Chapter Five
Reese
Monday rolls around, and I’m a little nervous.
I haven’t seen Evan in person since our confrontation on Friday when all this began.
We did text over the weekend, and it wasn’t all bad.
We seem to have formed a very tentative truce.
We’re back on campus today, so we’ll see how we do face to face.
We agreed to have lunch together, which is why I am camped outside the student union waiting for him.
The way he holds his side as he walks tells me that he has been introduced to the real William Kensington.
I wait cautiously, not sure which version of Evan I’ll get today.
When he plops down on the seat opposite me at the picnic table and mumbles out a quiet “hey,” I rule out the hostile version of him.
I set the brown paper bag that Natalie and Sarah gave me this morning in front of him.
He looks at it and raises his eyebrows at me.
“The girls gave that to me this morning. They said they could tell something was wrong and that this would fix everything. You look like you could use a fix right now.” His small smile sets off the butterflies in my stomach.
As he pulls the items out of the bag, his eyes fill with moisture. “What’s wrong?” I ask
Swiping at his eyes, he shakes his head.
“Nothing’s wrong. This is just our special thing.
There was a time right before I turned eighteen, when the girls and I survived on peanut butter and jelly for a few weeks.
We were so sick of it by the time my birthday finally came around and I could apply for assistance.
This was actually around the time when we first met, at the scholarship ceremony.
When I got approved we went to the store, and I let the girls each pick out a single item that they wanted without any thought about price.
Natalie picked bread and butter pickles because green was her favorite color at the time.
Sarah picked out marshmallow fluff because she was obsessed with the phrase “it’s so fluffy” from that one movie with the yellow guys.
They made me pick out an item too. I went with the brand name frozen waffles.
I convinced the girls they tasted better, but really I just didn’t want to get anything too expensive.
We ended up going home and having marshmallow fluff, pickle sandwiches with waffle bread.
It was absolutely disgusting, but the girls were just happy to be eating something besides peanut butter and jelly.
It became our go to meal when one of us needed cheering up.
So I make sure to always keep the ingredients on hand, no matter how low on cash I am. They made this as an act of love.”
When he buries his face in his arms, I keep quiet, allowing him to process alone.
After he collects himself, he sits up and begins dividing the sandwich.
When he hands me half, I’m shocked. “They made it for you,” he says with a shrug.
I pull the offering to my side of the table and take a tentative bite.
He bursts into full body giggles when I gag.
“That is the worst thing I have ever tasted.” I say, reaching for my water bottle.
He nods, but still takes a massive bite. “It is,” he says around the food in his mouth, “but it means a lot to the girls. You get used to it after a while.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” I mutter as my mind reviews everything he’s just revealed about himself. His mention of the scholarship ceremony makes my stomach sink. “Can I ask you something?” He must hear the seriousness in my voice, because he puts down the abomination he’s pretending is food.
“Sure…” he says, cautiously.
“The scholarship. Is that the reason you hate me?”
His eyes slide to the right, and he begins to nibble on his bottom lip.
“Ah…” he begins before clearing his throat.
“You have to understand how much $5000 is to someone like me. My classes and books are covered, but I had been planning to use that money to cover our bills each semester. That would have allowed me to only need one job at most, meaning I’d have more time for the girls and school.
” Taking a deep breath, he meets my eyes.
The intensity there warns that his next words are probably going to hurt.
“I knew that losing was a possibility. I also knew how many of the applicants also needed that money. I wasn’t necessarily mad that I lost. I was absolutely livid because I lost to Reese Kensington, heir to Kensington Global, a multimillion dollar company.
You didn’t need that money, but you took it anyway. ”
This time, I’m the one that looks away, the shame from that day resurfacing.
My hands find their way into the silky strands I’ve already gotten used to playing with.
“You have to understand how much appearances mean to my father. I never even wanted to apply for that scholarship. Like you said, I didn’t need it, but Father insisted that winning a scholarship based on volunteerism and social impact would be good for my image.
I’m sure you’re now aware that what my father wants, he gets.