Free Web NovelChapter 37: Hatred
Sean almost laughed out loud in the hallway. A girl walking past glanced at him curiously.
Tell him I’ll meet him, Sean typed. I said that yesterday too.
I told him that. He said "good, tell him this weekend." Is that too soon?
Works for me.
Okay wow. He’s going to lose his mind. In a good way I think. Or a bad way. Hard to say with him.
Sean smiled slightly and started typing again. I missed seeing you in class this morning. Thought you might have had a section together with me.
A pause longer than usual. Then: Wait, you looked for me?
Yeah.
Another pause. That’s kind of sweet for a guy who told me yesterday he wasn’t ready to commit to anything.
Sean considered how to respond to that. I can look for someone without committing to anything, he typed back.
Sure you can, Olivia replied, and he could practically hear the teasing tone in the text even without seeing her face. I have to go, Kwon is staring at me. Talk later?
Talk later.
He put his phone away and kept walking toward his next building, the small warmth from the exchange sitting somewhere underneath everything else weighing on his mind today.
He cut across the quad between classes and nearly walked straight into Anthony and Rebecca, who were waiting near the fountain in a spot that was just slightly too convenient to be coincidence.
"Sean," said Anthony. His voice had a forced casualness to it that didn’t sit right on him. "Hey, man. Got a second?"
Sean stopped. "What."
"The bet," said Anthony. He glanced around to make sure nobody was listening too closely, though several students nearby were absolutely listening, slowing their pace, pretending to check their phones. "From the party. The ten thousand. I just need a little more time. Things have been tight, you know how it is. I’ll have it for you by next week, I promise." ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
Sean looked at him for a long moment. "The deadline was last week."
"I know, I know, but—"
"You agreed to the terms," said Sean. "Publicly. In front of half the freshman class."
Anthony’s jaw tightened. "Sean, come on. We’ve known each other since—" He stopped himself mid-sentence, caught the slip before it finished. He’d been about to say something about high school, but in this timeline, in this version of events, they’d only known each other since the start of college. Anthony covered it quickly, smoothing it over. "Since the start of the semester. Can’t you just let this one go?"
"No," said Sean simply.
"It’s ten thousand dollars," said Anthony, his voice tightening further. "You drive a Rolls Royce. You bought half of Élite Fashion’s inventory. Ten thousand dollars is nothing to you."
"It’s not about the money," said Sean. "It’s about you keeping your word. You made a bet, you lost, and now you’re trying to wiggle out of the consequences. That tells me everything I need to know about you."
Rebecca had moved closer during this exchange, standing slightly behind Anthony, watching Sean with an expression that was hard to read. Something between fascination and unease.
"Sean," she said quietly. "Can we just... can we talk? Properly. Not like this. Just you and me."
"No," said Sean. He didn’t even look at her directly.
"You don’t even want to hear what I have to say?" Rebecca’s voice had an edge of desperation creeping into it now.
"I’ve heard everything you have to say," said Sean. "Three times. At the party. The answer hasn’t changed."
"That’s not fair," said Rebecca.
"You keep using that word," said Sean. "Fair. Like life owes you something. It doesn’t." He looked back at Anthony. "You have until Friday. After that, I start telling people what kind of friend you actually are. Not the bet. The other things."
Anthony’s face went slightly pale. "What other things?"
"You’ll find out if Friday comes and goes," said Sean.
He stepped past both of them and kept walking. Behind him he heard Rebecca’s voice, low and urgent, talking to Anthony. He didn’t catch the exact words, but the tone was unmistakable. Something between panic and frustration, the sound of two people who’d built a relationship on someone else’s misery and were starting to realize that the person they’d wronged wasn’t going to keep playing the role they’d written for him.
Sean didn’t look back.
—----------------
His second class was a general elective. Less interesting, easier to drift through. He found a seat near the middle and pulled out his phone one more time before the professor arrived.
A text from Vanessa Chen, of all people.
Saw a photo of you on campus circulating online. The suit looked good. Let me know when you want to come in for a fitting on the rest of the pieces we discussed.
Sean looked at the message for a moment. Vanessa had a way of being present without being intrusive, professional warmth that never quite crossed into anything else, though he suspected that line was deliberately drawn rather than naturally occurring. freēwēbnovel.com
I’ll come by this week, he typed back.
I’ll have everything pulled and ready, she replied almost immediately, like she’d been holding her phone waiting.
He put it away as the professor started the lecture. His mind wandered through the morning’s events. Derek Pierce’s quiet challenge. Anthony’s failed negotiation. Rebecca’s increasingly visible desperation. Olivia’s absence and the small relief of finally hearing from her.
And underneath all of it, Richards. Foster. The voice on the phone that hadn’t happened yet but that some part of him already sensed was coming.
—-------
Lunch
By lunchtime the campus had fully absorbed the news of his return. He walked into the student dining hall and felt the same shift he’d felt that morning. Heads turning. A ripple of attention following him across the room like a current.
He found an empty table near the windows and sat down with a tray. He’d barely gotten his fork into his food when three people approached, almost simultaneously, like they’d been circling and waiting for an opening.
