Praying to the Moon

Chapter Four- The Rumour

The weeks flew by and suddenly the weeks became months. James and I had been together for ten months. We were one of those couples that everyone would be grossed out by. He would hold my hand and walk me to class and kiss me in front of his friends. Most weekends I stayed at his place or he stayed at mine. I could finally see my future with someone. Suddenly, people were talking to me in my classes. I appeared interesting for once and they wanted to know about James and I. I wanted to show him off and would often tell them every little detail. I showed them his Instagram page and told them about his future goals, I was so in love with him.

A few weeks later, I noticed that the group of girls in my classes began following James on Instagram. At the time, I told myself it was because they were jealous or thought he was amazing too. I didn't feel intimidated because James loved me, he told me that. If they wanted to give James and I an audience, then be our guest. It all made me feel a bit famous, like my life was finally interesting. These girls would watch me walk into class and would often talk amongst themselves afterwards. I told myself to not let my paranoia get the better of me this time, I'm sure this is all innocent.

"Lily, right?"
I turned around to see a tall, blonde girl sitting behind me. She was intimidating and she knew it.
"Yeah?"
"That's right, you're dating, uh, James?"
The way she emphasised dating got under my skin, I knew the following conversation was not going to be pleasant.
"Yeah he's my boyfriend."
The blonde girl rolls her eyes subtly and then places her hand under her chin.
"I don't mean to be a bitch but I just thought you should know. James isn't just dating you."
A million thoughts rushed through my head, my hand began to shake. I know James better than anyone, this girl is just trying to cause drama.
"What are you talking about? That's ridiculous."
The girl focuses her eyes directly into mine.
"Listen, I'm telling you for your sake. He has a girlfriend back home. We all know about it."
Clearly this girl had no idea what she was talking about because James is from Oaksville. I know that, I've been to his house and he's told me everything. This is his home and I am his girlfriend. I decided to not encourage this girl any further, I turned around and began writing notes.

The class was going too slowly, I needed to leave. I could hear the group of girls behind me talking about me. I would catch a sentence every few seconds such as
"Wow so you told her? She's still willingly being a home wrecker then, huh?"
I couldn't believe that these girls would go to this extent to create drama. If James had a girlfriend I would have picked up on some red flags or clues, we had been together for nearly a year. She would call when I was at his place or would be active on his Instagram, surely. I decided to leave the class during the halfway break, I needed to talk to James and I was tired of being disrespected by the girls behind me. This was none of their business anyway.

I walked out as the group of girls scowled at me.
"Probably leaving to sort her life out."
Anger rushed over me, my arms felt heavy and my head felt light. I stormed back into the lecture hall.
"Okay you know what? You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. You don't know me and you don't know James. You just like drama and you're trying to cause it. It's not going to work though because James and I are closer than you could ever imagine. Why don't you all go get a life and stay out of mine? Nobody wants a drama-causing psychologist."
I turned around and reopened the heavy hall doors. I could hear snickering and whispering behind me, they were mocking everything I said. I decided it wasn't worth my time, I needed to talk to James and let him know about these rumours.

James had class opposite mine, the doors were locked and everyone was still inside. I decided my only option was to txt him and tell him to try and leave, this was important. I sent several texts in a row, explaining that I had to talk to him right now. A few moments later, the door to his lecture hall opened. James walked out looking all around, he was trying to find me. He looked bewildered, like a deer escaping a hunter.

"James! We need to talk somewhere."
James grabbed my shoulders and looked into my face.
"Babe, what the hell is going on?"
I pushed his hands off my shoulders, I wasn't mad at him but I felt frustrated and didn't want to be touched.
"There's a rumour about you going around, someone just told me it."
"A rumour about me? What the fuck but I don't know anyone in your classes?"
"Yeah well they think they know you."
I grabbed James' hands and swiftly walked towards the car park.
"James, can you take us back to mine? I don't feel like we can talk here without anyone listening."
I could feel the sweat on James' hands, he was just as panicked as I was.

Once inside James' car I had to tell him everything. I was struggling to contain everything, I was feeling a million emotions at once, but mostly anger.
"These girls think I'm dating two girls at once? Yet somehow I only live in one city and I've always lived here."
"Yeah I know that's what I said but they kept going on, they wouldn't stop."
James' voice got slightly louder, I could tell he was offended.
"I'm going to block every single one of them online, can you do the same? They're obviously trying to cause trouble."
"Yeah, I'll do it right now."
We both grabbed our phones from our coat pockets and simultaneously blocked each Instagram page belonging to people in my class.
"I really hope you don't believe anything they've said, Lil. I love you so much and it breaks my heart to see you upset like this."
James grabbed my hands and kissed them.
"I would never believe them. I know you better than anyone and you would never do that. You love and respect me as much as I love and respect you."
"Yeah babe, that's right."
James started the car and we reversed out of the full University carpark. The air felt still as if the atmosphere knew that things were going to change.

The rest of the car ride was in complete silence, we were both overthinking everything.
We came to a complete stop by my letterbox before either of us said anything.
"Hey Lily, I might go home. I have a lot of work to do and now I have to catch up on the lecture I just left. It's stressing me out a bit."
James looked pale and unwell, I wondered if it was the stress.
"Yeah, that's fine. I have work to catch up on too. Glad we could sort everything though."
I moved forward and kissed James. The kiss felt different, he seemed less enthusiastic.
"Are you Okay?"
I could hear my voice shaking, I wanted everything to be normal again.
"Yeah honestly Lil, I'm just stressed. I have so much work and not a lot of time."
I began to feel bad for asking James to leave class early. Clearly this semester was important to him. After all, he graduated after this year, I was interrupting his final few months of classes. I needed to chill out, the universe would make everything fall into place eventually. It would all be okay.
"I understand, txt me when you're free."
James smiled and I lightly closed the car door. His face seemed harder than usual, his loving gaze towards me had been replaced by intense thought and emotion.