Parks and Prejudice (Ben and Leslie | Parks and Rec)

Chapter 10

 

 

"Then I suggest you tell me what happened."

 

 

"I--" I looked over to Mark for help. He was looking at the floor and I wanted to strangle him. Was he really going to leave me hanging here? Oh my, God... What the fuck do I do?

 

 

"This meeting is over." Professor Swanson announced with finality. He looked pointedly at the door, silently telling us to get out. Mark shot up from his chair and left the room quicker than I could react. I chased after him.

 

 

"Mark, wait!" I yelled across the hall. He stopped and slowly faced me. "What the fuck, Mark. I'm going to lose my scholarship! Get back in there and tell him the truth!" I had tears in my eyes, I was so angry at him.

 

 

"Leslie, I'm sorry. I can't confess. It would go on my record that I purposely cheated."

 

 

"Something would still go on your record. Mine too and I had nothing to do with this. Are you really that selfish?"

 

 

"Look, if you're involved, Swanson's gonna make it less of a big deal than he would if it were just me. I'm really sorry about this, Leslie. But I have so much shit on my record right now and cheating would get me expelled. I'll help you figure out the scholarship thing, okay. Please, I can't have it on my record that I cheated." He stepped closer to me and tried to wipe the tears off my face, but by instinct I stepped back, out of his reach.

 

 

"Don't touch me." I whispered. I can't believe this. I wanted to drag him by the ears back to Professor Swanson's office and slap a confession out of him. But I also didn't want him to get kicked out of school.

 

 

"I'm sorry, Leslie. I really am." Mark said sounding sincere. He turned slowly and started walking away.

 

 

Oh my, God. My life was over.

 

 

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I had been crying for hours now. I couldn't even make it back to my dorm, so I just found a quiet corner and was sitting crossed legged with my back leaning on the wall. I was glad that there weren't a lot of foot traffic in the staff building today. But that was practically the only thing I was glad about. Everything else was just dark and gloomy. Bleak and dead. I couldn't come up with more adjectives to describe how fucked up the situation was.

 

 

I have never in my life been accused of cheating. This was a whole new level of low for me. I wanted to clear my name so badly, but I was torn with what Mark had told me about him being kicked out. He was an asshole for sure. But I could never forgive myself for not helping him out in whatever shitty hole he dug himself into.