It only takes 6 days to see Dahlia again, I think that the world must hate me. After nearly four years of never meeting, I've now seen her twice in the span of a week. She catches me in the best of all of the Princeton dining halls, and takes it upon herself to invite herself to join me as soon as she sees me sit down to start eating lunch. She moves her plate from the circular table she had been at in the far right corner, and moves to mine in front of the window that provides a perfect view of the fall-themed campus.

She's opted for a salad while I'm eating a dish of tikka masala and plain rice. The dining staff are always trying to incorporate cultural foods and I admire their efforts even though most of the time, it's all just bland imitations of the real thing. 

"I could never eat that," Dahlia says as soon she sits down. "You can tell white people made it, it's an insult, it's literally so easy to make."

"Really?" I genuinely don't care, but I'm not sure how else to respond to that. I never welcomed her to intrude on my alone time, although honestly, it's always alone time for me. 

"Of course, and I would know. I'm half Indian. You should try the real thing, it would blow your mind."

"Yeah, for sure." I say, letting my lack of interest seep into my tone. I don't think I want anything to do with someone that's associated with Cora. No matter how attractive the person may be.

She notices, and sighs loudly before saying, "look, I just wanted to tell you that I convinced Cora to not report you. I think she'll stay away from you. At least for now."

That's surprising. 

"Am I supposed to thank you?" It's a genuine question, will she take it back if I don't show enough gratitude?

"No, of course not. I just wanted you to know." She seems sincere, and it honestly annoys me. She doesn't seem like the type to hang out with people like Cora, I'm somehow sure of that even though we've barely exchanged any words with each other. It's my intuition, and most of the time, it's right. 

"Why did you convince her? Shouldn't you hate me too?" I can tell these questions make her uncomfortable, she starts looking down at her lap as if she wishes she could disappear.

 "I did hate you," she starts off, a bright hint as to what's coming next. "I thought you must have been an awful person for Cora to hate you so much. When she ended your relationship with Felicity after what she did, I realized that she's been wrong this entire time. You didn't do anything other than exist."

"So, you only stopped hating me two weeks ago? Took you over three years to see that I'm not a monster?" I decide to let the second question sit with her before adding another, "Do you know if Cora or Felicity initiated it?"

I'm not sure if I should even know the answer to the third question, but I am curious. She carefully answers, "Yes, it took me over three years, I'm not going to lie about that. I'm not sure, to be honest, Cora never told me how it went down. I didn't find out what was going on until after."

"Your best friend didn't tell you about her plans to destroy a relationship?" I ask, skeptical of course. I tell Yuna and Imani almost everything, I can't imagine calling someone my best friend and leaving them in of the dark about such a huge scheme.

"No. I'm against that stuff. My ex-boyfriend cheated on me last year, it ruined me for a while. What Cora did to you is awful."

It's not a response I expected, and the honesty is refreshing. It seems like getting cheated on is more common than I once thought, not contained in dramatic soap operas and Taylor Swift songs. I always underestimated how commonly it occurs since it had never once happened to me. I thought I was special. Having the confidence of a straight white cis man in that area kept me blind, not allowing me to fully witness the signs of Felicity's future infidelity. 

"You didn't have to tell me that." I tell her, knowing that it's something I would never share to a person I've met in only one short encounter before. 

"I know, but I want you to believe me when I say that I'm not on Cora's side right now." 

She wants to be redeemed, and I realize that I know exactly what kind of person she is. 

She's always just been a follower, she lets everyone else call the shots. What she's doing right now is stepping out of line and I'm sure she loves the thrill of it. She wants to break free from the position she was forced into when she first met Cora, and she needs someone to recognize the courage it took to do so. She's the stereotypical straight sidekick waiting to make things right. 

She does want some gratitude. 

So, I give it to her. "Thank you, Dahlia. I believe you."

For the first time in this short conversation, the nervous smile that appears on her honestly pretty face is real. She's comfortable now, I know that she wasn't expecting the conversation to go as well as it is right now. 

I hate to have her shatter the bubble we're in, but I decide it's for the best. "You're still Cora's best friend though, so I think we should stop talking now. She'll get mad if she sees you with me."

"She's going through some stuff right now." She says seriously as if I'll care enough to ask what it is that's going on. 

Cora means nothing to me. The moment she tried to get me expelled, the first time, in our American politics class, any positive views I held about her were flushed away. It took me weeks after the event to understand that I hadn't done anything wrong, I was simply smarter than her. Initial class rankings had come out, and she had decided to try to push me down.

I was lucky that no one ever believed her because if I hadn't managed to build such a stellar academic reputation for myself from day one, I wouldn't even be here right now. I would probably be like Gael, wasting my life away at some house that's too large for us to even take advantage of. 

"And?"

"Ok, I get it. Sorry. Forget I even mentioned that, I know she's been awful to most people. I'll leave you alone now."

She trips when she gets out of the chair, and I resist the urge to laugh in fear of looking like an immature school bully. She laughs at herself though, letting me know that it's alright as she glances at me. I let my true emotions shine for a second before I put them back in a box, locked up before it can go too far. She quickly adds a quiet "bye," before grabbing her bag and walking away. 

I wonder if anyone witnessed our encounter. I doubt that anyone noticed though, everyone is off in their own world. And even if they did, who would care?