4.

ALORA

“If it isn’t Alora, the fat pig." Someone sneered, making me go rigid. I looked up, and I was stunned to see Brielle Davis standing in front of me with that familiar, cruel smirk as she stared at me with the same condescending look she always had on.

The hall went silent immediately as the students turned their attention to us, eager to see what the sudden remark was about. If I were a lighter shade, my cheeks would have probably turned red, but it would not be from shame but from the anger coursing through my veins.

I had spent months imagining what it would be like on the day when I had to face Brielle again. I wondered if I would cower, cry, lash out, or even hit her, but none of my imaginations thought we would end up in the same class. What a fucking coincidence.

I waited for my body to cower like the way it usually does whenever Brielle spoke, but it didn’t. Instead, I was filled with anger at her audacity to think she could easily bully me the way she thought she and Dilora did with their minions back in high school.

I hate that she saw me and walked up to me with full confidence that she could make me whimper in fear and fall to my feet, begging for mercy like it used to be.

Even though everything in me screamed at me to shut up and take what she had to say, I didn’t want to. It was a new start for me, and I had to prove that I wasn’t going to be a target for bullies.

If I let her have her way today, it would be painting a huge target on my back, and soon everyone would want to try their luck to bully the weak, new, pretty face, university or not.

I inhaled and turned to her. “Are you desperate for attention, Brielle? Is that it?” I scoffed, eyeing her with disinterest that was taking everything in me to muster.

“Do you want me to give you a five-star reality show scene right now so those cameras can capture every moment and you’ll be as important as you did back in high school?” She opened her mouth to answer, but I wasn’t done. I had so much to say.

“Do you want me to allow you to think you can bully me to make your inferiority complex better?” With shaky hands clenched under the table, I leaned forward in my seat to pin her with a bored smile.

I allowed my eyes to sweep over her lazily, internally thanking the heavens that my voice came out strong, unlike the trembling mess that I was on the inside.

Brielle Davis had been your average high school mean girl with deep pockets, and judging by her current action, she hadn’t grown up yet.

Back in high school, Brielle rolled with Dilora, and they wreaked havoc on anyone they didn’t like alongside their minions. It was always a rollercoaster of emotions with them, and none were ever positive.

I could still remember every single time I went home a mess, unable to look at anything edible because of the horrible words they said and did to me. Because of them, I would feel disgusted with myself for days on end.

“I don’t mind. You know I love the attention,” she said with a wide smile. “You think you are all pretty now that you shed some weight?” she scoffed as her eyes examined my body with disgust, but I could see the envy in her eyes. She wished she was the one pulling this off instead.

“I don’t need anyone to tell me. I know I’m prettier. It’s an indisputable fact,” I told her with a smirk of my own. “I mean, look at your nose. I would sue the doctor if I were you. My mama’s a surgeon, you know? I could put in a good word for you, get her to fix it, and maybe your foul mouth as well, all at a discounted price you wouldn’t get anywhere else," I drawled.

The hall burst into laughter, and Brielle turned red, embarrassed as fuck, but not willing to back down. People started throwing comments about her terrible nose job. The minions behind her laughed as well, but one glare from her had them looking down and wiping their smiles off their faces"

“Now that you pointed it out, I can definitely see it," Harvey whispered to me, but not so subtly, before he turned to Brielle. “Girl, it’s legit crooked. How do you walk around with such a bad nose job? I would not step out of my house ever if that was done to me." He even managed to look horrified, which made it more amusing.

“I know, right. I’ll die of humiliation if I get such a bad nose job,” Hani chuckled as she leaned forward closer to Brielle to get a closer look at her face.

“Do you need a nose mask to hide it? I have one in my bag?” Harvey offered to Brielle, who was practically shaking, but whether it was from anger or embarrassment, I couldn’t tell.

It wasn’t obvious, but underneath the surface, I was shaking so hard that it was a shock to me that no one had noticed yet. Brielle had always intimidated me, and even now, she did, but I had to make sure she never found out.

“Don’t think because you got yourself a little gang of losers, you are now on the same level as me. Once a nobody, always a nobody. You will never be in the same class as I am,” she snarled, and I trembled, but no one noticed. Her words sliced through me like a paper cut.

I laughed. “Brielle, please,” I scoffed. “Who is the nobody? Me or you? Do we have to compare bank account numbers or count assets to prove that I belong on a level you could never belong to?” I leveled her with the hardest glare I could muster and relished in the feeling I got when she flinched back.

St. James was a university for the upper class, but even money had hierarchy. My dad’s tech company was worth billions in tech, and my mama’s fashion empire was also worth billions, and that wasn’t even counting the hospital.

I wasn’t trying to undermine her parents, but Brielle was just the daughter of an investment company CEO and an A-list actress. She didn’t compare. I already had shares in both my parents’ businesses and four estates in my name.

“Come on, let's see." Harvey nudged her with a wicked smile. “Open your bank account, baby. Let’s count the zeros."

“Stay out of it, fag,” she hissed at Harvey, but her gaze was still on me. My eyes widened at the foul word she used on him, and I was about to stand up so I could give her a piece of my mind when Harvey’s voice stopped me.

“She’s also not very creative." He turned to Hani with a pout.

“I know, right? She lacks a lot of things,” Hani replied with a sympathetic look on her face, which made everyone start laughing again.

“Stop it, Brielle, it's getting embarrassing. Just go back to your seat." Dilora finally spoke from where she had been sitting quietly.

“You'd better shut your mouth, Dilora. You are so pathetic, jumping from one queen to another. I guess you will always be a servant for the rest of your life,” Brielle hissed at her, and the room dropped again.