+THIRD+
When Malia wakes up in the morning, she's in such a great mood. She showers, gets dressed in her black bodycon jumpsuit, blue oversized jean jacket and her university blue 1s.
She's in a good mood yet still tired from the night before doesn't feel like actually getting dressed. This is simple but looks cute. She wears her glasses today because she can't find her contact holder and she doesn't feel like looking for it.
As she walks to the campus building's doors, she notices people looking at her. People are always looking at her now. She'll have to get used to that.
It's when the whispers and stares start, that she questions things. A guy puts his arm over her shoulder and she looks over. She doesn't even know who he is.
"Wassup, Malia. You gonna let me pop, too?"
"What?" She pushes him off of her. "The fuck are you talking about?"
"Oh, now she acting different." He and his friends laugh and Malia grows more confused.
She spots Taija and Kaia walking up to her with Tyrell and Hakeem not far behind.
More people stare, starting to surround her and her anxiety grows.
"Back the fuck up off her." Taija pushes people out of her and Hakeem backs, waiting for somebody to try to push her back.
Kaia grabs Malia's hand and all of a sudden this feels a lot like senior year.
"What are they talking about? What happened?" Malia asks, almost whispering yet very confused.
Kaia and Tyrell lead her over to their circle of friends plus the cheer team.
"Sebastian was at your suite last night, right?"
"Yeah, but it was for a class." Malia clarifies and she hears somebody smack their teeth and another one snort.
She looks over but doesn't say anything to them. She keeps talking to Ty.
"We had to watch a movie and fill out a paper on it. Nothing happened. He didn't even try anything."
"Oh, sure he didn't." Chloe says. Her arms are crossed.
"What?" Malia looks at her. "He didn't." Her face scrunches, confuses as to where this sudden attitude from her is coming from.
She's never shown her any signs of being that type of girl. Not that she's aware of, anyway. Malia couldn't have seen this coming.
"We watched the movie, stayed in the living room, ate a little food and did our homework. You were there. We were sitting on the couch and in the kitchen. We didn't go anywhere else." She looks at her to back her.
She shrugs. "I don't know. I was with Namjoon. We were... otherwise occupied."
Malia narrows her eyes at her for half a second before turning back to her friends.
"But y'all know I wouldn't do no shit like that. I don't even know him." Malia gets upset defending herself.
"And Bash wouldn't try no shit like that. I've already said this." Midas says as he looks at Namjoon.
"We don't know what he'd try. Or what she'd go for, honestly." Chloe says. "It's like 50/50 at this point." She stares Malia down.
Malia's vision splotches as her heart rate spikes. Her palms become moist as her head becomes hot. Her jaw clenches and her nostrils flare.
"Bitch-." Malia takes a step toward her and is immediately pulled back by her torso.
Taija and Camryn step in between her and Chloe while she's pulled back.
Her body hits solid muscle as she's removed from the situation.
"Get off of me!" She shouts as she pries the arm off.
"Relax." Namjoon's voice is in her ear.
That infuriates her further. She rips his arm from her body and turns to face him with tears in her eyes.
"I hate you!"
"I didn't do anything!"
"You know I didn't do anything and you didn't defend me at all! Once again, you just stood there like a fucking moron!" She pushes him.
"How the hell was I supposed to know she'd say anything to people? I'm not a fucking mind reader!"
"No, you're just an enabling fucking bystander! As always!"
"Malia." She hears her name.
She whips around and sees Sebastian standing there. Her frown deepens.
"Let's go talk, yeah?" His voice is soft and his eyes are almost doe-like. Nothing about his demeanor is malicious or offensive. He's just.. worried.
Malia's hot tears well up and she wipes her cheeks as they fall.
"Yeah." She mumbles as she walks with him down the hall.
He stops by the cheerleaders and Chloe's snickering lightens up.
"You having the cohones to speak on her and lie about anything like this is crazy. Would never take the head cheerleader for an envious bitch, you know? How many times are you going to ruin someone's freshman year?"
"Excuse me?"
"Take it down." He states calmly. "Now. And I won't take it to the Dean."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't play dumb with me. It's not your best look."
Malia looks from him to Chloe as the whispers start up again.
"I want it gone by the time I leave this building." Sebastian tells her. He walks away and Malia follows.
Her phone goes off and she looks at the text message.
Ty- Location, please
Malia starts sharing her location with him as they walk out of the building. Sebastian takes his phone out and goes to Twitter.
"What's going on?" Malia asks.
"There's a page on Twitter for the school. Like a gossip page, like the shade room but just for stuff at GT. It's a public page though so anybody can follow it or keep up with it. It's all just gossip and drama."
"And Chloe runs it?"
"I don't know if it's just her because they're anonymous but I know she's an admin on it."
"So then how do you know?" Malia asks. "And why do you already not like her? Like what's up with that?"
"You really need more of an explanation other than what just happened? I feel like that's pretty conclusive as to what kind of person she is."
"Mean?"
"Manipulative. Vindictive." Sebastian frowns. "Liar. I don't know. That girl's just evil."
Malia waits for him to go on and he sighs knowing that she won't let it go.
"I met her last year when we were freshmen. I thought she was pretty, cool, whatever. So we hung out a few times. Long story short, we ended up having sex in her dorm room and I found out like a day or two later she had a boyfriend the whole time."
Malias eyes widen. "What?"
