10. Terrible Jealousy
937 Words
“No, that’s not what happened,” Lyla instinctively defended herself. “I threw the coffee away before I left.”
“Wait…” She suddenly realized something was off and looked at Jessica suspiciously. “How did you know my USB drive was ruined?”
Jessica’s face showed no signs of unease; instead, her smile grew bolder and more arrogant. She didn’t answer Lyla, merely watching her with a gleeful expression, savoring her helplessness and despair.
A chill spread down Lyla’s spine. “It was you?!” she asked in disbelief. “Why would you do this?”
“Why?” Jessica echoed with a cold laugh. “I should be asking, why you?”
“Why me? What do you mean, why me?” Lyla was utterly confused.
“Why did Dr. Cole give such an important project to you?” Jessica growled, her expression twisting with jealousy. “I’ve been here longer! Why didn’t he pick me?”
She paused, her voice lowering to a bitter snarl. “And the Shadow Master... why do you get to date him while he rejected me?!”
Lyla was stunned. The once-friendly face Jessica had worn was nothing more than a mask, hiding the ugly jealousy festering beneath the surface.
“I’m not—” Lyla tried to explain that she wasn’t dating the Shadow Master, but Jessica was too consumed by her rage to listen. She continued her tirade. “What’s so special about you? Why does everyone choose you? Before you came, I was the center of everything. What dirty tricks did you use to make everyone revolve around you?!”
“Enough!” Lyla had reached her breaking point. Jessica’s accusations had crossed into personal attacks. She pulled out her phone and, with a sharp glare, warned, “I’m calling Dr. Cole to report your behavior tonight.”
Jessica’s face remained completely unconcerned, even as Lyla pressed the phone to her ear. Instead, she laughed, a cold, mocking sound that echoed through the empty lab. “You bought the coffee, didn’t you? You left it by your laptop. You spilled it yourself, ruined the data, and now you’re trying to blame me to avoid taking responsibility. What did I do wrong? I was just working late in the lab and happened to witness your clumsy mistake.”
Lyla’s hand froze mid-dial.
She was right. There were no security cameras in the lab. No one could prove that Jessica had deliberately spilled the coffee on her laptop. To anyone else, it would look like a careless accident—one that resulted in the loss of critical data report. The consequences would be severe: it could jeopardize the project’s funding and tarnish her reputation within the department. Jessica’s plan was maliciously clever.
Seeing that Lyla had stopped dialing, Jessica smiled triumphantly. She turned to leave but not before throwing one last taunt over her shoulder: “Good luck figuring it out. I’ll be looking forward to tomorrow’s meeting. Let’s see just how ‘special’ you really are.”
Her laughter lingered in the empty hallway as she disappeared from view.
Lyla wanted nothing more than to run after her and slap her across the face, but she knew that wasn’t the solution. Right now, her priority was to fix the situation.
As a cautious and meticulous student, Lyla always backed up her data. Besides her laptop and USB drive, she regularly saved her work to a cloud drive. While she hadn’t backed up the most recent changes yet, the historical data should still be available. If she worked through the night, she might just be able to salvage the situation and make it to tomorrow’s meeting.
She opened her phone and logged into her cloud storage, but to her surprise, every file, including all her documents dating back to her undergraduate years, had been wiped clean. This had to be Jessica’s doing as well—her plan was to destroy Lyla’s academic reputation completely.
Panic gripped Lyla. She realized just how terrible her situation was. The hard drive and USB might be salvageable, but it was almost midnight, and no repair shop would be open. She could wake up her research team and beg them for the raw data, but the data analysis she had spent weeks on couldn’t possibly be recreated in one night.
No matter how she looked at it, she wouldn’t be able to make it to tomorrow’s crucial meeting. She had let her advisor down, and this could seriously impact her future, including her scholarship.
Crushed by guilt and frustration, Lyla felt hot tears spill down her cheeks. Despite her efforts to stay strong, she couldn’t help but cry, berating herself for being so foolish. If only she hadn’t introduced Shadow Master to Jessica out of spite. If it weren’t for him, maybe Jessica wouldn’t hate her so much. Maybe she wouldn’t have pushed Lyla into such a corner.
Wait—Shadow Master!
Lyla’s mind lit up with a glimmer of hope. Shadow Master was the founder of a well-known website, capable of modifying features on the platform in real time. He must be incredibly skilled with computers. Maybe, just maybe, he could help her out of this mess.
Clinging to this slim possibility, Lyla wiped her tears and stood up. She didn’t care if he mocked or humiliated her. As long as he could fix this disaster, she was willing to swallow her pride.
Lyla made up her mind—she was going to ask Shadow Master for help. Even if it meant sacrificing her dignity, she had no other choice.
- Writer
