Bow Down To Your King

Chapter 39

JULIA POV

Point Total: 11,025

I stared at the picture of me kissing Claire outside our dorms while I waited for class to begin.

My classmates trickled in, taking their seats as the professor fought a losing battle with a projector straight out of the nineties.

I swiped away the photo before anyone behind me could see what had my attention, and flipped through my notes from the week before.

"Did you hear," a girl said behind me; what was her name again? "Zeke fucked Amelia."

Another girl gasped, "No way."

"Yes, way."

"How do you know?"

"Derrick told me."

"Oh my god."

"That poor girl."

"Amelia?"

"No, the other girl. The one he was dating."

"They were never actually dating."

"I heard that they were."

"Maybe she wanted to be."

"Could you imagine losing Zeke?"

I tried to ignore them, I really did, but after a restless night, I didn't have the energy to quell my curiosity.

I turned, facing them and their gossip head-on. "When?" I asked.

The first girl paused as she realized I was the pathetic girl he tossed aside, "Sorry."

I shook my head, "When did he fuck her?"

I didn't need her apology, I needed more information.

She shrugged, "Yesterday, I think. My friend works at the Froyo place and he said that he saw them going at it in the garden. He's pretty reliable too, I mean, one time, my ex-boyfriend was cheating on me and they were best friends but he totally told me anyway."

"We love Derrick," her friend said, flipping her brassy blonde hair over her shoulder.

Right.

"So he's competing?" I asked.

"Derrick?"

I frowned. "No, Zeke."

She shrugged, "I mean, sorry, I know you liked him but I guess that other girl-"

"Mask girl," her friend interjected.

"Mask girl scared him out of retirement."

I narrowed my eyes, "People were saying that he retired?"

The second girl piped up, "He did. He announced it on the game page like two days ago."

"Yeah, we totally thought he meant it," First girl added.

The second girl nodded, "Yeah, he was like, super serious."

"Guess not that serious," I said, turning away, nauseated and wishing that I hadn't asked for more details in the first place.

Class dragged on after my reality check, and reminded me of all the reasons that I had skipped my two morning courses.

But, unfortunately, I was out of unexcused absences for World Politics and the last thing I needed was for my dad to come sniffing around.

So I suffered for an hour, thinking of nothing but my failed almost relationship and all the ways that our doom could have been avoided.

There was no clear solution, and that pissed me off more than thinking about Zeke, fucking another girl in the garden.