Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
The campus cafeteria wasn’t as crowded as usual.
Augustine quickly spotted Amanda and David sitting in a corner and approached them briskly, but a single glance told her their mood was far from good.
David’s eyes were bloodshot, visibly shaken, as his head rested wearily on his arm atop the table, looking completely defeated.
“What happened, David?” Augustine asked the inevitable question.
“His girlfriend broke up with him right before the long weekend ended,” Amanda explained, sitting beside him and patting his back in consolation.
“I’m so sorry.” Augustine didn’t know how to comfort people in these situations; she felt clumsy and patted his arm as well.
“What are you doing?”
A voice behind her sent chills down her spine as Milán sat down with them without asking. Augustine noticed Milán’s look of distaste at the contact between her and David, yet she did not withdraw her hand.
“We are having a private conversation. Could we talk some other time?” Augustine responded, looking him straight in the eye.
Milán appeared thwarted, but he quickly masked it. “Of course, I shall leave... I see you’re very busy.”
Augustine watched him walk away with a growing sense of revulsion, but she shook off her thoughts and focused back on David—who hadn’t seemed to notice anything—still staring blankly into the distance.
“Well done,” Alderian praised her, his eyes fixed on Milán as he left the cafeteria.
David then told them what had happened: his girlfriend had been seeing someone else behind his back, and she blamed him for not staying at the university in the same city where she lived.
Thus, David was agonizing between the shock of the unexpected news and the poisonous guilt that he could have done something differently.
“Well, it always seemed to me you were more into her than she was into you,” Amanda said, trying to cheer him up. “You deserve to be with someone who truly values you, someone who sees what a great guy you are.”
David didn’t look up, and a heavy silence fell over the three of them.
“You know, David? I believe love doesn’t have only one way of existing,” Augustine said timidly.
“And an unfulfilled love is like a broken promise, like a letter that will never be opened. But I think if you ask someone who has loved if they would rather not have lived that experience to avoid the suffering, anyone who truly loved will cling to the memory, even if it’s the only thing they have left.
It’s still early, but the day will come when your heart is ready to love again.
.. because it’s a great feeling, isn’t it? ”
David sat up and stared at her. He managed a slight smile and said, “I would have been much better off with a girlfriend like you.”
“If you’re able to joke at a time like this, then you’re definitely going to be okay,” Augustine replied, smiling back.
Amanda looked uncomfortable, as if she had interrupted an intimate moment that didn’t belong to her.
* * *
The next day, Augustine’s phone was flooded with notifications.
At first, she assumed they were from her YouTube channel, but she had disabled those long ago; no, they were from her Instagram profile.
Someone had tagged her in a post on an anonymous “Campus Confessions” forum, and it seemed to have caused a massive stir, judging by the number of comments that had poured in overnight.
She opened the post and felt the blood drain from her face, sitting down, incredulous, as she reread the text.
At that moment, Alderian manifested beside her, visibly agitated. “What happened? I felt your distress from afar,” he asked in a raspy voice. He didn’t wait for an answer and leaned over her shoulder, and Augustine could hear him cursing under his breath as he read.
“Do you know Augustine from senior year Physics? She looks very innocent and pretty, but she’s just another bitch—an easy slut who sleeps with anyone who offers.
She even muscled into her supposed friend David’s relationship, and that’s why he ended his engagement.
If you have a boyfriend, better keep him far away from her. ”
Augustine was so pale that Alderian grew frightened. Just then, the phone rang; it was David. She was trembling, yet she answered the call.
“Augustine, don’t look at your phone,” was his immediate warning.
“I already have.”
The silence on the other end of the line was eloquent. “What do you want me to do, Augustine? Forgive me, I don’t understand how this happened.”
“It’s not your fault. Why are you asking for my forgiveness?” Augustine asked, shell-shocked, unable to stop the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I already commented on the post saying it’s not true and asked them to take it down,” David said.
“But you know how these things go—it’ll have its viral moment and then fade.
The problem is that someone put in the comments that you have a YouTube channel.
.. I only hope the harassment hasn’t reached there as well. ”
Augustine felt her heart stop. She quickly hung up and rushed to check her channel, and there they were: a handful of malicious comments calling her the most scathing names imaginable.
She had lost hundreds of followers in just a few hours.
Terror paralyzed her for a few seconds, knowing her life, her independence, and her future all depended on that channel and its credibility.
“Put the phone down,” Alderian implored.
Augustine looked at him with tearful eyes, and helpless, Alderian knelt before her in a gesture that uselessly tried to dry her tears.
“I have classes now. What am I going to do?” she sobbed. “Right now I just want to hide and have no one ever see me again.”
“Why should you hide? What have you done wrong?” Alderian responded, his voice edged with irritation.
“I just don’t understand. I don’t remember doing anything to anyone for them to do this to me. Who would be so interested in me to do something so horrible?”
An idea too terrible to be real paralyzed her, wondering if it could be Milán.
Augustine followed her usual routine and set off for the university.
When she reached campus, everything seemed normal at first, but things changed as soon as she entered the classroom: the uncomfortable silence and the subtle glances felt like needles on her skin.
She sat in the back row, far from David and Amanda.
She grabbed her phone and quickly typed, “It’s better if you stay away from me... I don’t want the rumors to affect you too,” and sent it to their group chat. David looked up as soon as he read the message, searching for her, and when their eyes met, she could see how deeply shaken he was.
“Are you feeling calmer?” Alderian asked once everyone had taken their seats.
Augustine shook her head slightly, looking on the verge of tears.
Alderian’s jaw was clenched when he spoke: “Stay in class and be calm. I’ll be back before you finish.”
She was startled to hear he was leaving her side, but she could ask no more.