Chapter 4

The next day, when the semester started, I was the last one to reach the dorm.

It was blazing hot, and I lugged my bags up the stairs myself since there was no elevator. By the time I got to the door, a thin film of sweat had soaked through my shirt, and the fabric clung to me, sticky and uncomfortable. I dropped my luggage inside and went straight to the bathroom to shower.

The moment I came out, I saw Althea helping herself to a jar of my face cream, smearing it on without a second thought.

Thinking of what she'd posted under Saul's feed the day before, I felt my temper flare all at once.

How could anyone be so shameless? Trashing me behind my back and still with the nerve to use my things?

"Althea, who said you could touch my stuff?" I stormed over and snatched the jar out of her hand. "You don't have your own face cream? You always have to use somebody else's."

"And weren't you the one who called me a sea of misery? Aren't you afraid using my things will make you miserable to death?"

She froze, hand suspended in midair, then rolled her eyes.

"Why are you being so stingy? Saul bought all this for you anyway. What's the harm in me using a little?"

Her voice climbed higher, and her expression grew more self-righteous by the second.

"And am I wrong? With that rotten temper of yours, Saul, a real rich kid, put up with you and dated you a whole year. You should be grateful! Spending someone else's money, using things someone else bought for you, and still throwing fits at people. Who do you think you are?"

"If I hadn't given him your number back then, you wouldn't even have landed a boyfriend that good! You never once thanked me, and now look at you, causing drama until you drove him off, and here you are yelling at me instead?"

"If you ask me, a woman should be more generous, less controlling. Suck up to me now and maybe I'll put in a word for him, get you two back together sooner. Because if the day comes when he really wants nothing to do with you, it'll be too late to regret it!"

I was livid. I never imagined that was how she saw things.

"Who said he bought this for me?"

She looked at me with contempt. "What else? This cream is five thousand dollars a jar. You think you could afford that?"

"You take me for an idiot, don't you? Buying you girls a few iced drinks now and then, playing the part, and you actually think I believed you were some rich man's daughter? A real heiress wouldn't come cram herself into a dump like this!"

Turns out there's a point past which anger just makes you want to laugh.

Who says a girl with money can't live in a dorm?

After I started college, my dad did buy me a place near campus. But our school is huge, I never learned to drive, and walking from off-campus to the lecture halls takes forever. On top of that, I'd never lived in a dorm before and wanted to try it out, so I skipped the apartment and crammed into this cramped four-person room.

Who knew my first time in a dorm would land me a roommate like this.

Listening to Althea's grand little speech, I found I didn't even want to argue back anymore.

What is there to explain to a pig?

Smirking, I dropped the jar of cream into the trash.

"Five-thousand-dollar cream, so what. Once something dirty has touched it, it's not clean anymore. No point keeping it."

"Some things, if I decide I don't want them, I just don't want them. Same goes for the cream. Same goes for men."

Althea's face flushed red. She jabbed a finger at me, her voice so shrill it made my ears ache. "Doreen, what's that supposed to mean! Who exactly are you insulting in your roundabout little way!"

"Whoever takes it personally is the one I'm insulting."

"You!" Althea choked. After a moment she spat out viciously,

"Hmph! Either way, Saul already dumped you. Without that rich boyfriend backing you up, let's see how long you can keep strutting around!"

I laughed, mocking. "Why is Saul always on your lips, day in and day out? You're more invested in him than I am, and I'm the ex. Are you thinking that now that I'm finally out of the way, you can move in on him?"

At that, Althea's face flushed crimson in an instant, her voice shrill enough to give me a headache.

"Doreen, you've got sex on the brain, so you think everyone else does too. Don't go assuming everyone spends all day orbiting some guy like you do. He and I are just friends. I just can't stand you playing the saint while acting the opposite. I feel sorry for Saul, that's all."

Just then my other two roommates came back in. Hearing that, they immediately stepped in. "Althea, ease off. If there's a problem, deal with the problem, don't attack the person."

"Right, how could you talk about Dorrie like that?"

Seeing that no one was taking her side, Althea's tears fell on cue. "Doreen started it, and you're all defending her. I knew it, you're all in this together, ganging up to freeze me out! You're teaming up to isolate me!"

With that she stormed off, slamming the door so hard the whole hall shook, and heads poked out of the neighboring rooms to gawk.

"You're still clinging to him, but Saul is nothing but a clown," I said to her retreating back, my meaning heavy. "We'll see who ends up regretting it."

Meanwhile, Roderick was sending me his chat logs with Saul every single day.

Saul kept calling the girl he thought he was chatting up "little sis" this, "little sis" that, until I nearly broke out in goosebumps from head to toe.

【Little sis, little sis, which college are you in?】

【What's your name, little sis?】

【I remember Doreen mentioning once that your surname's Harding, so I'll just call you Rory.】

【Saw your feed. That pink Lamborghini, was it your dad's reward for getting in? Gorgeous. Really suits you.】

【……】

Followed by a whole string of puking emojis Roderick had sent.

"What's the plan? If you're going to expose him, do it fast, I can't take it anymore. You have no idea, reading his disgusting lines every day, I can't even eat."

"Soon," I replied. "Play along with him a few more days. The night orientation training ends, go meet him in person."