The campus golden boy started a vicious rumor about me. He claimed he saw me sneaking out of the men’s dormitory in the middle of the night, my dress wrinkled like a discarded tissue. I was furious enough to call the police on the spot, but suddenly, lines of glowing text floated across my vision. [Do not clarify! Whatever you do, do not explain yourself!] [If she defends herself, the male lead walks away spotless, and the female side character takes the fall and gets expelled!] I let out a cold laugh. Fine. They want to play games? The very next day, when the entire campus was buzzing with the rumor that I was sleeping with the Student Body President, I stood in front of a crowd and nodded. “Yes, I admit it.” “I am pregnant, and the baby might be his.” “Hello, 911? I suspect I was drugged, and I have about three hundred witnesses right here.” 1 I was cornered at the entrance of the dining hall, still holding the five dollar combo meal I had just fought tooth and nail for. General Tso’s chicken and roasted eggplant. There were only three pieces of chicken, but I was already incredibly satisfied. The cafeteria lady had been unusually generous today, scooping extra sauce onto my rice like she had just cured her arthritis. I was just about to find a quiet corner to devour my food. A plastic cup of boba tea slammed into the ground right next to my sneakers. The sticky brown liquid splattered all over the leg of my jeans. I looked up. The golden boy of the Finance Department, the Student Body President, the guy every girl on campus referred to as a god. Jace. He was standing right in front of me. A whole entourage trailed behind him. Guys and girls. The most conspicuous one was a girl wearing a pristine white dress, her eyes red and puffy, looking like the entire world had just bullied her. Her name was Lily. She was the undisputed sweetheart of our major. She was beautiful, had a sweet voice, came from money, and got straight As. If she tripped and fell, someone would probably write a poetic aesthetic post about her fragile vulnerability. Jace stared at me, his face completely frozen. “Riley, how much longer are you going to keep up this act?” I stared at him in confusion. I looked down at my chicken and rice. Then I looked at the sticky boba dripping down my jeans. “You better give me a very logical explanation.” “Otherwise, either you or this cup of boba is going straight through that wall today.” The crowd around us instantly fell dead silent. Jace furrowed his brows, his tone dropping to subzero. “You really do not know what you did?” A girl with a sharp bob haircut standing next to him immediately chimed in. “Riley, you are such a good actor! The whole school knows! You were caught sneaking out of the men’s dorm building last night looking completely disheveled, and the dorm supervisor caught you red handed!” Another guy sneered. “Word is she came straight out of Jace’s room.” “Tsk. She always acts so high and mighty, but behind closed doors, she is wild.” My brain buzzed with static. Disheveled? The men’s dorm? Jace’s room? I was at the library last night rushing a group project until one in the morning. When I finally dragged myself back to my room, I even sent a voice memo to my dorm group chat. “If anyone ever tells me college is easy again, I am going to staple this syllabus to their forehead.” My three roommates had all replied with a synchronized wall of laughing emojis. A laugh bubbled up in my throat out of pure anger. “Who said that?” The girl with the bob rolled her eyes. “Are you trying to pick a fight? Everyone saw it!” I locked eyes with Jace. “Did you see it too?” Jace’s eyes flickered away. He stayed silent. Lily gently tugged at his sleeve, her voice soft and trembling. “Let it go, Jace. Please do not make a scene. Riley probably… she probably has her own difficulties.” I shifted my gaze to her. “What did you just call me?” Lily shrank back under my stare, her eyes growing even redder. “Riley, I just wanted to help you.” “Please do not look at me like that. You are scaring me.” The people around her immediately rushed to her defense. “Do not be scared, Lily. She is just guilty.” “Exactly. She did the crime but cannot face the time.” “She is always like this. Thinks she can just hook up with whoever she wants just because she has a pretty face.” I gripped my plastic food container tightly. Great. My food could get cold. But I was not going to cool down. I was just about to open my mouth when a line of glowing golden text drifted across my line of sight. [Here it comes! The iconic scene! The vicious side character gets publicly judged by the whole school!] I froze. A split second later, the floating text flooded my vision like a broken dam. [Run, Riley! Explaining won’t do anything!] [Do not clarify! Whatever you do, do not explain yourself!] [If she defends