When I Left, He Found His Way Back-Chapter 60: Who saved your ass?

Jessica~

Going to school these past few weeks was as suffocating as being at home with those two guys.

It’s been two weeks and we still haven’t found Hilda, so my name hasn’t been cleared - my coursemates had started avoiding me like a plague while Nathalie wouldn’t stop calling me an evil snitch.

Annabelle kept fighting tooth and nail even after I’d repeatedly told her to stop worrying about it. As for Max, the last time I saw him was the day he abducted me to a restaurant, and I couldn’t help but feel something was not right with him.

But I didn’t have the luxury of time to check on him. I already had too much on my plate.

"Jessica, walk me out."

My head snapped up from my books when Professor Ednut suddenly spoke to me. We’d seen each other a few times after that incident, but he never said a word to me. Suddenly asking me to walk him out didn’t make me feel good.

Annabelle looked my way and gave me an encouraging nod. I returned the nod before leaving my seat under everyone’s scrutinizing stare.

Walking behind him as we left the classroom, Professor Ednut didn’t speak for a long time. We were heading out of the school, and soon, I realized he was taking me to the coffee shop.

Sitting across from him in the empty shop, a new barista brought our order before she excused us.

Professor Ednut’s gaze was on his steaming black coffee and I just watched him in silence.

"The past two weeks must have been hard on you," he began, "I wanted to apologize to you."

I blinked, staring blankly at him. He was apologizing? Why?

"The person who spread the rumor in the school forum has been found."

My mind snapped. Hilda has been found!? "Where are they?" I suddenly blurted out.

He looked at me, sensing my desperation. "It’s one of our students. They got a hacker to hack into the school forum. The hacker was identified and gave us the description of the person. He’s also been arrested."

That meant it wasn’t Hilda. I found myself breathing a sigh of relief, then leaned forward, my heart racing with anticipation. "Who was it?" This person had made me suffer humiliation for the past two weeks. I already had someone in mind, but I still had a tiny belief that I could be mistaken.

Professor Ednut’s eyes met mine, and I saw a hint of sympathy there. "It was someone you know, Jessica. Someone who’s been close to you."

My mind was racing with possibilities. Who could it be? "Who? Annabelle?" I pressed. She was the only person close to me in this school, and if he dared to say yes, i might fly into a fit of rage – God help him if I didn’t bath him with my hot coffee.

Professor Ednut took a deep breath before answering. "It was Max."

My head buzzed, "Max?" How could it be Max? "That’s not true. Max wouldn’t do such a thing. When you find the real culprit, let me know." With that, I stormed out.

I called Max as I left the coffee shop but his number was unreachable. My jaw clenched as I quickened my pace, my mind racing with thoughts. Max had no reason to do such a thing. So, how...? Why was his name mentioned? Could he have been framed?

I repeatedly dialed his number. I needed to confront him, to demand answers. But his unreachable phone number only added to my frustration.

"Jessica!" Annabelle waved at me. She was standing at the front of our block. "Here," she handed my book over as we met half way, turning to head towards the school gate.

Professor Ednut was our last professor for the day.

"You don’t look good, what’s the matter?"

I couldn’t hide it from Annabelle, so I told her what Professor Ednut claimed and she quickly shook her head.

"I know Max. He could be anything from spoiling women to breaking their hearts. He could be kind if he wanted to, but a monsterous bully as his default character. But betraying his friend, no. He wouldn’t do that. That douchebag is loyal to a fault."

Hearing Annabelle vouch for him, I was relieved, "I thought so too." But I gave her a sideways glance, "Loyal to a fault?" I didn’t believe that. Otherwise he wouldn’t have fucked her sister up.

Annabelle smiled warily but didn’t answer that and instead, cleared her throat, "Do you know who I think would do something like that and pin it on Max?"

"Celine?"

She snapped her finger, "BINGO!"

I sighed, what sort of psycho was that girl, really? She must have done that in hopes of making me hate Max and staying away from him, misunderstanding him for a betrayer. But how could she do something so horrible, like trying to ruin his reputation and still claimed to live him? She’s clearly insane.

"I’m so mad right now. You suffered for the past two weeks for something you didn’t do. Why didn’t they do that investigation earlier? And I hope they’ll compensate you accordingly, otherwise I’d be very mad."

I chuckled dryly, feeling annoyed myself, "Perhaps, they didn’t intend to do it from the start. And no, I won’t be getting any compensation. Scratch that, an apology would be a blessing."

The students, especially Nathalie, owed me an apology but whether she liked it or not, I was going to get that from her. That girl made my days hell.

"I’d agree with that. Considering that the Dean wouldn’t give a fuck what happened to you, someone else must have cleared your name and it wasn’t Max." Annabelle narrowed her eyes as she watched me like a hawk, "What are you hiding from me, Jessica?"

I rolled my eyes, what did we know about each other? We practically were strangers who ’fell’ in love, and hadn’t looked each other up or cared to shove our noses into each other’s businesses outside school.

Before now, I thought that since Hilda was starting to feel jealous of Annabelle, I’d make sure only she had that privilege of knowing everything there was to know about me, but after knowing that I’d been friends with a poisonous snake, I decided it’d be best to keep more sensitive matters to myself.

Things that Hilda knew about me could literally be used as a weapon against me, so guarding against one Hilda was enough.

"Jessica?"

My head snapped in her direction and she arched a brow, "Really? You zoomed out on me?"

I let out a chuckle and shook my head, "I was also rummaging my mind for who could have saved my ass this time," surprisingly, the lie effortlessly rolled off my tongue.

"And who did you think of?"

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