Chapter 1
I marched back to the dorm, reeking of dog crap from head to toe.
All the stares of disgust and quiet mutters from people passing by? I ignored every last bit of it.
By the time I finished showering and stepped out, Chloe had walked in right behind me.
"Sheena, I'm so sorry. My brother only lost his temper like that because he's sick, and... and because I was being bullied. I already yelled at him for it..."
I slammed the cabinet door shut in irritation. "Sick? From the way he was screaming and throwing a fit earlier, he looked perfectly healthy to me. And since when did I bully you, exactly?"
Chloe's eyes only turned redder.
When my best friend Sandy heard I'd been harassed, she came barreling straight into the dorm. One look at Chloe and she rolled her eyes so hard it was a wonder they didn't get stuck, and completely ignored her, like Chloe wasn't even in the room.
"Sheena, don't let that troublemaker get to you. I'll treat you to something good later. Just go clear your head and forget all this crap..."
She hadn't even finished speaking when Chloe's wobbly, tear-thick voice piped up from behind her.
"Sandy, do you and Sheena really hate me that much? Who's the troublemaker here? And... why are you only inviting her, not me?"
Sandy let out a sharp, cold laugh and said deliberately, "Because we're going for seafood. You're allergic to seafood, remember?"
"You know I'm allergic! Why can't you just pick something else? You just can't stand me! You're leaving me out on purpose!"
No sooner had the words left her mouth than she burst into sobs and went sprinting out the door.
We exchanged a look, and both of us were just completely dumbfounded.
It wasn't long before our other roommate, who'd been studying in the library, came back.
The second she walked in, her face was twisted with the same familiar speechlessness.
"Chloe's at it again. She's sitting by the campus lake doing a live stream right now. Guess what her title is?"
Sandy just shrugged. "Same old stuff, right? Blabbing on about how we're bullying her again."
Our roommate pulled out her phone.
Chloe said on the livestream, "Am I just being too sensitive?"
"C'mon, what on earth is she even sensitive about? She goes on and on about how we bully her and leave her out, but if you ask me, she's the one who's been freezing all of us out this whole time!"
Sandy was already in a rotten mood from Chloe's nonsense, so when she heard our roommate venting, she immediately jumped right in.
"Tell me about it! We all joined our club together back in freshman year, and she only moved into our dorm in sophomore year. She throws a fit that we don't invite her to events. Are we supposed to all quit the club just to make her feel welcome?"
I nodded in agreement. "She probably actually thinks that's what we should do."
Our roommate nodded right along with me. "And don't get me started on Thanksgiving last year! You two both went home to your families, right? My best friend came to visit me, and Chloe said she was all alone and lonely, so she tagged along with us.
"Then, when my friend pulled out the gift she got for me, Chloe practically started crying right there, saying how she was intruding and making everything awkward. My friend felt so bad that she ended up going and buying her a separate gift too!"
Sandy blinked, her face full of 'what the actual hell' confusion.
"Ugh, I can't even with that."
That's when I summed it up for everyone. "Come on, think about it. She's got a dad who gambles away everything, a mom who ran out on her, and a sick brother who needs piles of money for treatment. Of course, the whole world owes her everything, right?"
