Chapter Five
1134 Words
Nadia
I finally arrived at my apartment after being away for days.
The eviction notice was taped to the inside of the front door.
I stood in the doorway and looked at the room. Something felt wrong before I could even name it. Then I figured it out. The shelf above the TV was empty. The signed pucks were gone. The Xbox was gone. I checked the kitchen. The coffee maker was gone too. We had bought it together at a sale after Christmas. I had laughed at the price, but he had told me it was an investment. He said it with so much confidence that I had agreed to buy it.
The eviction notice had a bright orange border. Most of it was legal language that I had to read three times to understand. The rest was very simple. Ryder Holt had ended the lease on November 30th—eleven days ago. That was days before the video stream. It was before the cheating, before the clip, and before any of it became public.
He was already leaving me. I just did not know it yet.
My name was not on that lease, I had a few weeks to leave the apartment.
I stood in the doorway and read the paper twice while holding a bag of my things.
The mattress was still there. His side of the closet was empty. The hangers were pushed to one side. I had been living out of a bag at Petra's house for days. I had told myself it was temporary and my own choice.
I texted Petra.
Ryder took his things. The Xbox, the pucks, even the coffee maker we bought together. The worst part is the front door. There was a bright orange eviction notice taped to it. Ryder ended the lease on November 30th. That was four days before the video even came out. He was already planning to leave me and I had no idea. My name is not on the lease. I have three weeks to leave.
She wrote back right away: I'm going to find him and make this so much worse for him.
Please don't.
I'm going to at least send a very threatening email.
Petra.
Fine. Come home. We'll figure it out.
Home. But Petra's home was not home. It was just supposed to be temporary, but right now I had no choice. I gathered the things I came for: the extra charger, my assignment notebook, and the hoodie.
I took the bus back to Petra's building with the eviction notice folded in my bag.
I walked up the stairs to Petra’s apartment. The hallway was quiet, but when I reached her door, it swung open before I could even raise my hand to knock.
I stepped over the threshold, and my hands lost their grip. My heavy luggage dropped straight onto the floor with a loud thud.
The sound echoed in the small room, and suddenly, I could not hold it in anymore. The tears rushed to my eyes and began to pour down my face.
Petra did not say a word. She stepped forward right away, wrapped her arms around me, and held me tight while I cried by the door.
After a few minutes, she helped me move away from the doorway and guided me over to the living room. She handed me a hot mug of coffee, and I sank down onto her couch.
That was when Petra sat down on the coffee table directly in front of me, wanting to look me in the eyes.
"It's fine," I said to my coffee mug. "Three weeks is enough time to find a place.The Flats have cheap apartments, and there is a listing board at school. I can take a second shift at the library reference desk. It pays twelve-fifty an hour and”
"Nadia." Petra sat on the coffee table directly in front of me. "Breathe."
I breathed.
"Okay," she said, wrapping her hands around her mug. "Stay here as long as you need. The couch becomes a bed. We will make it work. I know you hate needing help, but you can accept it."
"I hate it," I said, looking at the ceiling. "This is not how I thought this semester would go. I gave up my summer internship for him. I did that, and now I am on your couch with an eviction notice and a scholarship that is—" I stopped.
Petra's eyes sharpened. "What about your scholarship?"
I pulled a letter from my bag and handed it to her. I had been avoiding it for days. The university had flagged my scholarship because my GPA fell to a 2.8. The scholarship required a 3.0. It fell because I missed a midterm when Ryder had a panic attack before a game. I had driven forty minutes to sit with him, missed the exam, and got a zero.
Petra put the letter down. "This is his fault too."
"It is mine. I missed the exam."
"Because you went to help him! He took a piece of your grades, Nadia, he literally"
"I know," I said, folding the letter. "I can appeal. I have text messages. I can handle it."
Petra looked at me for a long time. "What are you going to do about Cole Merritt?"
I had told her about his offer to be fake partners. She had spent an hour calling it a bad idea, then asking questions about it.
"I told him I would think about it," I said.
"And have you?"
I looked at the letter. I thought about Cole on the steps, telling me I did my job even when people laughed at me.
"I am going to dinner with him on Thursday," I said.
"Nadia, no," Petra said, leaning forward. "He is a hockey player. They use people."
"Ryder used me," I said. "Cole is being honest about it. It is a deal."
"You do not know him," she said. "What if he makes things worse?"
"Things cannot get worse, Petra. I have no apartment. My grades are bad. Cole wants to hurt Ryder's career. I want to stop being a joke. It works for both of us."
"It is dangerous. You are playing with fire."
"I am already burned," I said. "If this helps me get back at Ryder, I want to do it. I am tired of being the victim."
Petra sighed. "If he hurts you, I will break his hockey sticks."
"Deal," I said.
My phone buzzed on the table. I picked it up, and my heart stopped.
"What is it?" Petra asked.
"The scholarship is not under review anymore," I whispered. "It is suspended."
"Why?"
"Ryder filed a complaint against me this morning. There is going to be a hearing."
- Writer