herself, Lily is going to cry, Jace is going to protect her, and then everyone will just think Riley is making excuses!] [In the original plot, this is exactly when she breaks down and curses at Lily. Someone records it, edits the video, and after three days of cyberbullying, she jumps off a building!] I was speechless. I looked down at my combo meal. Then I looked at Jace. And finally at Lily. Jump off a building? Who? Me? My name is Riley. I am eighteen years old, a freshman pre law student, and my ultimate goal in life is to land a secure state job and collect a fat pension until I am a hundred years old. And I am supposed to jump off a building for these absolute lunatics? Do they think they are worth it? Seeing my silence, Jace assumed I was feeling guilty. His tone softened just a fraction. “Riley, as long as you apologize to Lily right here in front of everyone, I can make this whole thing go away.” I was even more baffled now. “Why on earth would I apologize to her?” The girl with the bob flared up. “Stop playing dumb! You know Lily likes Jace, and you still went to his room in the middle of the night!” I looked straight at Jace. “Do you like her?” The tips of Jace’s ears turned slightly red, and he subconsciously glanced at Lily. Lily lowered her head, her long eyelashes fluttering delicately. The floating text went wild. [Ahhhh! The main couple is so sweet!] [The way Jace looks at Lily is everything!] [Get Riley out of here! Stop blocking the romance!] [Stop hating on her! Riley is actually innocent, she never even went to the dorms.] My eyes turned to ice. “So, no one actually has any proof, right?” The crowd choked on their words. Jace frowned. “The dorm supervisor saw you.” “Which dorm supervisor?” “Mrs. Higgins from Alpha Hall.” “What time?” “Half past midnight.” “And exactly how disheveled was I?” “Riley!” Jace’s voice dropped into a warning growl. “Do you really have to make this sound so vulgar?” I smiled. “You guys had no problem being vulgar when you were spreading rumors about my sex life.” Lily spoke up, her voice dripping with gentle concern. “Riley, everyone is just worried you are going down the wrong path. As a girl, you really need to have some self respect.” I almost crushed my plastic food container. Self respect? To save money, I only ever ordered the cheapest dollar drinks from the campus café. My daily routine was a strict triangle between the library, the dining hall, and my dorm. My reputation was cleaner than a freshly wiped whiteboard. And she was telling me to have self respect? The text floated by again. [Do not act reckless! Do not yell at her! Lily has the protagonist halo. If you insult her once, the whole school will hate you for a decade!] [Hold it in! Please do not clarify!] [Listen to the chat, girl, I am begging you!] I took a deep, steadying breath. Fine. I won’t clarify. I shoved my combo meal into the hands of a random student standing next to me. “Hold this for a second. Do not eat it. I counted. There are exactly three pieces of chicken.” The student took it, looking completely bewildered. I pulled out my phone, opened the camera, and pointed it right at Jace. “Alright, let us get this on the record.” “You are saying I came out of your room last night?” Jace’s face darkened. “I did not say that. That is what everyone is saying.” “Who is everyone?” Nobody made a sound. I nodded slowly. “Let me rephrase the question then.” “If I truly walked out of your room at half past midnight looking completely disheveled, what exactly is our relationship?” The entire crowd inhaled sharply. Jace snapped. “Riley!” I stared him down, enunciating every single word. “Answer the question.” “Did I climb into your bed willingly, or did you force me?” 2 The entrance to the dining hall exploded into chaos. “Oh my god!” “Can she even say that out loud?” “She has completely lost her mind!” Lily’s face drained of color. She frantically tugged on Jace’s arm. “Jace, explain it to them!” Jace’s face was livid. “Riley, stop twisting the narrative.” I smiled. “How am I twisting anything?” “Didn’t all of you just accuse me of walking out of his room looking disheveled?” “A female student leaving a male dormitory in the middle of the night with messed up clothes. There has to be a legal definition for that, right?” I held my phone higher, projecting my voice so the back row could hear. “If I was willing, you call me a slut with no self respect.” “If I was not willing, it is a felony.” “Mr. President, pick a lane.” The veins on Jace’s forehead were practically throbbing. Lily’s eyes filled with pristine tears. “Riley, how could you do this? Jace is a victim here too. You are just dragging him down with you.” I turned my lens to her. “Then who is not a victim here?” “Me?” Daniela, the girl with the bob, lunged forward trying to snatch my phone. “Stop recording! You