PLAY THE PART | mileven

four

she thought gossip was only something that teenagers in high school thrived off of. that no one in college would even bat an eye at you for who you're dating or who you're seeing.

simply because the campus is enormous and everyone tried to survive through their classes and masses of exams. no one cares about someone else, so why would there be gossip?

oh, how wrong she thought.

obviously it wasn't even nearly as bad as it would've been back in high school but it still was too much gossip for her taste.

there were way too many people in her early morning classes that looked at her and whispered — they either thought that she doesn't notice them or they are shameless enough to do it right in front of her anyway.

she overheard people talking about how quickly she moved on right after kai. el hadn't even noticed that they were so aware of their relationship - perhaps people saw them meeting up after classes more than enough times over the semesters.

but it wasn't even only the obnoxious people in her classes that were whispering and talking but also the ones she recognized from kai's classes.

where was the sudden interest in her personal life coming from? she didn't even know these people and they didn't know her either. did they truly have nothing else to talk about?

her mind was already entangled in chaos and seeing people talk about something they shouldn't even meddle in made her want to disappear into thin air.

yesterday she saw kai for the first time in a long while and honestly, she could give herself an academy award for keeping it together like that.

she wanted to scream at him, slap him across the face, demand answers for the dozens of questions buzzing around in her mind.

she wanted to hurt him. god, she really did. she didn't care how sinister those thoughts seem to be - she just wanted to give him a taste of what he put her through.

that's why seeing the look on his face when he saw mike next to her was absolutely priceless.

she liked the angry expression written all over him or the act of trying like he could still put a claim on her. or wait! her favorite part was the way he helplessly looked at her to deny whatever mike was saying.

it fucked him up. it made him angry.

good, now he slowly knows what it feels like.

while she still felt conflicted over him — it's not really easy to forget three years that you spent with someone and pretend like seeing them doesn't faze you — there was no greater satisfaction to her than revenge.

sweet vengeance; or giving someone a taste of their own medicine, as people would say.

"eleanor jane!" max's familiar voice pulled her out of her thoughts and made her stop her tracks instantly. her shoulders tensed at the tone of her voice.

el was just about to leave the campus and dip for the rest of the day, there were still a couple classes to attend but her mind wasn't really cooperating with her. it's genuinely been a long, exhausting day.

"did i really have to hear through gossip coming from others that you're dating someone instead of hearing it from you?" the redhead finally caught up on her and stood in front of her with an offended expression. "i thought we're closer than that."

shit. yeah, she is definitely right. that was an extremely shitty move but it isn't like she tried to hide it from max — the truth is simply that she doesn't actually date him and was way more concerned about how to make it believable at the party.