What Happened After

Chapter 32.

Chapter 32.

          When I finally caught my bearings, I headed back to my dorm, wondering how I was going to explain this to Anna. She had been wanting me to get with Ruesso from the day she met him, and I knew she would be thrilled. I couldn’t think of a better way to bring it up, so when I opened the door to my room, I didn’t even check to make sure she was in there before blurting out, “He kissed me.”

          Luckily, or unluckily, she was there. Lying face-down on her bed, reading her art history text book and highlighting the important parts. When she heard the door open, she didn’t look up, but when her mind registered what I had said, her eyes shot to me. “Excuse me, who now?”

          “Ruesso. Kissed me.”

          She only stared at me, not saying anything, as if she didn’t believe me. Eventually, she threw her hands up in the air as if to say she had given up and flopped backwards onto her bed. “How come you get all the guys to fall in love with you? I don’t even have one.”

          “That is not the point, Anna! He kissed me and I cried!”

          “Did you cry in front of him?”

          “No, it was after he left the shop.”

          “Good. That may have sent a few mixed signals. Also, you should get a new job. A sandwich shop is not the most romantic setting, and you seem to get kissed there quite often.”

          I sighed, sitting on my own bed across from her. I pulled my knees up and hugged them to my chest, resting my chin over the tops of them.

          “Alright,” she started again. “Tell me what happened. From the beginning.”

          I told her everything—starting with me buying Ruesso the Girl Scout cookies and what he had said about me, followed by the kiss and what he told me about Kaleb shortly after. I ended with Ruesso leaving the shop while I cowered in the corner like a child. Anna stayed with me the whole time, interrupting me only once to state that she disagreed with Ruesso’s choice of cookie and that coconut flakes are an abomination, which she then apologized for doing and gestured for me to continue.

          “Holy shit, your boyfriend was cheating on you all this time? And Ruesso knew and he didn’t tell you?”

          “Technically, everybody knew, not just Ruesso, so we can’t really pin that on him. Plus we weren’t even friends in high school, so I’m not even sure I would have believed him had he told me then.”

          “Still though, that’s kind of a shitty move on both their parts.” Honestly, I had to agree. At least a little. “Wait a second.”

          “What?”

          “Do you think…and don’t freak out—but do you think it’s possible that Ruesso made that whole thing up so that you would get over Kaleb quickly and start to like him more?”

          I scoffed. “No, absolutely not. He wouldn’t do something like that, come on.”

          “I bet you said the same thing about Kaleb when he told you about it.” I couldn’t argue, so I didn’t say anything. “Look, just think about it. Kaleb isn’t here anymore to defend himself, so Ruesso can say whatever he wants about him. The only person you could ask for confirmation is Lauren, and she’s gone too. He knows you don’t talk to anyone from high school, and he knows that you wouldn’t reconnect with any of them just to ask if this is true. I’m not saying that he made it up, but I’m saying it’s a possibility.”