are violating our privacy!” I dodged backward smoothly. “We are in a public space. When you were crowding around me spreading rumors about my body, you didn’t care much about privacy.” “Now you want to give me a lecture on civil rights?” The floating text cheered. [Hahahaha she is so bold!] [Oh no, the plot is broken. The original text said she was supposed to cry and beg here.] [Do not explain, just keep going feral! Entering her villain era! We love to see it!] I scoffed internally. Going feral? This is just the warmup for a defamation lawsuit. Before long, an academic advisor was called to the scene. Our advisor’s name was Liam Sinclair. He was twenty seven, finishing his PhD, and possessed the exact aesthetic of a morally gray villain in a dark academia novel. He wore silver rimmed glasses, and his dress shirts were always buttoned rigidly to the very top. On the first day of orientation, he had told our class: “If you have a problem, come find me. If you do not have a problem, pretend I do not exist. I am very busy.” The entire class had been stunned into silence. But he was incredibly efficient. Scholarships, financial aid, excused absences. He processed them instantly, without ever making us jump through hoops. I actually had a pretty decent impression of him. At the very least, he was miles better than the circus currently standing in front of me. By the time Professor Sinclair arrived, the kind student holding my food was starting to look like his arms were falling asleep. Sinclair scanned the crowd, his sharp gaze landing directly on the brown stain on my jeans. “Who did that?” The crowd went dead silent. I pointed directly at Daniela. “She did.” Daniela panicked. “It was an accident!” Sinclair’s voice was flat. “Apologize and pay for the dry cleaning.” Daniela’s face flushed bright red. “Why should I? We are talking about Riley sneaking into the men’s dorm!” Sinclair looked at her coldly. “Are those two things mutually exclusive?” “You ruined her property, so you apologize and pay up.” “As for whether she went into the dorm, I will check the security footage.” I practically wanted to give him a standing ovation. Even the floating text seemed stunned. [What is up with this advisor? In the original plot, didn’t he just sweep this under the rug?] [Must be the butterfly effect.] [Professor Sinclair is so handsome! Finally, a teacher with actual common sense!] Feeling suffocated, Daniela turned to me. “Sorry.” I did not blink. “Cannot hear you.” She gritted her teeth. “I am sorry!” “Pay up.” “How much?” I glanced down at my leg. “The jeans were forty five dollars. If the stain does not come out, you are buying me a new pair. The boba was five dollars, and based on the splatter, it looks like a half sugar, light ice pearl milk tea. I will calculate the emotional damage later.” Daniela looked like she was about to burst into tears from pure anger. “You are robbing me!” My face was stone. “Did you offer a discount when you were robbing me of my reputation?” Sinclair let out a faint, quickly suppressed cough. Then he turned his attention to Jace. “You are claiming Riley left your room last night?” Jace stayed quiet for a few agonizing seconds. “I didn’t see it with my own eyes.” Sinclair pressed on. “Who did?” The group exchanged nervous glances. Finally, a guy in the back raised his hand hesitantly. “I heard it from Carter.” Carter immediately waved his hands defensively. “I just heard it from the guys in Alpha Hall.” Someone from the Alpha Hall group chimed in. “It was the dorm supervisor. She is the one who said it.” Sinclair pulled out his phone and made a call right there on speaker. “Mrs. Higgins, last night at half past midnight, did you catch a female student leaving Alpha Hall?” Everyone held their breath. Mrs. Higgins’ booming voice echoed through the speaker. “Absolutely not! The power grid tripped at exactly half past midnight. I was stuck in the utility room with the electrician trying to fix the breaker. When would I have time to go hunting for girls?” “Who is spreading this garbage? Sounds like a nasty rumor to me!” The air died for three solid seconds. I heard the floating text screaming. [Ahhhhh they found out!] [Do not celebrate yet! The original plot has a scapegoat!] [Lily is starting to panic!] I looked at Lily. Her face was indeed terrifyingly pale. Jace looked completely shell shocked. Sinclair hung up the phone, his tone returning to an icy calm. “I will be pulling the security footage myself.” “Every single person who participated in spreading this rumor will report to the department conference room at 2:00 PM today to provide a full statement.” “Whoever started this will be held responsible.” Jace instinctively stepped forward. “Professor Sinclair, this whole thing might just be a massive misunderstanding. There is no need to escalate