Taking a look around, I make sure no one can hear me before I continue. “It’s like…” I pause, searching for the right words. “When people find out I’m with Zach, something shifts. Their tone, their body language, hell, even the way they look at me. Girls who used to smile in passing suddenly pretend I don’t exist.”
“Seriously?”
“Strangers are the worst.” I let out a bitter laugh. “They either hate me or want something from me. There’s no middle groundanymore. I stopped being a person and became a… name in someone else’s story.”
Jenni frowns. “That’s insane.”
To emphasize the point, I pull out my phone, swipe to my messages, and slide it across the table.
“Here. This is what I mean.”
Jenni scrolls through the random numbers who have texted me over the last year. I’ve changed my number five times since I started here, but it’s all the same.
“This is…” She pauses on one and reads it. “Hope you’re enjoying your spot as placeholder?” She looks up. “That’s messed up.”
“That’s one of the nicer ones.”
I take the phone back before she sees anything worse.
“I deleted my social media back in high school after my ex-boyfriend, Jamie, cheated on me.”
“Girl, same. I haven’t been on social media since I found the DMs my high school boyfriend was sending other girls. After that, he tried to gaslight me through Instagram stories, so I deleted him and the app. I hate the asshole, but it doesn’t make it easier to see him online, flaunting his new relationship. It feels like he’s mocking me, you know?”
I find myself nodding, maybe a little too quickly. Her words ease a part of me I didn’t realize still felt so raw. She actually gets it. The cheating, the lying, the way it makes you feel crazy even when you’re right. I know I should be over everything that happened with Jamie. I’ve been with Zach for a year, but sometimes it still feels raw when people bring up my past, or make up shit about it.
“I just wish those girls would stop looking for more ways to find me.”
Jenni leans forward, her voice softer now. “Why would anyone come after you just because you’re dating a quarterback? I mean,he’s cute and all, but there are plenty of cute guys on campus. Chris being one of them.”
She raises her brow pointedly, and she’s right. There are plenty of good-looking, athletic guys at St. Michael’s, but Zach is different.
“It’s not his looks. It’s because he’s Zach Evans,” I say with a sigh. “He’s been put on a pedestal by the college, and the money he’s earning from his NIL deals is public. People want him, and they think I’m in their way.”
She’s quiet for a moment, and that same flicker of doubt comes creeping up my spine. Have I said too much?
She reaches for her water, takes a sip, and says, “So you’ve basically been living in a football-induced fishbowl and didn’t tell me, because you were what? Afraid I was going to lose my mind over your boyfriend?”
I nod, but the way she says it makes me almost embarrassed for thinking like that in the first place.
“It’s just easier sometimes,” I say. “To be anonymous.”
She shrugs. “Honestly, I don’t blame you. The girls on this campus are thirsty for blood without you being some football hunk’s girlfriend. Adding that dynamic makes everything ten times messier, and you don’t deserve to be collateral damage for someone else’s spotlight.”
“Thanks,” I mumble.
Then Jenni gives me a knowing smile. “Makes sense now, though. Why you were so quiet and private when we first introduced ourselves.”
“Yeah…sorry.”
She shifts in her seat and leans forward. “Is that why you’ve been weird lately? Did something happen with Zach?”
I hesitate, chewing the inside of my cheek, not sure I should say more, but something about her smile makes me feel safeenough to express myself. “We talked last night about some stuff.”
“Did you fight?”
“No. It wasn’t really a fight, but it kind of felt like one.”
Jenni watches me closely. “Is he giving you crap about something?”