Chapter 2

From that day on, I started deliberately cutting back on how often I went to find Sebastian.

I thought stepping back and staying quiet would let things blow over. But the Parasite label had already become a silent plague, spreading fast through the school.

In math class, someone behind me talked at a volume just loud enough for me to hear:

"Look. That's her. The leech."

"How does she even have the nerve to keep following Sebastian around?"

When I went to the library to find materials, passing a few rows of shelves, someone deliberately raised their voice:

"Move. This book isn't for leeches."

"You only know how to trail after Sebastian. Can you even read that?"

I even went to the cafeteria to buy a sandwich, and the woman at the register looked at me with this strange, appraising stare.

Like she was looking at some parasitic germ clinging to a popular kid.

The worst part was the sorority.

Chloe had just started a social club for senior girls. A few girls I'd been on decent terms with, all to climb into Chloe's inner circle, began distancing themselves from me on every front.

At first, they just politely pulled back, stopped saying hi in the hallways. Then they stopped even pretending.

During the afternoon free period, they'd be sitting together talking about afternoon tea. The second I walked near, the chatter stopped cold.

They'd link arms with cold smiles and walk off, leaving me alone in the empty hallway.

Even borrowing a locker or notes got the same canned excuses:

"Using it."

"Lost it."

"Lent it to someone else."

That day after school, I went back to the hallway to grab a book. Through a row of metal lockers, I heard a few of the sorority girls talking quietly at the end of the hall.

"Does Maya really spend Sebastian's family's money?"

"Of course. Chloe said so herself. Otherwise, where would an orphan with no parents get tuition and clothes money?"

"Jesus, Jesus, if it weren't for her, Chloe and Sebastian would have been together a long time ago."

I stood behind the lockers, hand pressed hard against the latch.

They spotted me. The conversation stopped instantly, then they dispersed like nothing happened.

They didn't know. I was an orphan, yes. But before my parents died, they left me a substantial trust inheritance, fully managed by Sebastian's father, a top lawyer.

Every tuition payment, every cent of my living expenses, came from what my parents left me. Not from the Rivers family's charity.

They also didn't know I lived near Sebastian's house because it was the run-down old house my grandmother left me.

Old. Small. But it was the only place in this cold town that could shelter me.

I never took a cent from Sebastian for free. Growing up, every fare he covered, every stuffed animal he gave me, even every coffee he casually bought me, I recorded in a notebook, line by line, clear as day.

Every month when I got my paycheck from work, the first thing I did was make a list and pay him back, cash or Venmo.

But every time, Sebastian would push the money back, a little impatient, a little condescending.

"Why are you keeping score with me, Maya? It's just pocket change."

I used to think that was his tolerance and care for his childhood friend.

Now I think it was just superiority. He didn't even deign to take my money.

But what was the point of saying any of this now?

In everyone's eyes, the truth didn't matter.

They only believed the gossip they wanted to believe: a poor orphan, clinging to and draining a rich quarterback dry.

I tried to fight back.

In an AP class, the teacher announced a big group project worth twenty percent of our grade.

The moment the groups were assigned, a strange mood settled over the room.

Everyone quickly clustered into threes and fours, discussing division of labor.

Around my seat, it was like a quarantine zone had been drawn.

No one looked at me. No one invited me.

Some pretended to scroll their phones. Others deliberately turned their heads toward the window, like I was some kind of virus made flesh.

I took a deep breath, dug my nails into my palm, and worked up the nerve to walk over to a group of girls who looked more easygoing.

"Hey, can I join your group?"

The girl doing the talking looked up. Her eyes flickered. She let out a dry laugh.

"Sorry, Maya. We're full."

I glanced at the list on their desk.

"There are only three of you. The teacher said the cap is four."

"My GPA last semester was top of the class. I can handle the data analysis and the slides by myself."

I tried to show my value.

Before she could answer, a guy in a varsity jacket next to her laughed.

"Who knows if Sebastian had someone else write your homework? Leech."

"Yeah, without Sebastian helping you, how would your grades be that good?"

A few others around them murmured in agreement.

"I didn't rely on him!" My voice shook. "I wrote every assignment myself, staying up in the library! My grades have nothing to do with Sebastian—"

"Enough, Maya." Another girl rolled her eyes. "We all know what you are."

Just then, Chloe's soft voice came from behind me.

I hadn't noticed when she walked over. She held a Starbucks cup and wore just the right amount of sympathy on her face.

"Don't say that about Maya, guys. She's actually had it really hard."

Chloe smiled faintly. "I mean, not every girl can get the Rivers family to look after her for this many years, right?"

The whole class erupted in laughter.

I lowered my head, feeling weak and cold all over.

In the end, the teacher frowned and tapped the podium.

"Alright! Enough. Maya, just join group four."

The faces of group four's members instantly turned ugly, but with the teacher's authority, no one dared object out loud.

For the next whole hour of group discussion, I was completely sidelined.

I tried to participate.

"For the part on market failure, I put together a few of the latest cases..."

The group leader didn't even look up. He cut me off.

"We already have the framework. We don't need new cases."

I pushed over the sources I'd stayed up all night finding.

"This is the latest Fed data. It could go in the charts..."

The person next to me didn't even glance at it, just shoved the stack aside and went back to talking with the others.

"Maya, just stay over there." The group leader finally threw out coldly. "We'll put your name on the report. Don't interfere and screw up our progress."

Another girl smiled.

"Yeah. Just like how you follow Sebastian around."

They acted like they'd accepted a parasite. Calm. Resigned.

In the end, I gave up completely.

I just sat there quietly, watching them talk with heat and energy.

Like I was invisible.

No. Worse than invisible.

I was a leech everyone found disgusting.

An eyesore.