Chapter 2

• DANI
• “Dani!” The voice that once gave me shivers of excitement did quite the opposite. All I felt was revulsion and anger.
• “Oh goshness!” My legs did an about-turn as soon as I saw the ‘one who shall not be named,’ running across the neatly trimmed lawn that stretched across the quad.
• “Dani, please wait!” Curious eyes darted around, steps slowing to watch or catch any bit of this juicy drama that had spread all over campus like a wildfire. My humiliation was out there for the whole world to see.
• “Why won’t he just give up?” I muttered darting through the swaying palm trees along the path and hurrying to the nearest place I could seek refuge. “Why can’t he just leave me alone??” It was bad enough I still had to take a Data Science class with Mrs Miller and would be forced to see her shameless adulterous face almost every other day. Fortunately, she had taken a week off work or something along those lines.
• “I’ll handle him, chica,” Tina’s eyes clouded and she glanced over her shoulder. “He’s got some nerve,” she seethed. “When Beth and I came looking for you that day, we heard them in the closet,” she clenched her teeth, restraining her anger. “At first, we thought it was you and him but it was her again. Even after you had caught them, it showed that he was not remorseful at all.” Just when I thought it couldn’t hurt any more than it did, hearing her say that, pierced my heart all over again.
• Beth had come by my house and told me bits and pieces of their closet encounter, “And then you couldn’t help but open the door and beat the crap out of-”
• “The shameless cougar whore,” she bit out, her arms folded over her chest. With her dark hair blowing back and her short summer dress ruffling in the cool breeze, she really did resemble Wonder Woman, an Amazon queen ready to battle and defend her people. “If he hadn’t stopped me, I would have finished her, Mortal Combat style. Professor or not.”
• “You still gave him a black eye.” We stood and admired the shiner he was sporting.
• My friend remained unapologetic. “He deserved it.”
• All week, he had been relentless in his efforts to win me over. Flowers, letters, long texts, singing telegrams, throwing stones at my bedroom window late at night, and ambushing me at school and all my favorite hangouts.
• “Go on,” I told her. It was time for me to stop running. “I have to face him at some point. You go ahead.”
• “Are you sure?” she narrowed her thickly kohled eyes and pinched her signature red-painted lips as he drew closer. “I could castrate him right now. Just say the word?”
• “That sounds tempting,” I smiled and ran my hand up and down her smooth tanned arm. “But I got this.”
• “Okay…” she said, giving him a once over, and slowly backed off, her eyes telling him exactly what she would do to him if he made one false move.
• “Hey,” Zack stood before me in all his gorgeous glory. Even if I hated him, I grudgingly admitted it. “You look nice,” he said when I remained mute, his nervous gaze taking in my casual outfit of a denim skirt and white shirt. “You always do.”
• Tampering down my rage, I jutted out my chin.
• “You ran all this way to tell me that?”
• “No.” Fiddling with the sleeves of his V-necked grey sweater, he dipped his chin and coughed softly. “I-can we sit on the bench over there and talk for a bit?”
• “You need to stop badgering me Zack,” I ground out, not mincing my words. “If you don’t, I will get a restraining order.”
• “Babe, I’m so sorry-”
• “No Zack,” I cut him off. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m sorry for wasting my time on a guy like you. No stop following me around. We’re done.”
• Just then a look of desperation crossed his face. “Dani, I need your help-”
• “You’re joking right?”
• “Please?” He sounded desperate but this was the same lying, cheating jerk that broke my heart. “Just give me a second to explain?”
• “Explain what exactly?”
• “Coach kicked me off the team. He’s been asking a lot of questions…”
• “Ah,” I nodded slowly as comprehension sank in. “So this is what it’s about. You’re not pursuing me because you love me and you want me back. You’re doing fit for selfish reasons. I should have known.”
• “No, cupcake,” he scrunched his forehead, his fingers lightly caressing my cheek. “I do love you.”
• “So, it wasn’t you that I caught banging your coach’s wife in the janitor’s closet?”
• “I feel terrible about what I did.” Clutching his head, he turned his head towards the bright morning sky. “I made a mistake, babe. A huge, huge mistake…”
• “Mistake??” Gosh, how was I still in love with such a callous jerk? I was so close to kneeing him in the nuts. “Mistake?? That’s what you’re calling it??”
• “I shouldn’t-look I…” he stepped back and stabbed his fingers through his hair, puffing his cheeks. “She caught at a weak moment and…she was offering what my body craved at the time and I took it. You wanted to wait-you weren’t ready. And, I am weak-willed, Danielle. I’m sorry.” Just when I was almost falling for his pleas for forgiveness, he ruined it in a single moment. “I may have had sex with another woman, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t love you. That was just sex and meant nothing. You need to believe that.”
• “You’re unbelievable!”
• “Can I, uh, please have my phone back?” He grabbed my arm when I turned to leave. “I really need it and…you bought it for me, right? You can’t take back a gift once you’ve given it away, right?”
• “Goodbye, Zach.” Sticking my hand in his face, I turned on my heel and marched to my next class.
• This time, he knew better than to follow me.
• All this time I thought he was genuinely trying to win me back. That he really loved me. That he was willing to do just about anything for another chance. Yet again, I was wrong.
• He was selfish and was chasing after me so I could save his slimy back. All he wanted was for me to clear his name with the coach so he could get back on the team. And not forgetting, he also wanted his phone back. The phone that I had bought for him. The phone that he was using to do all sorts of lucid things with married women. How many others were there? Were there others? How long had this been going on behind my oblivious back?
• That afternoon, when I was in my Business Economics class, Bethany stood anxiously at the door, signaling to me to come out. Saving me from making my excuses the professor gave us our assignment and dismissed the class.
• Immediately after the lecturer exited, Beth dashed through the door, grabbing my wrist. “Dani, you need to come quick!”
• “Wait!” My worried gaze clashed with hers as I zipped up my laptop bag. “What is it?”
• She gulped in a deep breath and exhaled long and hard. “Zack’s just been arrested.”