it.” I laughed out loud. “Didn’t the President just demand I apologize to Lily?” “How come the second you realize the rumor is fake, it magically becomes a misunderstanding?” “You had no problem dumping this misunderstanding on my head. Why not dump it on hers?” Lily bit her lip, looking devastatingly fragile. “Riley, I truly did not mean any harm…” I cut her off sharply. “Do not call me by my first name like we are friends.” “We are not close.” Tears immediately spilled down her cheeks. “I was just worried about you.” I nodded. “Thank you. I am worried about you too.” I turned my attention back to Sinclair. “Professor, Lily just told me that girls need to have self respect.” “I highly suspect she has inside knowledge regarding this incident. I recommend she be included in the formal investigation.” Lily gasped. The floating text was laughing hysterically. [Hahahaha the counter kill!] [The white lotus act is not working anymore!] [Riley knows exactly how to drag people down with her!] Sinclair actually nodded. “Agreed.” Lily’s tears flowed even faster now. “Professor Sinclair, I swear I do not know anything. I only heard about it from someone else…” “From who?” “I…” She subconsciously looked toward Jace. Jace immediately stepped in front of her like a shield. “I told her.” I raised an eyebrow. Jace gritted his teeth. “But I heard it from someone else too.” Sinclair’s expression was unreadable. “Perfect.” “Both of you, 2:00 PM.” He finished his sentence and looked at me. “You too.” I pointed at my container. “Can I eat my lunch first?” Sinclair stared at me in silence. He glanced over at the student who was still holding my food. The student immediately offered it back to me, looking as solemn as if he were handing over the crown jewels. “Here you go. Did not touch a single bite. All three pieces of chicken are safe.” I was so moved I almost shed a tear. “You are a good person. Thank you.” 3 At 2:00 PM sharp, the department conference room was packed. I took a seat on the far left. Jace, Lily, Daniela, Carter, and the rest of the peanut gallery who had been cheering them on were clustered on the right. Professor Sinclair sat at the head of the table. Next to him was Dean Harris, looking like a thundercloud. Everyone in the department knew Dean Harris loved to sweep scandals under the rug. True to form, his opening sentence was entirely predictable. “Now, students, this whole ordeal looks very bad for our program.” “Especially you, Riley. You need to be mindful of how you handle yourself. Shouting about felonies in the middle of a crowded dining hall. Do you know how bad that sounds to outsiders?” I stared right back. “Oh, so spreading rumors about my sex life sounds good to outsiders?” Dean Harris choked on his next word. Sinclair placed a stack of printed documents onto the polished wood table. “I reviewed the footage.” “From 11:40 PM to 1:00 AM last night, Riley was seated in the study lounge on the fourth floor of the library.” “At 1:08 AM, she swiped her ID card to enter the women’s dormitory.” “At no point did she go near the men’s dorm.” “Jace was inside Alpha Hall from 10:30 PM onward and did not leave the building.” When he finished speaking, the room plunged into absolute silence. I rested my chin on my hand. “So, who is patient zero for this rumor?” Carter’s face went sheet white. Sinclair called him out. “Carter.” “This morning, you claimed you heard it from guys in Alpha Hall.” “The residents of Alpha Hall stated that the first message came directly from you.” Carter panicked immediately. “I did not make it up! I was just joking around in the group chat!” He fumbled for his phone. “Someone posted a picture of a girl from the back last night. They said it looked like Riley, so I just casually commented—” Sinclair cut in. “Show me the photo.” Carter hesitated. Dean Harris lost his patience. “Show it to us!” Carter opened the group chat. The photo did show a girl from behind. She was wearing a short white jacket and a black skirt, with her hair down. She was walking past the entrance of Alpha Hall. The picture was so blurry it looked like it was taken with a toaster. I stared at it for exactly two seconds. “That is not me.” Daniela muttered under her breath. “The back looks exactly like you.” I looked at her dead on. “You think everyone looks like you when you look in the mirror.” She slammed her hand on the table. “Riley!” I slammed my hand down too. “I am defending myself. I do not need your permission!” The chat stream went wild. [Slay!] [She is speaking straight facts!] [Daniela is Lily’s best friend. In the original plot, she is the one who edits the video that gets Riley cancelled!] My eyes darkened. Daniela. Noted. Sinclair zoomed in on the photo on the screen. “Who originally posted this picture?” Carter stammered. “Xavier.” Xavier was Jace’s roommate. He was