Lifeline

Chapter XII

Chapter 12:-

"These Exams might be the death of me." Emaline sighs. "I need to get my GPA up, and clearly that's not happening anytime soon."

I glanced her way for a few seconds before looking back down at my notes, from the corner of my eye, spotting Ethan, Emaline's twin brother join us.

"You and Ethan are lucky to be so clever in this subject, intelligent indeed, I'm not, there. Is that good enough? Or do I have to rub it in more?" Emaline continued with another sad sigh.
"Maybe I can borrow your notes just one more time-"

"Maybe she's Better off refusing and you're better off studying, Emaline." Ethan responded. "I helped you last time because you said you'd put in the effort in the coming semester, would you mind wondering where that led too?"

"I suppose I'll just fail this semester." Diana responds dramatically. "Would you like that on your conscience Diana?"

"Forget that for a second, will you?" Ethan asks. "Have a look at this Diana."

He hands over his tablet to me, as I reluctantly took it.
My eyes scanning the screen with curiosity until I saw my name.

'Are the rumors true after all?

Is Hendrix Aphelion dating a strange, unknown girl on our campus, known to go by the name Diana, or were they truly to be just false word on the street?
Some girls are horrified at the aspect of their popular campus crush being taken, that too by an ill favored and repugnant looking woman (-their words not mine..)
Follow my blog to uncover the truth!'

"What absolute rubbish is this?" I hand back his tablet, a little too aggressively than I might have liked.
"Do these people not have anything better to do than writing such articles?"
I was initially relieved to find out the drama eventually died down after exam week started, but clearly some people hold a grudge over something that never happened.

"Of course its not true, I'm sure everyone here knows that." Ethan responds simply. "But it isn't a lie that you were alone with him in that small storage room were you not?"

"What? no-"

"In the dark too.." Emaline continued, a grin plastered on her face.

"You know that isn't true, I just happened to get locked in the room, he merely came to help me but he got locked up too..." I trailed off realizing that although my words held the truth, it still felt like such an obvious lie.
Emaline wiggled her eyebrows, clearly unconvinced, while Ethan curiously leaned forward towards us, smiling, as if he was enjoying the situation.

"Stop that, both of you." I respond, trying to keep myself calm.
But it was obvious I was beginning to become flustered by the minute.

Emaline moved slightly back, as she tilted her head to her side, looking elsewhere for a second.
Then said. "Before I forget.."
She pushes her leg out, ever so slightly and a person passes by manages to not see her foot in time, and ended up toppling over, landing on the ground with a thud.
"Hi there Cordelia." She smiles at the girl at the floor, before her grin dropped to a cold expression. "I better not catch you writing more articles about Diana again, whoever the hell Hendrix may be dating is his business, not yours to make a blog about."

The girl on the ground didn't respond, her red hair had covered her face due to the fall, as she stood up slowly and glared at Emaline.

"Oh and using words like 'repugnant' sure is a big word for you, good job I suppose." Emaline sneered.
But her sneer turned into a smile once more upon seeing the reddened and angry face of Cordelia, who stomped off without a word.