"Right. And he also goes here but nobody knew. She kept that shit so well under wraps that it was like a shock to me. Anyway, me and dude ended up talking about shit, man to man. I apologized and explained that I really didn't know. I stopped fucking with her, blocked her and everything. Took her a minute to get the hint and leave me alone for real. But he was still in love with her so it's like... it's just a fucked up situation. He knows she's not a good person and she treats him like shit but I think it's the attachment, you know? You fall in love with the idea of somebody only to find out they're nothing like that at all. It's a hard thing to kick man."
Malia has no words, initially. It is a fucked up situation and she can't imagine how he and the other guy felt at the end of the day. Manipulated, played, used?
"I'm sorry that she did this to you." Sebastian apologizes. "You're an easy target because you're new. And I'm an easy target because... well you know."
"People think you sleep around?" Malia asks bluntly.
"I'm not gonna say I'm innocent. But I'm not a pass around." Sebastian loosely defends. "I like women and I'd prefer not to-. Never mind. This conversation's getting weird. Change the topic."
Malia laughs at the expression on his face.
"It's not funny."
"It's not. It's gross."
Sebastian rolls his eyes. "Whatever, man. I just wanted to apologize and explain. And make sure we're good because I'm really not this guy."
Malia looks at him as he stops walking. He's been nothing but genuine and honest with her since they've met.
"We're good." She nods. "It's not your fault she's bitchy."
"It's not, but still. You deserve an apology."
"Just buy me platanos later and we'll call it even."
"Deal."
"Promise?" She sticks out her pinky.
Sebastian raises an eyebrow and looks at her finger. "How old are you again?" He tilts his head.
Malia smacks her teeth. "Promise?" She holds her ground.
"Fine." Sebastian holds his pinky out. "I promise."
"Don't break it. I take these seriously." Malia warns.
"Oh, I bet you do." Sebastian eggs.
Malia deadpans as he starts laughing.
"Come on so we can make it to class by the late bell." He lets her finger go and leads the way.
NAMJOON
I think about last night a lot while I sit in class. I play back everything in my head a million times over.
The way he looked at her, the way she looked at him. Their laughs, their banter. Everything.
None of it indicative that they did anything at all. That, and I know Malia. Maybe not as much as I'd like to but well enough.
She just met this guy. She wouldn't have sex with him. That's not in her nature.
Even still, I'm upset that I let my emotions get the best of me in that moment. Regardless of who Sebastian is or what's been said about him around campus, I know that Malia wouldn't do that. I just got frustrated seeing them so close, I wasn't thinking about anything else.
I regret even going down there. My only intent was to check on Malia without it looking weird. She might be mad about me being around Chloe but what other way was there?
Seeing them together like that, I forgot about my initial plan. She looked fine to me with him in her personal space. After that, I just needed a distraction from her.
I going to bury all my frustration into Chloe but she didn't have any condoms left. So she just opted to give me head.
Post nut clarity.
Entirely upset with myself that I was about to have sex with her. Now I'm even more upset.
I can't imagine how Malia feels right now. If what was said on Twitter was as bad as Midas says it was, it probably felt like that party all over again.
I sigh and put my head in my hands.
Fuck.
And again, I stood there like an idiot. Dazed and confused.
I didn't even know that Chloe had anything to do with that page. I hadn't seen anything, I don't really care for Twitter too much. If the team or one of the guys tags me in something, then I look. But other than that, I don't really care.
I'm just worried about Malia.
Though she seemed perfectly fine leaving earlier with Sebastian, that bothered me. Ty didn't have anything to say about them leaving together. Midas didn't either. Other than a 'she'll be fine with him'. I almost feel like he's being biased because it's his friend.
Maybe there is a possibility that Sebastian could just be trying to have sex with Malia. But he has to go about a different way because of Midas. Or maybe he does have other intentions and Midas is just... skewed in his opinion on it.
I don't know. I just don't like that guy. Don't trust him with her.
I don't trust anybody with her, really.
When my final class ends, I walk out of the building and head to Malia's suite. I don't have her number so this is my only way of contact. I would assume that she went to the rest of her classes for the day.
I knock on the door and Chloe opens it. The look on my face becomes more irritated, if that's even possible.
"Back already?" She says and I ignore her as I walk in.
"Where's Malia?" I look around before walking down her hall. I knock on her door twice before opening it.
"I don't know. Not here. She left with Bash. Why?" She crosses her arms.
"I wanted to check on her. After somebody lied and got that shit posted on Twitter."
"How you know they lied? We weren't out here. She's probably just embarrassed about it." She shrugs as she walks to the sink. "Losing your virginity in a college dorm? Ulch."
"I know for a fact that Malia did not fuck him. She don't even get down like that. You said it yourself, she's quiet and minds her business. And let's not play fucking dumb. I heard Sebastian say it was you."
"Damn, Namjoon. Calm down. I'm just saying the quiet girls are always the ones you gotta watch for. For all we know, she wasn't even a virgin. Who the fuck cares?" Chloe shrugs as she takes out her smoothie maker.
"Why are you talking about her like this? You don't even know her. Y'all barely even talk. The most she says to you is 'hi'. Stop acting like you got beef with her."
"I'm not acting like anything . Why are you going so hard about the shit? It's not that serious."
My nose scrunches and I shake my head before walking away from her. I'm just gonna leave before I curse this girl out.
I pull the suite door open and walk out.
"Where are you going?" Chloe yells at me as I walk out. I text the group chat to see where Malia is.
I really need to go check on her.