also the Vice President of Communications for the Student Body. He was not in the room. Sinclair immediately picked up his phone and summoned him. Ten minutes later, Xavier pushed open the door, looking incredibly annoyed. “Professor, I have another meeting to get to.” Sinclair slid the printed photo across the table. “Did you take this?” Xavier glanced at it. “Yeah.” “Why did you tell people it was Riley?” Xavier shrugged carelessly. “It looked like her.” A cold laugh escaped my lips. “By that logic, if someone looks like a trash can, should we start throwing garbage at them?” Xavier’s face hardened. “Riley, watch your mouth. There is no need to be nasty.” I stood up. “You creep shot a girl from behind, posted it in a group chat, and guided everyone to believe it was me.” “People started telling the whole school I was sneaking out of the men’s dorm at midnight.” “And now you are telling me I am being nasty?” “The fact that I have not shoved that phone down your throat means my parents raised me well.” Xavier scoffed. “I never said your clothes were messy, and I never said you came out of Jace’s room.” “People drew their own conclusions. How is that my fault?” Dean Harris practically lunged at the opportunity to de-escalate. “Right, exactly. This whole thing just got blown out of proportion through the grapevine.” “Xavier was definitely careless, but it does not seem like there was any malicious intent.” The floating text began flashing bright red warnings. [Here it comes! The cover up!] [Do not let him get away with it! Xavier is Lily’s biggest simp! He took that photo on purpose!] [In the original story, he dumps all the blame on the dorm supervisor and walks away scot-free!] I stared at Xavier, and a slow smile spread across my face. “Alright then.” “Since everyone loves looking at photos and making up stories.” I pulled out my phone, opened a picture, and cast it directly onto the conference room’s main projector screen. In the photo, Xavier and Lily were standing behind the academic building. Xavier was leaning his head down, and Lily was tilting her face up toward him. The angle was perfectly deceptive. It looked exactly like they were kissing. Lily’s face instantly drained of all color. Xavier violently pushed his chair back and stood up. “Where the hell did you get that picture?” I shrugged. “Just took it casually.” “It looked like a kiss.” “But I never explicitly said you were kissing.” “People can draw their own conclusions. How is that my fault?” The conference room was dead silent. Jace stared at the projector, his expression freezing over. “Lily?” Lily was in a full panic. “Jace, it is not what it looks like! I got some dirt in my eye that day, and Xavier was just helping me look for it.” I nodded approvingly. “Oh, getting dirt in your eye requires mouth-to-mouth inspection? Good to know.” Tears began to spill rapidly down Lily’s cheeks. “Riley, why are you trying to ruin me?” I fired right back. “Why were you trying to ruin me?” Xavier lunged across the table, trying to grab my phone. Sinclair shot his hand out and locked his grip around Xavier’s wrist like a vice. “Sit back down.” Xavier’s face was flushed with fury. “Professor Sinclair! She took pictures of me without my consent! She is invading my privacy!” I laughed coldly. “When you secretly photograph a girl from behind and post it to a group chat, it is just being ‘careless.’” “But when I take a picture of you in a public courtyard, it is an invasion of privacy.” “Xavier, is your double standard genetic, or did you buy it on sale?” Someone in the back of the conference room could not hold back a snort of laughter. Dean Harris’s face turned an even uglier shade of purple. “Riley, you need to stop attacking your fellow students.” I turned my focus entirely to him. “Dean Harris. When my reputation was being dragged through the mud, you told me to watch my tone and worry about optics.” “When Xavier admitted to taking the photo, you said he had no malicious intent.” “Now that I am giving him a taste of his own medicine, you are accusing me of attacking him.” I picked up the sleek digital voice recorder resting on the table. “From the moment I walked into this room, everything has been recorded.” “I am giving you two options.” “One: The university launches a formal investigation, issues a public clarification, and strictly disciplines the source of the rumor and the primary spreaders.” “Two: I walk out of here, call the police, and upload the audio, the photos, and the chat logs to the internet.” Dean Harris’s expression twisted in horror. “Riley, are you threatening this institution?” I looked him dead in the eye, spacing out my words. “Dean Harris, this is not a threat.” “It is a notification.” “Whoever tries to bury this today is getting buried with it.”
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