Nothing Wrong With Being a Tomboy

Chapter 23: Throwaway Twofold

“Ignore her,” I stated coldly as I whirled the glass of wine.

“How can I?” Lora asked in disbelief, glancing backwards to see a bored Riley sitting across the room, angrily stabbing the bread with her fork. “I don’t get it; why is she here?”

“What do you expect? She’s my assistant,” I took a sip of the glass and gazed at Riley with narrowed eyes.

Effortlessly, she raised her eyes to meet mine, startled to find me staring at her. A smirk slowly grew as she scowled at me and crossed her arms around her chest. I tipped the glass of wine to her direction and slightly winked at her. She flourished red with her distinctive blush and flipped the finger at me. Puckering my lips, my eyes fell to the tablecloth as I suppressed the laughter from erupting.

“Nothing’s changed, huh?”

For a moment I forgot that I wasn’t alone. “What do you mean, Lora?” I kept on my cool façade, while she grimaced, straightly looking at me with weary blue eyes.

“I thought that maybe you…” she ran a hand through her bleached hair and sighed, “Never mind. Who was I kidding? Anyways, I’ll probably go since—“

“We agreed to meet up because we wanted to finish the controversy about that blogger. I want to know everything you couldn’t tell me back at my home.”

Finding my tone icier that what I intended, I cleared my throat and regretted letting the frenzy of power rush to my brain. “Sorry, I—“

“No,” she held her hand in elevation, “I get it. You’re a boss now.”

I nodded, relieved that she didn’t feel affronted. “Now, please, tell me everything about it.”

“Aren’t we gonna order something?”

“Look,” I clouted the glass down on the table, making her flinch at the clattering sound, “I’m not liking where this is going, Lora. You’ve been dodging the subject a lot lately. I’ve been trying to be patient and not condemning, but you’re pushing it.”

Lora looked at me aghast, and cleared her throat accursedly, “Well, what can I do since I hate to be in this position?!”

“Spill. It. Out.”

She inhaled and exhaled quickly, fidgeting with her slim fingers. She was giving me hints that I didn’t like. So I shifted on my seat and glanced a few times to see Riley arguing with a bald host. He wiggled his finger at her while she flapped her hand at him, imitating a duck squawking.  “…Andy?! Will you please pay attention to me?!”

Nodding, I leaned forward and tried to focus on her. “Well?”

“Like I was saying,” she slightly glared at me before continuing, “we, Colette, Miranda, and I, were bored one day and we decided to make a blog. We were making fun of kids from school but it wasn’t a big of a deal. I made sure to delete the account before it could get out of my hands. Then, the Hush sensation came and everybody on campus pursued that site for gossips and news. At first it was more like a fashion critique, but then they targeted people and practically harassed them without the target even knowing.”

“How long has been that site on?”

“For about one and a half year. At least I found out about one year ago, when we… when we broke up.”

“Okay. Carry on.”

“So, I always heard Miranda obsessing over that gossiper—like practically worshipping her. So I decided to enter to her room back in the frat house and check her laptop. Her history was filled with the link of that site and especially your Nosepage profile. She even had one of your pictures as her background.”