LIFE OF THE PARTY |ELITE|

1.10

"How can I know that you're not lying? What if you were angry that Nano chose her?"
"I'm not lying. Nano had to choose her, there was no world where we could work on the long game, we were doomed from the beginning, and we knew it."

When Cordélia went back to Las Encinas on Monday, she felt like her whole world had changed, she was no longer hoping that her relationship with Ander would get better because now she knew the truth, and she hated it, and him. What the brunette hated the most was that if he had talked to her, told her that he didn't like her and wanted to stop seeing each other, remaining friends, she would have agreed. It would have hurt, but not as much as the cheating part, and the worst was that she had no one to talk to, because even if she hated him at the moment, she would never out him, as she had loved him, and he deserved to do it in his own way. For the first time in years, Cordélia didn't sat next to Ander in class, she sat next to a girl to whom she had never talked before and that she could barely recognize from anywhere hoping that she wouldn't have to talk to anyone.

"It's never good when one of you sit next to one of us."

The French girl turned to face her classmate, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to put a name of that girl with a beautiful brown skin, long dark hair, and a nose ring. It was at that moment that she realized that she didn't know many people outside of her friend group, they always stayed together, not mixing with anyone else.

"Do I know you?"
"Probably not, you alphas don't care about anyone but your circle."
"Alphas?"
"Yeah, you reign over Las Encinas, you have many nicknames: Elite, Royalty, Alphas, Golden Youth... well of course royalty doesn't work as well on you because you're basically royalty in real life."
"I can't deal with this right now."

Cordélia pushed her laptop further on her desk as she let her head rest on the wood, she hated this day, she wasn't sure whether she wanted to go back in time to change what happened or to advance in the future so she would finally stop feeling this pain in her chest. The brunette hated to see that random girl sitting next to Ander, even if she knew this poor girl had nothing to do with what went wrong between them, she hated Christian because he was the one who introduced Ander and that fucking dealer, and she hated Nadia because she was his sister. Maybe Guzmán was right, maybe the scholarship kids' arrival was terrible, maybe she should have listened to him, maybe they should have all listened and stay away from them.

"I'm Priya, by the way, I'm not sure you knew, and we were never introduced formally so..."
"Nice to meet you."
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Go ahead."
"There's a rumour going around, people say you and Ander broke up at Samuel's party last weekend."
"Amazing, I'm not sure a rumour ever travelled faster than this one in this fucking school."

Cordélia felt the tears forming in her eyes, she felt like she had been crying ever since she walked in on Ander and Omar. She wanted to stop hurting, to have this froggy brain you get after smoking a joint, the one that makes you forget everything for a while. Lia wished Ander was just a random boy, someone she would have fallen in love with right after meeting him, and that him being a stranger again wouldn't hurt, but no, he used to be her best friend, and that was what hurt the most.

"If it makes you feel better, he looks like a mess too."

It did not, because he was the only responsible for what went down between them, he was the one who cheated, not her, he did not deserve to feel bad, not after putting her in this nightmare.

"Do you know who's the girl sitting next to him?"

The brunette couldn't help it, she couldn't help the anger that she felt against her ex and the whole world, it made her wonder if he only cheated with Omar or if there was someone else, it was driving her crazy.

"That's Sofia, we grew up together. You have nothing to worry, she would never go after Ander, she drives on the other side of the road."

So does he. Unsurprisingly, it did not make her feel better, nothing did, even Nano's attempt to cheer her up failed after a while. After they had sex that night, he hold her close to him until she finally stopped crying and fell asleep, and even the next morning she kept sobbing from time to time. The girl wasn't sure how she found the strength to go to class, but she did and now she regretted it. Their first class was over, and the others had sports after which meant that she would be on her own for the next two hours, and she liked this idea, at least no one would ask her questions.

"If you don't want to hang out with your friends because you don't want to see him, you can always eat with my friends and I."
"Thanks."

Cordélia was the first one to exit the classroom, hurrying to reach her locker so she could hide her face in it just long enough to gain composure again. She would do anything to stop the pain she felt, she wanted it gone, she wished she never loved Ander, and that they were just friends all this time, not this weird situationship that led to this. She couldn't wait for the school year to be over, to go to Sweden and travel with her family, for the first time since she moved to Madrid, Cordélia couldn't wait to leave town for the summer.

"What happened between you two? You and Ander look like trash."
"Bloody hell, Guzmán, you know how to cheer up a friend."
"Sorry. People say that you fought at that stupid party, but I only saw Ander, so I suppose you already left by the time I arrived."
"You went to Samuel's party? You? How the hell did you got in?"
"Well, first of all, it was no Met Gala, and Nadia had an invite, so I went with her. How come you and Ander were there?"
"Ander was invited by that stupid wannabe influencer, and Samuel invited me."
"I don't like you hanging out with this guy, him, Christian and his brother are..."
"Guz, I'm way too sleep deprived to listen to you bitch on them, Samuel and Nano have been better friends to me than Ander was lately."
"Want to tell me what happened?"
"We broke up. If you want to know why, you'll have to ask him."
"Why?"
"Because it's not my secret to tell."
"Are you okay? Is that why you left?"
"I'll be eventually, I just need time to proceed that we're no longer together, nor friends."
"I'm really sorry, Lia."

Guzmán hugged his best friend, holding her close against him as she started sobbing again. He didn't understand what happened between them at this party, Cordélia looked like she was on the verge of tears 24/7, Ander had a broken hand, and none of them wanted to talk about it. Something was definitely off in this story, and he didn't like that, because there was nothing the boy hated more than to see his friends and family suffer.

"Cordélia had lost two of her best friends in a spam of two months: Ander after their breakup, and now Marina was dead. She felt lonelier than ever, to the point where she wondered whether it was worth to keep fighting the wave, maybe she should just let it take her away."