording me. Posting me.

"Rita." My voice cracked. I couldn’t even speak a full sentence and my lips were quivering, my hands shaking. I could not even think of a response.

Where was Lena? I scanned the room quickly. There she was in the back, sitting with Katie. Both of them watching with identical expressions. Not laughing. Not participating, they were just... watching.

Like they’d orchestrated this whole thing.

The next lecturer walked in just then.

"Let there be decorum!" He hissed, walking forward to the podium in the room. "Rita Stowe and Nova Hart, let’s hope there’s a reasonable explanation for this ruckus. If not, you both get a two-week suspension from my class."

Fuck.

I opened my mouth to explain, but what could I say? That Rita attacked me unprovoked? That would sound like I was playing victim. That someone spread rumors about me? I had no proof. That I was being bullied? I was supposed to be an adult.

Rita stood there with her arms crossed, smirking like she’d already won.

And maybe she had.

"Well?" The lecturer demanded, his eyes moving between us. "I’m waiting."

My throat closed up. The words wouldn’t come. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me—judging, recording, waiting for me to break.

"Professor, I can explain," Rita started, her voice suddenly sweet and reasonable. "Nova and I were just having a discussion about—"

"A discussion that involves throwing things and making a mess of my classroom?" The professor cut her off, unimpressed.

"She provoked me, sir," Rita said, and I could see the wheels turning behind her eyes. "She’s been bragging about all these expensive gifts she’s been getting from—"

"That’s not true!" The words burst out of me finally, sharp and desperate. "I haven’t said anything to anyone!"

"Then where did you get all those things, Nova?" Rita turned to me, eyebrows raised in mock curiosity. "Everyone wants to know. Are you escorting? Selling yourself? Or did you find yourself a sugar daddy?"

The room erupted in gasps and whispers. Phones were definitely recording now.

"That’s enough!" The professor slammed his hand on the podium. "Both of you, out. Now. And if I hear another word about this nonsense, you’re both getting written up."

"But sir—" I started.

"Out!"