Finally.

Finally, there was something that could be done.

For the rest of the night, Andrea and I shared stories about our experience with David. Unsurprisingly, many things lined up. From the nonstop texts, to manipulation, to getting other people involved in order to target us. Except, her situation was so much more extreme than mine. She had actually dated him for a long time. Almost a year. Then, she dumped him.

"I didn't want to, you know. It was really hard. I cared a lot about him. But I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't deal with the paranoia. And as soon as I left him it faded away. As soon as I left him, I felt like I could breathe again. That was when I knew I could never go back," she had explained.

I told her everything that had happened with me. How he'd harassed me by using random guys on dating apps. How he lied to me about what had happened. And slowly but surely we crafted a plan together.

At the end of the night, she shared all of her screenshots, everything she owned with me so I could access them. And just as she had explained, it was bad. Whilst fighting with your partner is not a crime, stalking them following a breakup potentially was. And repeatedly harassing them.

Andrea had considered filing a restraining order, but had said it would have caused more harm than good at the time. She hadn't trusted him to abide by it and hadn't had the energy to deal with him pissed off. So, she had simply waited.

As I lied in bed that night, I considered everything that I had against David. I had screenshots. I had someone else who had gone through the same thing. But what did I want?

I wanted him to be held accountable, yes. Because it wasn't a mere disagreement. It wasn't like he and I just didn't get along. He'd made it difficult for me to exist in this school. He'd given out my personal information. He'd gone too far, following my every move and figuring out how he could make my life worse. And then, he had tried to screw with me by telling me Paul and Keaton were trying to get me expelled.

Why even lie about that, though? I guess to get the heat off of him. To get me off of his trail so he could keep getting away with being a jerk. What he was doing was not okay. 

Because he'd stalked his ex and had put me in danger. For all I knew, one of the people he'd shared my information with could have been dangerous. Could have used my information to track me down and hurt me because I was no longer responding on the dating apps. Maybe they still would come. Far too many people now knew where I lived. Maybe I needed to move. But what if that left Cassidy in danger? I didn't want to force Cassidy to move to...

As my thoughts spiraled, I felt the calming lull of sleep slowly pull me away.

________________________________________

Before I could do anything to get back at David, I needed to take care of a couple things.

First and foremost: finishing the rest of my midterms.

Thankfully, I just had two papers and one exam that wasn't supposed to be too hard. Cassidy also had a couple of exams that week. I spent the next day in the library studying with Cassidy. "Studying" with Cassidy wasn't always the most productive.

"So, Jen was like freaking out because she was worried that we wouldn't get back in time and Dane just kept laughing because he was drunk. I almost cried," Cassidy recounted as she scribbled notes onto a plain notebook in dark blue ink. Some math equation that I did not recognize. "Anyway, we made it back eventually. And Jen made it to her friend's birthday albeit a bit late. I feel bad about that."

"Why did you guys go all the way out? That seems so far," I commented, as I flipped through some flashcards for my one exam on ancient Roman history. It was supposed to be multiple choice, thankfully, and the professor was pretty nice with her exams. Usually, I would be fine as long as I read through the notes a few times.

"We wanted to go somewhere new. We've seen everything around here. We were going to go to Backroad but Jen said that she thinks it's creepy."

I had never been and could not vouch for it. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

"But yeah, it was bad. Between Dane throwing up and Jen getting lost it really was a night. Oh, look who it is!" Cassidy said, her voice peaking at the end.

I glanced up from my flashcards and immediately dipped my head back down, staring intently at the word in front of me. Aqueduct.

A tool used to convey water from one place to another in ancient Rome.

"Hey," Phoebe greeted, dropping her backpack at her feet and right next to Cassidy. I didn't look up at all as the two of them started chatting. She didn't seem to acknowledge me, either.

"Hi! What are you up to? I thought you finished all your exams," Cassidy said to Phoebe.

I saw her shake her head fervently in the corner of my vision. "Still have a few more! But they're easy. I think," she said sheepishly. I thought I caught her try to lock eyes with me. I buried my face further into my flashcards.

"Oh, well, if you wanna join me and Keira you can!" Cassidy offered and my face burned red.

Cassidy...no. Please no.

I was now realizing that I should have told her sooner what had happened. She'd texted me to ask but I had ignored her message. Not because I didn't want to tell her, just because I'd been busy with other things, such as creating a master plan with Andrea.

"Oh, uh, no, it's okay. I'm fine. I, I prefer studying alone," Phoebe countered. She grabbed her bag off the ground and swung it back onto her back. "I'm actually late for class."

"Oh, okay," Cassidy replied, her voice clearly strained. "Are you sure? We have an extra seat."

"Yup!" Phoebe said, and then hurried off before Cassidy could say anything else.

Cassidy stared across the table at me, her eyes slightly narrowed. She then sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Okay, what happened?"

I flipped to the next card in my deck. It was asking about a Roman mythological story that I definitely did not remember. I would need to memorize it before tomorrow.

Cassidy leaned forward, her arms pressed against the wooden table. "Keiraa," she said, drawing out my name.

"What?" I replied as innocently as I could.

"What happened between Phoebe and you. Did you talk to her?"

I was so tempted to lie. Because the truth was both embarassing and not something that I had a strong memory of.

"I tried to talk to her," I responded, voice low.

"And?"

"She shut the door in my face."

Cassidy frowned. She knew there was more to the story than I was letting on. "Why?"

I scribbled out the definition on the card I was looking down at. It had clearly been copied down wrong. Good thing I caught it in time. "I did something really stupid," I whispered. Nobody else was close enough to overhear, but I was paranoid. And I didn't really feel like advertising my misdeeds to random people on campus.

"Hmmm," Cassidy murmured as she worked on her own math problem. Then, she rested her head in her hands and stared at me intently, eyes wide and sparkling with curiosity.

"What?!" I let out shrilly. I scoffed. "Okay, fine. You want to know more."

"Obviously, I do." Cassidy reached across the table and grabbed my hand. She squeezed quickly, one pulse. "You can tell me what you did. I won't hate you."

I didn't think she would, but I wasn't sure I wanted my stupidity to be validated.

She was going to find out one way or another. Who's to say Phoebe wouldn't just tell her before I could? "Okay, fine. I went out to a party while I was upset and hooked up with someone else. And I think Phoebe thinks I led her on."

Cassidy's eyes widened into saucers. "Wow. Okay."

"What? You can't just stare at me like that and not say anything else."

"It's just that it doesn't seem like a 'you' thing to do," Cassidy commented. "Well, actually... you are kind of unpredictable sometimes."

"Thanks? I guess." I waited for her to say something else. Maybe offer some advice. Tell me how I could cure everything and fix my relationship with Phoebe. She usually had some idea, regardless of how effective it ended up being.

But now, she said nothing. She just went back to her work and scribbled out another equation, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

"What should I do?" I asked. I dropped the flashcard I was holding onto the 'complete' deck. I was just about done studying for the day.

Cassidy looked up at me again and gave a heavy shrug. "I'm going to be honest, dude, I have no idea."